Veteran radio personality Rick Party has been on the air for over 20 years, but last July, he finally hit the top when he took over the 6 to 10 p.m. morning show slot on 107.5 WBLS. He has been a Jersey City resident since arriving in the metro area.
“I live downtown on the Hudson River,” said Rick. “I love it. It reminds me of Miami because it’s clean.” Rick has reached a milestone, because New York is the largest market in radio, and the morning show is the most important slot of the day.
New York morning show
“There are lots of perks being the morning personality. It’s everything I imagined and more,” said Party last week. “There are more opportunities to do things in person in New York that would be over the phone in other parts of the country. The good thing is that the entertainers are here, and they become your friends, and they’re well connected.”
Party’s partner, Sonia Colon, used to work for the same company in Miami before moving to New York. She had a weekend show, and Rick thought she had a funny air personality that would be a perfect compliment to his anchoring.
“When a person starts their day, they want to know what’s going on. We do comedy,” said Rick. “We have a news person who takes the news seriously, but we have fun with the news, unless it’s serious. We had fun with Martha Stewart.”
The morning show also has contests to keep listeners engaged.
“We play one or two an hour. Sometimes it will be 10th caller. At the 6:00 hour, I have morning trivia with asking about New York City or a favorite TV show or movie. Then there is the backwards throwback jam, where we take a regular song everybody loves from back in the day and play it backwards. People have to un-twist it in their mind.”
A lifelong ambition
Perseverance is what paid off for Party. He knew since he was a child growing up in Chicago that he wanted to do this for a living.
“My cousin and I used to sit around and play with the tape recorders and play our voices,” said Party. “We would record our voices for fun, so I developed a fascination with radio.”
Party began doing a music show on the 10 watt radio station at the Chicago Youth Center, which had a one-mile radius. From the time he was 15, he knew he wanted to be a professional DJ.
He began calling a local radio host, Earl Boston, who eventually took him under his wing.
“I would call Earl and make dedications to my girlfriend every day. I had been suspended from school, but it didn’t click with him that I was calling at 10 in the morning,” said Party. “One day, he asked why I wasn’t in school, and he told me the importance of an education.”
Despite advising Party to get his act together, Boston took advantage of his suspension and asked the teenager to record the show on his home tape deck, and the two became friends.
Party went to school at Columbia School of Broadcasting in Chicago and quickly became the radio station’s program director.
“After a year, I wanted to be on the radio so bad that I sent tapes all over the country,” said Party. “Someone called me from Wilmington, North Carolina, and that was my first paid job.”
Party left Chicago with $200 in his pocket and no car. From there, he worked in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and Miami before ending up right where he wants to be.
Party also has a voice-over company that voices commercials and station identifications across the country.
Party spends most of his time in New York City, but occasionally enjoys the Southwest Grille in Jersey City. So as Party’s voice comes into people homes and cars over the airwaves, is he recognizable on the street yet? “Not yet,” said Party. “But when the billboards go up, they will know.”