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Issue #116 – Student Successes
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
By the time Leonora Martelly who goes by the radio moniker “Lelo” found the Radio Connection, she was already a fledgling pro, climbing the rungs toward broadcaster success as the co-host and producer of an Internet radio show she started with a friend in New York City. Lelo describes the show’s simple beginnings:
“Me and my co-host, we started hanging out a lot,” she says, “and my brother said, ‘You guys are so funny, you should start a show.’”
That was the seed of what eventually became “The Penthouse Suite” that the duo created from scratch and launched on SoundCast Fm. From there they went on to audition and earn a place on the popular NYC internet radio station, Droppin The Flava: “DTF” Radio. The weekly Internet show stars Lelo, co-host Jessie Rae and DJ Exeqtive. “It’s kind of like, you know when you go in an elevator, the very top floor is the penthouse,” Lelo explains. “And it’s like an elegant space, you feel like a woman, you feel free. So what we do is we run like the mouthpiece of our generation, we feel like there’s not a lot of people that can speak from our perspective…We speak about everything. We speak about religion, we speak about politics, we speak about our culture, what’s going on in our community. We’ve had a variety of guests, ranging from people on VH1, MTV, up-and coming-artists, we want to shine a light on other entrepreneurs that are doing great things in the community.”
So why would someone who was already forging a career as a radio personality want to attend the Radio Connection as an apprentice? To hear Lelo tell it, she felt the need to up her game.
“Originally I was looking into a master’s program,” she says, “but…I’ve learned that a lot of the time, hands-on experience works better in the field than sitting behind a desk…I like the fact that it’s real-time, hands-on experience, and that you have a mentor which is a connection to someone who’s actually in the industry. It’s not someone who is just teaching it, it’s someone who actually lived the life, experienced it, and is knowledgeable about what you need to get where you want to go.”
Lelo decided to enroll in the program and was placed with Radio Connection mentor Jay Dixon, a programming consultant at Hot 97 in New York City as well as WBLS New York and KBLX in San Francisco. At their initial interview, it didn’t take long for the two to hit it off. “We started talking about my goals and my experiences,” Lelo says. “We spoke about radio, we spoke about our personalities, and we got to know each other. It was like a really warm interview, where we were able to kind of like just feed off each other, get to know each other, understand each other’s goals.”
Radio Student Leonora Martelly
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