Calvin Douglas Banks Jr. (June 9, 1958 – April 11, 2016) was an American

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 ...

and host of

The Doug Banks Radio Show ''The Doug Banks Radio Show'' was an American radio show produced by American Urban Radio Networks hosted by veteran radio personalities Doug Banks, Dee Dee Renee and George Willborn. It aired daily from 2PM to 6PM (central time). The show began ...

Career highlights

The

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

-born,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

-raised Banks began his radio career

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

on his high school's radio station. Local station

WDRQ WDRQ (93.1 FM, "New Country 93.1") is a radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan. Owned by Cumulus Media, it broadcasts a country music format. Its studios are located in the Fisher Building in New Center, while its transmitter is located a ...

took notice of his talent and offered him a spot as a temporary late-night weekend

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

for a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

station. After high school, he successfully turned his temporary trial into a permanent multi-year gig at

KDAY KDAY (93.5 FM, "93.5 KDAY") is a radio station that is licensed to Redondo Beach, California and serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Meruelo Media and airs a classic hip hop format. The station's studios are located in ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Soon after, in April 1979 he started at KMJM-Majic 108, as "The Unknown DJ" Banks then moved on to the LA station

KFI KFI (640 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. It began operations in 1922 and became one of the first high-powered, clear-channel station, clear-channel List of ...

, which helped to pave the way to a morning show slot in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

KLAV KLAV (1230 AM) is a commercial radio station located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Owned by Lotus Communications, the station airs a betting-focused all-sports radio format featuring programming from the locally-based Vegas Stats & Information Network ...

. Doug's next two stops were

KDIA KDIA (1640 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Vallejo, California, and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and broadcasts a Christian talk and teaching radio format. Salem also owns KFAX 1 ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and WBMX (now

WVAZ WVAZ (102.7 FM, "V103") is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. Licensed to Oak Park, Illinois, WVAZ is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., alongside sister stations WCHI-FM, WGCI-FM ...

) in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. From 1986 to 1995, Banks did nights, mornings, and afternoons for

WGCI-FM WGCI-FM (107.5 MHz) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to Chicago, Illinois, serving the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia (formerly known as Clear Channel Communicat ...

in Chicago. It was at WGCI where Doug became good friends with Tom Joyner and they became known as "Turntable Brothers". After Tom Joyner started his nationally syndicated show with ABC Radio Networks, Tom chose Doug Banks to be his "fill in" when Tom would take vacations. The affiliates were quickly calling ABC Radio Network to report that listeners were flooding the stations with calls about how much they loved Doug. Next, in 1995 the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...

offered Banks the opportunity to do a nationally syndicated show of his own. Originally, Banks started with an afternoon show from the same studio as the "

Tom Joyner Morning Show The ''Tom Joyner Morning Show'' is an American nationally syndicated radio program, hosted by veteran broadcaster Tom Joyner. The program, which aired on Urban contemporary- and Urban adult contemporary-formatted stations across the United States, ...

." This original show had AJ Parker as his sidekick, and Jeff Tyler came from The Tom Joyner Show to become Doug's studio engineer (Jeff stayed with Doug until his death in 2016). In 1997, Banks wanted to move to a morning show instead and the studio across the hall from Joyner's was made ready. The new show, hosted by Banks along with new sidekick DeDe McGuire, rose to become one of the top-rated syndicated urban programs in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. WBLS New York was the flagship station. This era was the high point of Doug's career, and included producers Gary Saunders and Eurro Rice. Other on air talent in this era included Coco Budda, Rickey Smiley, JJ Jackson, and Rudy Rush. His phone producer Marcelina Olan, and Kevin Woodson (the voice of Miss Leonard, Revered Jackson, Minister Farrakhan and many others) were regulars on air as well. The greatest success came with the combination of Doug Banks, Dede McGuire, and Rudy Rush. In January 2008, the show was cancelled, but Banks relaunched the show, this time in the afternoon drive under the new name, ''The Ride with Doug and DeDe''. Unlike his previous show where

Mainstream Urban Mainstream may refer to: Film * ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film Literature * ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine * Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher * ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso Mu ...

/Hip Hop/R&B music was played, Banks's new program was aimed at the

Urban Adult Contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

audience, similar to what is played on Joyner's and Steve Harvey's shows. In July 2010, Banks moved his show to

American Urban Radio Networks American Urban Radio Networks (AURN) is the only African-American owned and operated Nielsen RADAR-rated radio network in the United States. Privately held for the last three years with new ownership, AURN reaches an estimated 25 million listen ...

and renamed it ''The Doug Banks Show''. After many years of hosting both the morning show for K104 Dallas and cohosting the syndicated afternoon show with Doug, Dede McGuire resigned to focus exclusively on her own morning show. DeeDee Renee replaced Dede McGuire as cohost. Doug's final broadcast was on Friday April 8, 2016 when he did his show live from an event in Chicago. Banks also hosted some editions of ''

NASCAR Now ''NASCAR Now'' was a NASCAR news and analysis show that aired year round Tuesday through Saturday as a thirty-minute show at 2:00am ET on ESPN2. ''NASCAR Now'', that debuted on February 5, 2007, was broadcast in HD from Bristol, Connecticut and ...

'' on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

. He also made a guest appearance on the sitcom ''

My Wife and Kids ''My Wife and Kids'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001, to May 17, 2005. The series was produced by Touchstone Television. It starred Damon Wayans as Michael Kyle, the patriarch of an African-American family. Wayans and ve ...

'' as Tom Miller, a friend of Michael Kyle who is tragically killed after being hit by a taxi (offscreen), shortly after he and Michael were together. The death of Tom makes Michael

paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...

and overly sensitive about his own life.

Death

Banks died from complications of

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

and

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

on Monday April 11, 2016. Banks is survived by a wife, three daughters and a son.

References

1958 births 2016 deaths American radio DJs Radio personalities from Chicago Radio personalities from Detroit Radio personalities from the Las Vegas Valley Radio personalities from Los Angeles Radio personalities from Philadelphia Radio personalities from San Francisco Deaths from diabetes {{US-radio-bio-stub