Delilah Rene

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2009) (Find sources: Delilah Rene – news, books, scholar)

Delilah Rene Luke (born February 15, 1960 in Reedsport, Oregon), almost always simply known as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the eponymous host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S. radio song request and dedication program, with an estimated 7 million listeners.

Radio show

Format

The program, known simply as Delilah^[1] (or, alternately, as Love Songs with Delilah or Delilah After Dark) begins at 7 p.m. and ends at midnight local time, although a few stations (such as WRCH) air the show from midnight to 5 a.m. She doles out relationship advice between musical requests and describes herself as "the queen of sappy love songs."

One of the cornerstones of Delilah's show is its use of callers. Most of the time the caller tells Delilah their situation or story and then Delilah chooses the song that she feels best matches the caller's situation. She also plays songs by direct request.

Originally heard only on weeknights, stations that carry Delilah now have the option of carrying the show 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^[2], and in some cases, radio stations are free to substitute their own songs into the playlist. The most common formats are as follows:

• Soft AC: This is the most widely distributed version of the show between January and early November. It airs mostly the usual adult contemporary music. This is the version heard on most stations, including WLTW, KODA and KBAY.
• Hot AC: This version of the show is geared toward a younger audience (such as that of WMYX) and thus features more current hits.
• Gold-based AC: A version of the show that features several older hits. Stations which air this version include WBBQ in Augusta, GA, and WSAG/WSAM in Saginaw, MI.
• Canadian: A specially formatted version specifically for stations in Canada. Because of Canadian content requirements, this version has several songs by Canadian artists substituted into the regular playlist. This version was initially only three hours long (although it has since expanded to regular full-show length) and airs on EZ Rock stations such as CJEZ in Toronto and CFMG in Edmonton. Other AC stations in larger markets in Canada not airing the show are in Vancouver (although people in Vancouver can get Bellingham, WA-based station KAFE, which does air the US version of Delilah), Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa. CFQR-FM in Montreal once carried the show, but dropped it in 2003.
• Christmas music: This is the only version that is produced live between the day of Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It features all Christmas music, mainly because most of the stations that carry the show switch over to the format. Stations that do not switch to Christmas music at that time can receive repeats of previous programs. Likewise, those who change before the day of Thanksgiving (such as KOSY-FM) can get repeats of the previous years' Christmas shows until the changeover takes place.

Chevrolet has a sponsorship deal with the show.

A more recent addition to Delilah's show is "Friday Nite Girls", a "fan club"-style feature in which Delilah 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. :)

Distribution

The show was originally syndicated by Broadcast Programming in the late 1990s, which was later bought by Jones Radio Networks. Delilah moved to Premiere Radio Networks in 2004, where she remains to this day. Mike McVay, president of McVay Media, is a special consultant to the show.

Many of the stations carrying Delilah's show were owned by Premiere parent Clear Channel Communications, which led to speculation that Clear Channel would drop similar locally-produced "lovesongs" programs in New York and Los Angeles in order to place Delilah on the air in the nation's top two radio markets. In November of 2006, WLTW in New York began carrying Delilah, after longtime evening hostess J.J. Kennedy was laid-off as part of a major company-wide layoff at Clear Channel (In addition, the version of the Delilah 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 Delilah. In Chicago, a local lovesongs host aired on WLIT from 2007 to 2008, but the time slot reverted to Delilah, who had held the slot from 1999 to 2007.

Los Angeles and Detroit are the largest markets not served by Delilah. KOST in Los Angeles and WNIC in Detroit currently have local evening lovesongs shows on their schedule, although WNIC's competitor WMGC airs Ryan Seacrest and had previously aired Delilah from 2001 to 2002. (Delilah is available in parts of the Detroit area via WCRZ in Flint.) Also, KBIG-FM 104.3 in Los Angeles carried a modified version of Delilah custom-fit to the station's rhythmic AC format from January to September 2007; when the station switched formats, Delilah was dropped.

Until Early 2009, Boston MA didn't have a "official" Delilah station; however, this changed when WPLM-FM 99.1 picked up the rights. Other markets in the area also carry the program.

Also, an affiliation change occurred in Atlanta shortly after Christmas 2006, when Delilah was dropped from Clear Channel-owned WLTM-FM (which was then "94.9 Lite FM" and changed soon afterward to a country music format) and immediately picked up by Cox-owned main rival WSB-FM ("B98.5FM").

The show's current flagship station is KRWM in Seattle, a station owned by Sandusky Broadcasting.

Audience

Usually finishing within the top three radio programs nationwide, the program is especially popular among women between the ages of 25 and 54, the prime demographic in American advertising [1]. Delilah says that her show is a "safety zone where listeners take off their armor, slip into a 'Mr. Rogers' cardigan, sit around the electronic hearth and share their secrets."^[1]

Personal life

Delilah is a single mother of ten children, seven of whom are adopted.^[3] She has been married (and divorced) three times, which she tells as a common joke on the show or she uses it as advice for her callers. She is a public advocate of adoption. Her on-air persona is said to be remarkably identical to her real personality.^[3] Because of her personal experience with the foster care system, Delilah has established a foundation called Point Hope as a voice for forgotten children everywhere. Point Hope's immediate focus is on alleviating the suffering of Liberian refugees who are camped at Buduburam, a refugee camp that was established in Ghana following the Liberian civil war.^[1]

Delilah has written two books, Love Someone Today and Love Matters, the latter of which was released in October 2008. She has also recently opened a restaurant called "Delilah's Cozy Kitchin" in South Kitsap, and in the works is a clothing outfit called Hoochie Wear.^[3] Delilah lives near Seattle with her children.

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

Awards

In 2007, the show was nominated for the Syndicated Personality/Show of the Year award by Radio & Records magazine. Other finalists included Blair Garner, Steve Harvey, Kidd Kraddick, The Lia Show, and John Tesh. ^[4]

References

See also

• The Lia Show -- a country music show based upon the Delilah format, also based in Seattle
• John Tesh -- Delilah's most significant national competitor

External links

• Delilah Show official website
• Point Hope Foundation Official Website