Big Boy's Neighborhood is the nationally-syndicated morning show for KPWR.
Big Boy is best known in the local area for his billboards. In early 2002, Big Boy was morbidly obese; Will Smith agreed to donate to a charity of Big Boy's choice an amount equal to $1,000 times the number of pounds he lost, if he could lose 50 pounds. Through a strict diet and by using a personal trainer, Big Boy lost 110 pounds, and as promised, Will Smith donated $110,000 to charity. By 2003, Big Boy had gained all the weight back, plus some, and weighed 510 pounds. In November 2003, Big Boy underwent duodenal switch surgery and has since lost more than 250 pounds (114 kg). KPWR billboards showed off his new look after his surgery.
On August 6, 2007, Big Boy signed a multi-year deal with ABC Radio Networks (now Citadel Media) to syndicate the show, and his weekend show formerly called Big Boy's Hip Hop Spot. The show launched nationally on August 20. Big Boy will continue to work for Emmis, thus KPWR is now the flagship station for the originally locally based morning show. In the fall of 2008, the show began to air on KPWR's sister station, WQHT Hot 97 in New York City, but after enduring lackluster ratings, WQHT dropped Big Boy's Neighborhood for an expanded local morning show hosted by Cipha Sounds & Rosenberg in July 2009.
On February 17, 2010, Citadel announced that it will no longer carry Big Boy's Neighborhood and that its last national broadcast would be March 22, 2010. But on March 26, Big Boy's Neighborhood found a new syndicator when it moved over to Dial Global.
Big Boy, along with Luscious Liz from the 'Neighborhood' starred in an episode of Entourage as well as an episode of Nick Cannon's sketch comedy show Wild'n'out. In addition, Big Boy also appeared in an episode of For the Love of Ray J.
On July 27, 2010, sidekick Tattoo is no longer with the show.
Big Boy is the recipient of 2 National Association of Broadcasting Marconi Awards for Major Market Personality of the Year.
On August 22, 2011, Luscious Liz Hernandez leaves Big Boy's Radio and is now with E! News.
Power 106 added Rikki Martinez, Krystal B and Louie G to Big Boy's Neighborhood. The programming changes paid off with Big Boy's Neighborhood closing out 2011 with a 6.5 share 18-34 Adults in morning drive and placed #2 in the market over-all and #1 English Language, Source: Arbitron Holiday 2011 (#1 was KSCA/Spanish). Big Boy's Neighborhood's programming changes continued to pay off in 2012 with Power 106 ranking #1, Adults 18-34 for 6 straight books and ranking #2 by .1 of a point behind Kiis-FM only one time during 2012 without the benefit of the Clear Channel's larger marketing budgets (Clear Channel owns an outdoor billboard company) and the world exposure of American Idol and Ryan Seacrest.
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Famous quotes containing the words big, boy and/or neighborhood:
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—Chris Matheson, U.S. screen actor, Ed Solomon, U.S. screen actor, and Stephen Herek. Bill & Ted’s Big Adventure (film)
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—Frank Pittman (20th century)
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—Edith Wharton (1862–1937)