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Wendy Williams

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Wendy Joan Williams (born July 18, 1964) is an American talk radio hostess, television personality, and New York Times bestselling author. Williams is best known for being a DJ in New York City, where she gossips about mostly African-American entertainers and conducts celebrity interviews. Williams has also gained notoriety for her on-air spats with celebrities, most notably her January 20, 2003 exchange with Whitney Houston. Since the early 2000s, Wendy Williams has hosted the highest rated weekday syndicated radio broadcast named "The Wendy Williams Experience", on WBLS 107.5 FM radio station in New York City.


Biography

Wendy Williams was born in Ocean Township, New Jersey in 1964, and raised in the Wayside section.[1] There she graduated from Ocean Township High School.[2] From 1982 to 1986, Williams attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she majored in communications and was also a DJ for the college radio station WRBB 104.9 FM. Williams also interned at WXKS-FM ("Kiss 108") in Boston. She later became a DJ for radio station WVIS in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and after eight months there, accepted a job at oldies station WOL in Washington D.C.. Wendy Williams then entered the New York market, where she worked for the FM stations WPLJ and "Hot 97".

In 1989, Wendy Williams began working at "98.7 Kiss FM" in New York City as a fill-in DJ. As rival station WBLS began hiring away staff from that station, Kiss FM 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, giving listeners the dirt on their personal lives. A year later, Ms. Williams landed her own 6-10 p.m. shift, eventually winning the Billboard Award for Best On-Air Radio Personality in 1993. The following year after her Billboard award Emmis Broadcasting bought out Kiss FM and switched Williams to the company's Hot 97.

Ms. Williams was fired from Hot 97 in 1998 for allegedly getting in 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[3], 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 "Diddy" Combs which led to her dismissal. She alludes to this in her second book The Wendy Williams Experience, when she wrote "He single-handedly tried to ruin me. . .".

After the Hot97 incident, Ms. Williams was hired by a Philadelphia station WUSL ("Power 99FM"), claiming her New York fans "left her for dead".

In 2001, Wendy Williams returned to the New York airwaves when WBLS hired her full-time for her own syndicated 2-6 p.m. Wendy's good friend, MC Spice of Boston, Massachusetts, offered his voice over services to the show, often adding short rap verses tailored specifically for Wendy's show. As of 2008, she is 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, a la Howard Stern, as the "Queen Of All Media". In her television and radio shows, she dishes celebrity gossip, conducts interviews and speaks her mind about current events. Williams has admitted to previous cocaine dependence, miscarriages, as well as having liposuction as well as breast implant surgery. She has hosted several installments of Wendy Williams is on Fire for VH1, and on October 20, 2006, The Wendy Williams Experience premiered as a late-night series.

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, criticizing other R&B artists, and her drug abuse. This interview was sold as a bonus DVD with Cantrell's Bittersweet album.

In 2006, Wendy Williams introduced co-host "Charlemagne tha God.". Charlemagne hails from Moncks Corner, South Carolina and is a convicted felon. Charlemagne was released from his deejay position at Columbia's WHXT Hot 103.9 after a heated interview with Buffie "The Body". He has since been released by WLBS from the Wendy Williams Experience radio show. Charlemange's last on-air date was November 3, 2008 and his last comment was "I hope all these people are voting tomorrow." According to the New York Times ArtsBeat blog, Wendy mentioned the decision was made by WBLS due to the current economic conditions. Other staff let go by WLBS include Vaughn Harper and Champaine who performed on the weeknight and overnight shifts respectively.

Williams also became a spokesmodel for Georges Veselle champagne.

In October 2007, Williams filled in for Jodi Applegate on WNYW's morning television show Good Day New York.


Personal life

During her time in Washington, D.C., Wendy Williams was addicted to cocaine, from which she has since recovered. While in New York, Williams went through a divorce and several miscarriages before marrying Kevin Hunter in 1999; a year later, she gave birth to her first son, Kevin Hunter Jr. During her pregnancy, Williams found out that Hunter was cheating on her. Despite Hunter's alleged infidelity, Williams and Hunter later reconciled and remain married today. After the birth of Kevin Jr., Williams suffered from a weight problem and had liposuction and breast implants surgery, augmenting her breasts from an A cup to a DD cup. She has also admitted on her talk show to having botox injections. Williams and her family currently reside in Montclair, New Jersey.[2]

Controversy

In an incident on her Hot 97 show in 1995, Wendy notoriously aired rumors that Tupac Shakur was raped in prison. Shakur was furious over the rumor, which New Jersey underground rapper Chino XL referenced in a song, "Riot". Shakur later addressed Wendy Williams on the song "Why U Wanna Turn On Me?", which remained unreleased until his death in 1996. In the song, Shakur insults Williams mainly in the last verse and the outro, stating that he prays she "chokes on the next dick down [her] throat" and refers to her as a "fat troll," and threatening a $20,000 hit on her. Shakur's former boss, Suge Knight, however, has since become a frequent guest on the Wendy Williams' WBLS show.

In 2003, Wendy Williams caused controversy while interviewing Whitney Houston on her alleged drug habits and tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown. At several points in the interview, Houston berated Wendy with expletives and told Williams "if this were back in the day in Newark I'd meet you outside, but not now, because I'm a lady with class."

Wendy Williams also been addressed in song lyrics by several artists, among them Will Smith, Lil' Kim, and Mariah Carey. In Will Smith's track Mr Niceguy, he mentions Williams by singing:

Wendy Williams, you don't know me,

I'm not your punching bag, you won't blow me... up.

Girl better leave me alone,

Before I buy your radio station and send ya home..."

A portion of Lil' Kim's track, "Shut Up Bitch" on her album The Naked Truth says:

"Don't come around here with that Wendy Williams shit/get your facts straight or shut up bitch!"

Mariah Carey's hit single "Touch My Body", alludes to Williams as the person whom Carey compares to other people invading her personal space: "Cause they be all up in my business like a Wendy interview."[4]

More recently she has been slated by rapper Method Man for airing facts about his family's personal life which he would rather remained private.

On March 25, 2008, the New York Post reported that Nicole Spence, talent booker for the Wendy Williams experience, filed papers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suing Williams. Spence, 27, claims that Wendy's husband, Kevin Hunter, 33, demanded sex from her on many occasions and created a hostile work environment by threatening and assaulting his wife on company premises. "Mr. Hunter repeatedly sexually propositioned me at work in the most crude and vulgar ways, telling me over and over that he wanted to 'f- - -' me," Spence states. Spence also says that Williams did nothing to stop the alleged abuse, and in fact "offered to take me shopping so I could dress 'like a sexy little bitch,' as Mr. Hunter demanded." Both Williams and Hunter deny the charges.[5][6]

Movie

In 2006, Wendy Williams announced that she was in the planning stages of making a movie about her life. Queen of Media was written by Jim Yoakum, with Furqaan Clover (who also directed) and Kimba Henriques. It stars Robin Givens in the lead role of Wendy Williams. Filming wrapped up in late August 2008 and is set to be released in 2009. After Wendy's talk show premiered, producers thought that the movie needed a different ending, which they filmed August 18th. Wendy announced this on her radio show and also said that she wasn't really sure when it will be out.

Other notable cast members include Angel Lola Luv, Trey Songz, Lil' Kim, and Chandra 'Deelishis' Davis.

Television debut

On July 14, 2008, Williams debuted her new daytime talk show The Wendy Williams Show on FOX 5 in New York My 13 and FOX 11 in L.A. The show aired in New York, Dallas, Detroit, and Los Angeles during summer 2008 for a test run. FOX Television Stations signed a deal with syndication company Debmar-Mercury at the end of the test to broadcast the show on its station group beginning in July, 2009. [1] The "shock jockette" remains true to her moniker when in her television trailer, she refers to exercising and crunching for her "belly flatness" and "kegeling" -- strengthening her vaginal muscles.


As Well As FOX Broadcasting Networks, BET has also picked up cable rights to "The Wendy Williams Show" which will premiere simultaneously on TV stations covering more than 95 percent of the United States and BET. Representatives of the BET Networks have stated "After two solid quarters of growth at BET, we're thrilled that 'The Wendy Williams Show' will be joining our line-up in July to strengthen the network's momentum," said Barbara Zaneri, Executive Vice President Programming Strategy, Scheduling and Acquisitions, who negotiated the deal for BET Networks.[2]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ Fishman, Steve. "How New York's Shock Jockette Got Supersized", New York (magazine), October 16, 2005. Accessed December 3, 2007. "As a youngster, Wendy did not seem destined for success on the radio, or anywhere else. She grew up in Wayside, New Jersey, a lower-class part of Ocean Township, one of four black students in her class, and one of the heaviest of any race."
  2. ^ a b Neglia, Ashley V. "Mixing Media", New Jersey Monthly, June 9, 2008. Accessed July 22, 2008.
  3. ^ Bernard, Audrey J. "YOU GO, GIRL! Wendy Williams' turns up the heat with sizzling new CD", The New York Beacon, June 22, 2005. Accessed July 22, 2008. "Currently, Wendy's outstanding media career"
  4. ^ Drake, Monica. "A Radio Shock Jock Who’s Ready for TV", The New York Times, July 13, 2008. Accessed July 22, 2008.
  5. ^ "Court Papers: DJ Wendy Williams' Husband Beat Her, Propositioned Aide for Sex", Fox News Channel, March 25, 2008. Accessed July 22, 2008.
  6. ^ "Buzz Briefs: Jay-Z, R. Kelly", CBS News,June 12, 2008.

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