WEDR (99.1 FM, "99 Jamz") is an urban-formatted radio station serving the South Florida region and licensed to Miami, Florida. WEDR has an unusually wide music selection for a mainstream urban-formatted radio station that ranges from typical hip-hop and R&B to reggaeton. This is because South Florida is a very diversified region that has various music tastes. WEDR is owned by Cox Broadcasting alongside sister stations WHQT, WFEZ and WFLC, and has their studios located in Hollywood, Florida.

WEDR has an unusually shaped coverage area due to the station moving its antennae from a class C to a class C1 on a new tower. The main reasoning behind this so that the station's signal doesn't interfere with the close frequencies that serves southwestern Florida. It also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity in Summer 2005.

History[link]

1963 -- The WEDR call letters have been in South Florida since 1963 when the station's then owner Ed Rivers acquired them from an AM radio station in Birmingham, Alabama. WEDR-FM had rock and country music formats.^[1]

1970 -- WEDR adopts a black format. The station had a weak signal that couldn't cover all of Dade county, but it fared well because it was the only black station in the market.^[1]

1988 -- WHQT drops its pop/dance format and adopts an Urban Contemporary format. According to the Miami Herald, "WEDR dipped to a low ranking of 24th in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, and was eulogized as an outmoded, black-run David squashed beneath the foot of a corporate white Goliath."^[1]

1990 -- WEDR changed slogans from "Starforce 99" to "99 JAMZ", an Urban Contemporary with a notoriously wide variety playlist that ranged from R&B, Soul, and rap to Reggae on the weekends.^[2]

April 21, 1990 -- The station's signal was increased from 16,000 watts to 100,000 watts. 99 Jamz becomes a factor in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton market. The signal reaches as far as the Caribbean.^[1]

1992 -- 99 Jamz becomes the top rated station in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market.^[3]

2003 -- Program Director and morning drive host, James T, migrates to sister station WHQT. James T. had been at WEDR for twenty years. WEDR began to skew more towards current format being a Mainstream Urban with the slogan "99 JAMZ, South Florida's Number One For All of Today's Hip Hop and R&B", then to "99 JAMZ, South Florida's Number One For More Of Today's Hip Hop and R&B" to compete with it new crosstown rival, Clear Channel-owned WMIB, "103.5 the Beat" (now a Spanish radio station). But they do still play slower R&B and Classic Soul songs during Night JAMZ show in the overnight hours, despite most of them played on sister station WHQT. Today, WEDR is exclusively rivaled at WPOW (Power 96).

July 2004 -- 99 Jamz launches the Big Lip Bandit Morning Show featuring Supa Cindy and Benji Brown (produced by Marcus "Wiiz" Johnson)

2005 -- 99 Jamz kicks-off the highly anticipated, number one night show in South Florida "The Take Over" with K. Foxx and DJ Khaled. In July 2009, K. Foxx left to do Morning's for New York's Hot 97.

October 2006 -- WEDR's General Manager announces, Derrick Baker as Program Director of 99 Jamz

March 2008 -- 99 Jamz is NOW known as 99Jamz South Florida's ONLY Station for Hip Hop and R&B. WEDR continues to dominant the South Florida Market, with format changes from former competior WMIB, what is now a Spanish station.

July 2008 -- 99 Jamz launches the nationally syndicated "Rickey Smiley Morning Show" with Ebony Stelle, HeadKrack, Gary, Rock T and Special K, with Miss Kimmy and Benji Brown on the local end.

2009 -- WEDR's General Manager, Jerry Rushin moves to Cox Media Groups "Market Mananger"

As of today, 99 JAMZ is #1 in the South Florida Market and continues to dominate the competition in PPM

Programming[link]

Notable programming includes The Rickey Smiley Morning Show with Ebony Steele, Gary with the Tea, Headkrack, Sister Sondra, Rock T, and Special K, along with Miss Kimmy and Benji Brown on the local front, weekday mornings. Other notable weekday programming includes mid-days with Shelby Rushin & DJ Griot, afternoons with Lorenzo "Ice Tea" Thomas & DJ Entice, "The Takeover" with Felisha Monet and DJ Nasty on nights, ""Night JAMZ" with Prince Markie Dee on late nights, and an early-morning "Gospel JAMZ" hour.

Special Friday night programming includes The Takeover with DJ Khaled, produced by Antoine "Toine the Don" Edwards, The Bashment Explosion with King Waggy Tee and Mike B. Notable weekend programming includes The Rickey Smiley Weekend Jump off on Saturday Mornings. Community Voices with Cheryl Mizell on Sunday Mornings, Sunday Morning Gospel with Maestro Powell, plus The number one rated "Sunday School Hip Hop Session" with Supa Cindy and DJ Griot.

References[link]

External links[link]

• WEDR official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WEDR
• Radio-Locator information on WEDR
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WEDR

Coordinates: 25°58′05″N 80°12′32″W / 25.968°N 80.209°W / 25.968; -80.209

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2007)

Rickey Smiley (born in Birmingham, Alabama) is a standup comedian, television host, actor, and radio personality best known for his prank phone calls. The calls feature Smiley disguising his voice and carrying on a conversation with the recipient of the call.

Biography[link]

Smiley graduated from Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, AL and Alabama State University in Montgomery, AL. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and is known for informing audiences of his membership in his acts. Smiley is also a pianist, often playing the piano in his shows, and an organist and sometimes refers to himself playing it at his home church.

Smiley has two biological children, but has adopted eight others.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Smiley appeared as the host of the 2000 season of BET's "ComicView" program. He has also appeared on "Showtime at the Apollo", HBO's "Def Comedy Jam", HBO's "Snaps", "The Nashville Network", "Uptown Comedy Club", and "Comic Escape". He is known as one of the few "clean" African American comics, preferring to use humor rather than vulgarity to get laughs. His original comedy routines often feature the role-play of fictional characters such as "Bernice Jenkins" (AKA Granny Swims, Ms. Johnson or Mrs. Francis), "Lil' Daryl", "Rusty Dale" and "Beauford". Bernice Jenkins has a grandson named Rufus, who's a stereotype of the modern day "Gangsta". He is referenced in "Two Of My Toes Fell Off" and another prank phone call where Smiley calls a pharmacy.

Smiley became the morning show personality for KBFB Radio in Dallas, Texas in April 2004. The show features the trademark prank calls, as well as news, information and the latest hip hop music.

He has also released several humorous songs based on his bits, such as "Roll Tide" featuring his redneck character Buford, and "We Miss Robert", based on a routine of his in which a friend of a deceased drug dealer performs a rap song called "We Miss Robert" at the funeral, which is actually a song about a woman, performed in hopes of landing a record deal. He currently has a morning show on 92(92.3 FM) Q Jams in Baltimore, Maryland.

Smiley had a starring role in Ice Cube's Friday After Next.

Prank calls[link]

Some of Smiley's most notable calls include:

• "Buried Alive" - Smiley plays a narcoleptic who works at a funeral home and "fell asleep in one of these caskets" who calls a cemetery claiming that "they done buried me alive" and insists he is calling from inside a casket on his cell phone. He then requests that someone come and "dig all these graves open".
• "Come Over" - in a bit of a reverse prank (similar to the ones the Jerky Boys innovated), a hapless caller known as "K.D." calls a Smiley character named "Gina", a woman who initially entices him with statements like "I'm just 'bout to go crazy over here" and "I want you to come over and hurt me" before revealing she is a hermaphrodite ("that means I got both genitals"). K.D. assures Gina he is "still comin'", which prompts her to up the stakes by announcing that "my grandmama over here too...she a real freak." K.D. then speaks to the grandmother who demands "I want you to scrub my head to the white meat" and wants to know "what kind of draws you got on."
• "Uncle Melvin" - Smiley prank calls his uncle, as a man who believes his girlfriend has left him, and who punctuates every remark with the word "dawg" ("Is my girl over there dawg...tell her I love her, dawg").
• "Churches" - Smiley plays two characters in this call, both of whom call Church's Chicken. One is an elderly lady whom mistakes Church's for a "church" (i.e wants to know "what time do y'all start service" and asks "who is y'all's pastor", and "well when d y'all have Sunday school?"); when informed that she has called a restaurant, asks "Don't the chicken belong to the church?" The other caller is "Willie", who claims to be a heavyset man with a thyroid problem ("I can't get out the house no more"), and who asks for a rundown of the menu ("Is y'all okra fried, or is it all slimy in the pot, like grandmama used to") and who constantly requests delivery of food to his house.
• "Pray For Me" - Using his "Granny" voice again, Smiley calls "Miss Ola Mae Benton Carter Jackson Glenn", and asks her to pray for a member of her church, who had been:
  • stabbed
  • involved in an ambulance crash
  • hit by a train
  • had a leg cut off by the Jaws of Life
  • shot "in the right eye"

Smiley then gets the woman to lead her in several verses of "Walk With Me, Lord", each verse increasing in silliness.

• "She P-E-E-D" - Smiley prank calls an elderly woman using his "Granny" voice; the aftermath of the call causes the woman to laugh so hard that she ends up urinating on herself.
• "Is My Daddy Over There" - Smiley plays Lil' Daryl and his brother Brandon as they call a lady claiming their father was supposed to return home with milk for their cereal.

Filmography[link]

• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
• BET Comedy Awards (2004)
• Super Secret Movie Rules: Sports Underdogs (2004)
• All about the Benjamins (2002) – uncredited
• Friday After Next (2002) – Santa Claus
• BET's Comic View (1992) TV Series – Host (2000–2001)
• Def Comedy Jam: All Stars Vol. 11 (1999) (TV) – (Show 2)
• Airline
• First Sunday (2007) – Bernice Jenkins

Discography[link]

To date, Smiley has released five albums of his prank calls:

• The Best of Comedian Rickey Smiley Vol. I
• Rickey Smiley: Prank Calls Vol. II
• Rickey Smiley: Vol. III
• Rickey Smiley "Off The Hook Volume 4"
• Rickey Smiley: Vol. V
• Rickey Smiley: Vol. 6

See also[link]

• Tube Bar prank calls

References[link]

http://www.bvbuzz.com/2010/04/12/rickey-smiley-raising-10-kids/

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Official Morning Show Site
• KBFB Radio, home of Rickey's weekday morning show
• Rickey Smiley at the Internet Movie Database

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. (May 2011)

John W. Bowman, Jr., better known by his stage name DJ Kool is an American rapper who, in the late 1990s, produced several popular rap singles. Born in 1959 in Washington, D.C., his influence from his years of working the go-go and rap circuits became apparent in his music. During the early- to mid-1980s, Kool worked as a warm-up DJ for Rare Essence, until he was picked up by CLR Records.

In 1996, he recorded his most successful track, "Let Me Clear My Throat," which was released on American Recordings. The track peaked at #8 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1997.^[1] The song prominently featured a sample of "The 900 Number" by DJ Mark the 45 King, (that song featured a sample from Marva Whitney's "Unwind Yourself",^[2] repeated over a breakbeat for six minutes). The song also began by sampling "Hollywood Swinging" by Kool and the Gang. The song is a recognizable dance floor-filler, and the track remains popular to this day^[update]. DJ Kool was featured on Mýa's 2006 single "Ayo!" from her 2008 album Liberation. He was also featured on two tracks on Will Smith's 2005 album Lost and Found.

On November 21, 2009, he performed at halftime of a Denver Nuggets basketball game.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The Music Ain't Loud Enuff (1990)
• 20 Minute Workout (1992)
• Let Me Clear My Throat (1996)

Singles[link]

• "Let Me Clear My Throat" (1996)

Guest Appearances[link]

• "Be A Man" by "Macho Man" Randy Savage (2003)
• "Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get in da Club)" by Redman (2001)
• " We Won't" by Will Smith (2005)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Yahoo Biography
• Musicmatch guide
• Fansite
• DJ Kool Video interview with Money Train & Thenkman
• DJ Kool Video interview with DJ Tutor

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