Radio Career
In 1989, Williams began at urban contemporary WRKS (now WEPN-FM) in New York City as a substitute disc jockey. As rival station WBLS began hiring away staff from that station, WRKS hired her full-time for its morning show and gave her a non-compete clause contract; at this time she started her trademark of talking about African-American celebrities by giving listeners the dirt on the celebs' personal lives. A year later, Ms. Williams landed her own afternoon drive-time shift, eventually winning the Billboard Award for "Best On-Air Radio Personality" in 1993. In December 1994, Emmis Broadcasting purchased WRKS and switched Williams to the company's other New York property, hip-hop formatted WQHT ("Hot 97"), as WRKS was reformatted into an urban adult contemporary outlet.
Williams was fired from WQHT in 1998 for using the airwaves to promote her own events, in which the station received no compensation. The media reported that Williams allegedly got into a fight with her co-worker, Angie Martinez, while outing her romantic relationship with rapper, Q-Tip. In her New York Times bestselling autobiography, Wendy's Got the Heat, Williams praised Martinez, while acknowledging a mostly verbal confrontation. Williams stated that the station used the incident as an excuse to terminate her contract, and suggested that it was really pressure from Hip-Hop mogul, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, which led to her dismissal. She alludes to this in her second book, The Wendy Williams Experience, as she wrote, "He single-handedly tried to ruin me...".
After the WQHT incident, Williams was hired by a Philadelphia urban station, WUSL ("Power 99FM"), claiming her New York fans "left her for dead".
In 2001, Williams returned to the New York airwaves when WBLS hired her full-time for her own syndicated 2–6 p.m. time slot. Williams' friend, MC Spice of Boston, offered his voiceover services to the show, often adding short rap verses tailored specifically for Williams' show. By 2008, she was syndicated in Redondo Beach, California (on a station which services the Los Angeles metropolitan area); Shreveport, Louisiana; Wilmington, Delaware; Toledo, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina; Emporia, Virginia; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Tyler, Texas; and Alexandria, Louisiana, among other markets.
Williams' interview style is brash, and she refers to herself, à la Howard Stern, as the "Queen Of All Media." In her television and radio shows, she regularly provides celebrity gossip.
Williams has published several books, including the paperback novel, Drama is Her Middle Name: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Vol. 1 (2006), which is co-authored by Karen Hunter.
In 2003, Williams interviewed R&B singer, Blu Cantrell, asking questions about her sexual activities and practices, her criticism of other R&B artists, and her drug abuse. This interview was sold as a bonus DVD with Cantrell's Bittersweet album.
Williams has been a spokesperson for Georges Veselle champagne.
In October 2007, Williams filled in for Jodi Applegate on WNYW's morning television show, Good Day New York.
On the July 23, 2009 episode of her television show, Williams announced that she had elected to leave radio in order to focus full-time on her television program, as well as spend more time with her family. Eight days later, Williams ended her eight-year-long venture with WBLS. That same year, she was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Wendy Williams (media Personality)
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