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On June 25,
Delilah broadcast her last show for
WROZ-FM 101.3.
For 12 years, Delilah's show ran from 7 p.m. to midnight on weeknights, providing relationship advice between musical requests. The host, Delilah Rene Luke, known to listeners simply as Delilah, describes herself as "the queen of sappy love songs." Her syndicated dedication show, with an estimated 7 million listeners, airs on more than 200 affiliate stations in the United States and Canada.
Before it carried Delilah, the Rose, an adult contemporary station known for its light hits, put together a dedication show with local host Deb Friday. When Friday left the station, WROZ went the syndicated route. I remember when Delilah first came on the air in our area. It was September 1997, and I was the on-air personality who followed her at WROZ.
I thought her show was a bit too sentimental, but she was popular. Many listeners called in to the station after midnight thinking she was local, not knowing she lived in Seattle.
They wanted me to give her messages and began telling me their sad stories. I wasn't as sympathetic, but remained professional. What I wanted to say was something like, "That song by Bette Midler isn't going to help if your husband cheats on you with a younger woman."
But Delilah always took the high road, listening and finding appropriate songs for her callers. Her ratings were solid in Lancaster, where her program was especially popular among women ages 25 to 54, the prime demographic in American advertising. In York, John Tesh's radio show had beaten her in the past four ratings books, but ratings weren't the reason WROZ dropped her. She simply didn't fit with Rose programming anymore.
Though still broadcasting in an adult contemporary format, the Rose plays more upbeat music than it once did. Station officials feared Delilah's slower format was costing them listeners in the evening hours.
To WROZ's credit, the station's management was reacting to the feedback of listeners who wanted a more upbeat variety of '70s, '80s and '90s music in the evening. The move bucked a trend in radio that's seen stations dropping their local talent in favor of syndicated programming.
Ronnie Ramone, who worked for several years as an on-air personality at WLAN-FM 96.9 before joining the Rose, is a well-known voice and will take over Delilah's slot.
WROZ is part of Hall Communications' network of 21 AM and FM radio stations. Hall is a family-owned company, as opposed to corporate conglomerates such as Clear Channel Communications.
"I love that we are family owned and we can do this," said WROZ program director Michael C. Anthony. "If we were corporate owned, we might not be able to get out of [airing Delilah] if we wanted to. Corporate would say, 'This is your syndicated show, and you don't have a choice.'"
Note: Nearby channels still carrying Delilah are WLTF-FM 97.5 in Chambersburg and WBEB-FM 101.1 in Philadelphia.
Staff writer Eric Stark discusses trends and tidbits in broadcast media each week in the Sunday News. E-mail him at estark@lnpnews.com.
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