Big Boy (radio host)
Big Boy is a radio host currently heard on Los Angeles hip hop/R&B station KPWR (Power 106) every morning between 5 am and 10 am. His stage name derives from his former large mass, which he modified through duodenal switch surgery in 2003 and the successive loss the next year of over 250 pounds.
"Big Boy" was born in Chicago, but moved to Los Angeles at age 2. After becoming acquainted with the music industry while DJ-ing Culver City High School parties, Big Boy soon became a bodyguard for the music group Pharcyde. Big Boy was friends with the Baka Boyz, the morning show hosts at Power 106. Always being a funny personality, in 1994 Big Boy was offered a hosting position with the station, and soon proved successful in nighttime and afternoon hosting spots.
Big Boy's image became well known throughout the Greater Los Angeles Area in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Power 106 placed his nearly-nude 500-plus pound image onto billboards throughout the area.
Big Boy has been named Personality of the Year four times by the Radio Music Awards and three times by Radio and Records magazine. The National Association of Broadcasters awarded him the Marconi Award in 2002 and 2004.
He has made cameo appearances in movies such as Malibu's Most Wanted and Charlie's Angels 2, and co-starred in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Fox television signed Big Boy to co-star in the police drama Fastlane in the fall of 2002. He has appeared numerous times on the hit HBO Entourage TV series. Big Boy is in the development process for his own network sitcom and hosts his syndicated weekend show called "Big Boy's Hip Hop Spot." He has performed on-air voice-overs on MTV's reality game show Yo Momma.
On May 24, 2006, Big Boy's Neighborhood Morning Show began national syndication.[1] This replaced Big Tigger and Egypt, who in turn, replaced the Star & Bucwild Morning Show based out of New York City hip hop station, WWPR "Power 105.1 FM." Star was fired from the Clear Channel-owned station due to threats made against the welfare of the family of rival DJ Envy of WQHT "Hot 97" (KPWR's sister station), of which he would later be charged.
On October 7th, 2006, the DJ proposed to his wife on stage during Mariah Carey's The Adventures of Mimi Tour at Staples Center, LA. Their first child, a boy,was born on February 22, 2007.
He was featured on the second episode of the VH1 reality series, I Love New York, hosting the "I Love New York Mangeant".
On August 6, 2007, Big Boy signed a multi-year deal with ABC Radio Networks to syndicate the show, and his weekend show Big Boy's Hip Hop Spot. The show launched nationally on August 20 and is also now called Big Boy's Neighborhood.