![Delilah's signature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Delilah%27s_signature.svg)
Delilah Rene
(born February 15, 1960, in
North Bend, Oregon
North Bend is a city in Coos County, Oregon, United States with a population of 9,695 as of the 2010 census.[radio personality
A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a rad ...](_blank)
, 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.
She first aired in the Seattle market as Delilah Rene, though she is now known simply as Delilah.
Early life
In 1969, Delilah's family moved from
Coos Bay, Oregon
Coos Bay ( Coos language: Atsixiis) is a city located in Coos County, Oregon, United States, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one en ...
, to neighboring
Reedsport
Reedsport is a city in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,310.
History
Reedsport was established on the estuary of the Umpqua River on January 7, 1852. It was named for a local settler, Alfred ...
, where she attended school. In 1974, she won a middle-school speech contest judged by owners of the local AM radio station. Delilah began her radio career there, at
KDUN
KDUN (1030 AM, "Dune Radio") is a radio station in Reedsport, Oregon. Owned by Big Shoes Productions, a company owned by nationally-syndicated radio host Delilah, the station carries an adult contemporary format serving Reedsport and its surroun ...
in Reedsport, doing school reports. She soon was creating advertising spots and then was given her own time slot during shifts before and after school. After graduating from high school in 1978, she worked at numerous stations in Oregon and in Seattle before creating the format she became known for at KLSY in 1984.
Radio show
Format
The show, known simply as ''Delilah'',
begins at 7 p.m. 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
the Pacific Northwest.
One of the cornerstones of the show is its use of callers. Most of the time the caller tells Delilah her situation or story and then Delilah 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. Delilah also plays songs by direct request.
Originally heard only on weeknights, stations that carry the show have the option of carrying it six or even seven nights a week, with most stations airing at least one night of the weekend (usually Sunday) in addition to a weeknight show.
*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
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
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
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
stations.
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...
,
Pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
,
Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...
,
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. She rose to fame after winning the first season of ''American Idol'' in 2002, which earned her a record deal with RCA. Her debu ...
,
Katy Perry
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...
, 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
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
hits, from artists including
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
,
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...
,
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...
,
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
and others.
*
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...
: This is the only version that is produced between mid-November (a few weeks after
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
) and
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
. It features all Christmas music, mainly because most of the adult contemporary music formatted stations that carry the show switch over to the format for only two months. 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
Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such ...
. Delilah moved to
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It ...
in 2004, where she remains to this day. There are nearly 170 radio stations, and the
Armed Forces Radio Network
The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...
, airing the program. Jane Bulman is the original executive producer and has been in that role for 20 years.
Many of the stations carrying the show are owned by Premiere parent
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
. In November 2006,
WLTW
WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood of ...
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
KODA (99.1 FM, "Sunny 99.1") is an American commercial adult contemporary-formatted radio station in Houston, Texas. The station is owned by iHeartMedia. Its studios and offices are located along the West Loop Freeway in Uptown Houston.
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
iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...
has an online Delilah stream where listeners can hear the show all the time regardless of time zone or broadcast market. Delilah is also on the air at
WYJB
WYJB (95.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District, including Schenectady and Troy. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching ...
(B95.5FM), a radio station in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
in the evening for listeners coming home from work on the weekdays or on the weekends.
In October 2017, Delilah temporarily went on hiatus after the suicide of one of her children.
On January 26, 2018, Seattle soft AC station
KSWD announced that Delilah would host middays on the station beginning January 29. The station also picked up her syndicated show for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
In 2021, Rene purchased
KDUN
KDUN (1030 AM, "Dune Radio") is a radio station in Reedsport, Oregon. Owned by Big Shoes Productions, a company owned by nationally-syndicated radio host Delilah, the station carries an adult contemporary format serving Reedsport and its surroun ...
in her hometown of
Reedsport, Oregon
Reedsport is a city in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,310.
History
Reedsport was established on the estuary of the Umpqua River on January 7, 1852. It was named for a local settler, Alfred ...
, which carries her syndicated show.
Audience
The show is popular among women between the ages of 25 and 54. As many as eight million people 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
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
has adopted the
Portable People Meter
The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, was a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable tel ...
for tracking
listenership
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Someti ...
.
In popular culture
The show plays a role in the
Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is an American television channel owned by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., which in turn is owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc. The channel's programming is primarily targeted at families, and features a mix of television movies and ...
television series ''
Cedar Cove'', which is based on writer
Debbie Macomber
Debbie Macomber (born October 22, 1948) is an American author of romance novels and contemporary women's fiction. Six of her novels have become made-for-TV movies and her ''Cedar Cove'' series of novels was adapted into a television series of the ...
'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 device
A plot device or plot mechanism
is any narrative technique, technique in a narrative used to move the Plot (narrative), plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing ...
s which occur in the course of each episode.
The show can also be heard in the 2018 film ''
I Can Only Imagine'', the biographical story of
MercyMe
MercyMe is an American contemporary Christian music band founded in Edmond, Oklahoma. The band consists of lead vocalist Bart Millard, percussionist Robby Shaffer, bassist Nathan Cochran and guitarists Michael Scheuchzer and Barry Graul.
The b ...
lead singer
Bart Millard
Bart Marshall Millard (born December 1, 1972) is an American singer and songwriter who is best known as the leader of the band MercyMe. He has also released two solo albums: '' Hymned, No. 1'', in 2005 and '' Hymned Again'' in 2008. He received a ...
.
Personal life
Delilah is a mother of 15 children, 11 of whom were adopted.
[Yes, that Delilah lives in South Kitsap]
Kitsap Sun. 24 February 2008. Two of her children have died: a 16-year-old son, Sammy Young Dzolali Rene, died on March 12, 2012, of complications of
sickle-cell anemia
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red bl ...
which had gone untreated most of his life until he was adopted by Delilah and brought to the US just 9 months before his death.
[Delilah Loses Son; Then Loses WLIT-FM]
Chicagoland Radio and Media 13 March 2012. On October 3, 2017, her 18-year-old biological son Zachariah died by suicide, following a brief, but intense period of depression.
Delilah has been married four times, and frequently jokes about, and refers to, her multiple divorces on her show.
[ She is currently married to her longtime pal Paul Warner. The two were married at her home on October 27, 2012. The invited guests (and most of the staff) were told only that they were attending her annual Harvest party.]
She lives near Port Orchard, Washington
Port Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located due west of West Seattle and is connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth. It is named a ...
.[
]
Awards and honors
Books
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delilah
1960 births
Living people
American radio personalities
People from Reedsport, Oregon
Radio personalities from Seattle
American Christians
People from North Bend, Oregon
People from Port Orchard, Washington
People from Coos Bay, Oregon