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DEVON O'DAY, PRODUCER, GERRY HOUSE AND THE HOUSE
FOUNDATION
SYNDICATED MORNING RADIO SHOW, WSIX
RADIO
From the age of 17, Louisiana native Devon O'Day
worked as a late-night and
weekend country music disc jockey on a local
radio station. After graduation from
University of Louisiana at Monroe, then
Northeast Louisiana University, O'Day
moved to New York where she did postgraduate
work in the writer's program of con-
tinuing education at New York University. She
became a plus size model for the pres-
tigious Ford Modeling Agency, while trying to
break into radio. Despite studying
voice with the lead announcer at MTV, she was
unable to find radio work in New
York. Feeling it was time for a change, and
having a longstanding dream of being a
singer/songwriter, she flew to Nashville to
search for a job. "I had never been to
Nashville before. I interviewed for jobs, and
although I didn't land one, I just felt like
I was supposed to be there." Six days later she
was living on Music Row, but couldn't
find work in radio.
O'Day got a job as a receptionist at a hair
salon. "I heard that the best way to get a
job in the music business was to hang out where
music business people do. I started
frequenting Third Coast." Although she didn't
meet anyone to assist her in breaking
into radio, she did become acquainted with
legendary songwriters Paul Davis and
Dean Dillon. Dillon later became a co-writer
and helped to further her songwriting
career. She left the salon after three months
and began working temporary jobs. "I got
sent to temp at different law firms. At the
salon I had streaked pink through my hair.
I would walk in wearing four or five earrings
and lots of makeup, and I would be sent
home." She continued to drop off demo tapes at
radio stations, but was never called
back.
Undaunted, O'Day stayed focused on her goal of
working in radio, and two
important events set the course of her future:
she changed her name and got a little
help from a stranger. "One day I thought, `I
don't have a catchy enough name.' So I
dreamed up the name Devon O'Day." The next
round of demo tapes carried the new
name and garnered a phone call from WSIX. "They
said, `We've heard of you. We'd
like you to come in for an interview.' It was
the same tape I'd been leaving the last six
times, but when they saw the name Devon O'Day,
they called. The person who helped
me get in to see [the program director] was a
woman I met at the grocery store. She
said, `You have a really good voice. Do you
work in radio?' As it turns out, she worked
part time at WSIX and offered to make a phone
call on my behalf."
Initially hired to work the late night and
weekend shifts, she later became the foil
for a comic deejay who, she recalls, was "as
funny as dirt" on his morning show.
When WSIX was bought by a larger corporation
that planned to bring in another
deejay to pump up morning ratings, O'Day was
slated to be let go. Told that she was
not cut out for an on-air job, she was offered
the chance to produce a new Los
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