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Delilah (radio host)

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Delilah's signature and logo

Delilah Rene Luke[1] (born February 15, 1960 in Reedsport, Oregon) is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S. radio song request and dedication program, with an estimated 8 million listeners.[2] Although she first aired in the Seattle market as "Delilah Rene", she is now known mononymously as Delilah.

Radio show

Format

The show, known simply as Delilah[3] begins at 7pm and ends around midnight local time. She takes calls from listeners in her home studio, providing encouragement, support, and receiving musical dedication requests. It is based in Seattle, Washington.

One of the cornerstones of the show is its use of callers. Most of the time the caller tells Delilah their situation or story and then she chooses the song that she feels best matches the caller's situation. Callers are recorded during the show and replayed later, sometimes within the hour during the show. She also plays songs by direct request.

Originally heard only on weeknights, stations that carry the show have the option of doing so six or even seven nights a week, with most stations doing so at least one night of the weekend (usually Sunday) in addition to the weeknight show.

There are several versions of the program that are available.[4] The most common formats are as follows:

  • Adult contemporary (AC): This is the most widely distributed version of the show between January and early November. It airs the usual adult contemporary music and is geared towards adults and their families. This is the version heard on most radio stations. It has also surfaced on hot adult contemporary stations. Maroon 5, Pink, Adele and many other music artists and groups are heard in this version.
  • Gold-based AC: A version of the show that features several older adult contemporary hits, from artists including Elton John, Michael Bublé, Celine Dion and others.
  • Christmas music: This is the only version that is produced between November 1 and Christmas. It features all Christmas music, mainly because most of the adult contemporary music formatted stations that carry the show switch over to the format. Stations that do not switch to Christmas music at that time can receive the main version of the show.
  • Christian Music version: A version of the show featuring Contemporary Christian music, specifically produced for stations and audiences favoring this genre.

The show includes "Friday Nite Girls", a "fan club"-style feature in which she honors groups of her regular female listeners with prizes. She occasionally also calls certain "Friday Nite Girls" chapters and speaks with them live on the air. She also airs a "Delilah Dilemma" each evening in the first and third hours of the broadcast.

Distribution

The program debuted on four stations at the beginning of 1996, finishing the year on a dozen stations. In 1997, Broadcast Programming started to distribute the program, which was later bought by Jones Radio Networks. Delilah moved to Premiere Radio Networks in 2004, where she remains to this day. There are nearly 170 radio stations, and the Armed Forces Radio Network, airing the program. Jane Bulman is the original executive producer and has been in that role for 20 years. Delilah refers to her as her best friend on the program.

Many of the stations carrying the show are owned by Premiere parent iHeartMedia. In November 2006, WLTW in New York began carrying her. The version of the show that runs on WLTW is a separate, specially tailored version of the show produced just for that station, with music programmed by local WLTW Programming. In 2007, longtime lovesongs host Zoe Bonet was dropped from KODA Houston and replaced with her. In March 2012, she went on the air in Los Angeles on KFSH-FM, a Salem Broadcasting owned station playing Christian music. This addition debuted the Christian Music formatted version of the program. iHeartRadio has an online Delilah stream where listeners can hear the show all the time regardless of time zone or broadcast market.

The show in a fictional sense also plays a role in the Hallmark Channel television series Cedar Cove, which is based on writer Debbie Macomber's book series and set in a fictional Pacific coast town in Washington state. Quotes and other inspirational pieces voiced by Delilah especially for the series set up some of the plot devices which occur in the course of each episode.

Audience

The show is popular among women between the ages of 25 and 54. As many as eight million persons tune in to listen to the program throughout the full week.

According to a Bloomberg interview, Delilah has seen her reported audience numbers plummet in cities where Nielsen Audio has adopted the Portable People Meter for tracking listenership.[1]

Personal life

Delilah is a mother of 13 children, 10 of whom are adopted.[5] Her adopted son, Sammy Young Dzolali Rene, died on March 12, 2012 of complications of sickle-cell anemia.[6] She has been married four times (and divorced three times), which she tells as a frequent joke on the show and mentions when giving advice to her callers.[2] She is an Evangelical Christian[2] and a public advocate of adoption. Her on-air persona is said to be remarkably similar to her real personality.[5] In 2004, partly because of her personal experience with the foster care system, and partly because her heart was touched by a fact-finding trip to Ghana, she founded a humanitarian aid, non-profit organization, Point Hope, as a voice for forgotten children everywhere. It is focused on saving lives, providing purpose and restoring hope for foster children in America and for refugees and other vulnerable persons in Ghana and Liberia, providing a sustainable helping hand-up instead of a hand-out to these persons. The work in Ghana began through providing fresh, safe drinking water, thus alleviating the suffering of Liberian refugees who were camped at Buduburam, a refugee camp that was established in Ghana following the Liberian civil war.[3] Point Hope now provides educational support, infant feeding programs and vocational training in addition to a fresh water program.[7]

Delilah has written three books: Love Someone Today, Love Matters, and Arms Full of Love. She is currently finishing a fourth book, to be published by Rosetta Books. She lives near Port Orchard, Washington.[5] She owned and operated a business in downtown Port Orchard called Delilah's Cozy Kitchen, but it is no longer in business.

Delilah voiced Sarah in the VeggieTales episode "Abe and the Amazing Promise", released by Big Idea Productions.

On October 27, 2012 Delilah married her longtime pal, Paul Warner,[8] at her home. The invited guests (and most of the staff) were only aware they were attending her Halloween party.[9]

Awards

In 2007, the show was nominated for the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by Radio & Records magazine.[10]

In May 2012, Delilah received a GRACIE Award celebrating influential women in the media.

In 2015 and again in 2016, Delilah was nominated for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Delilah was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame on Thursday, November 17, 2016. [1]

Delilah received the National Association of Broadcaster's Marconi Award for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year in 2016, after receiving a nomination for the same award in both 2008 and 2013.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Boudway, Ira (June 14, 2016). "The Queen of FM Fights for Her Throne". Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved 2016-06-15. It's destroying radio in general, and especially shows that don't play for the meter.
  2. ^ a b c "Talking off-air with Delilah, the 'Queen of Sappy Love Songs'". CNN. February 14, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  3. ^ a b Show information page from Premiere Radio Networks
  4. ^ JS Online: Rancor tinges Rather's departure
  5. ^ a b c Yes, that Delilah lives in South Kitsap Kitsap Sun. 24 February 2008.
  6. ^ Delilah Loses Son; Then Loses WLIT-FM Chicagoland Radio and Media 13 March 2012.
  7. ^ http://pointhope.org
  8. ^ http://kcwaimg.co.kitsap.wa.us/recorder/eagleweb/viewDoc.jsp?node=DOC368S487
  9. ^ http://www.twchesssafari.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-message-from-delilah.html halloween marriage
  10. ^ "2007 Industry Achievement Awards". Radio and Records. September 28, 2008.
  11. ^ https://www.nab.org/documents/newsRoom/pressRelease.asp?id=4007
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