Delilah, NYC's Radio Love Guru

Ya' gotta love this broad. 

Every weeknight, for five straight hours, the radio DJ Delilah plays the world's sappiest and most popular love songs -- and she scores major ratings and makes tons of cash doing it.

Delilah isn't actually based in NYC -- she apparently does her show from a farm in the Pacific Northwest and is syndicated around the country -- but her nighttime show in NYC is so popular that it's been on the airwaves (on WLTF 106.7 Lite FM) for fifteen years.

In radio years, that's many eternities. 

The centerpiece of Deliah's show are the dedications -- people call in and ask Delilah to play a song for their love -- either the one in their life or a long lost one -- hoping, one assumes, that the l'object d'amour will actually hear it and be moved to tears. Other times, it's a dedication to a friend, a family member, someone who means or meant something to the person in the past or present. You get the drift -- it's about appreciation, caring, and a hope for comfort, and connection in a brutal, cruel world.

While it's easy to mock a show like Delilah's, think about this: it's been on the air for so long that it must mean something to a whole lot of people. Also, Delilah is one of the last big-time personality DJs, the kind who were actually celebrities in their own right, who have basically been wiped off the dial by podcasts and music streaming, etc.

She is the inheritor and practifcians of a great, fading tradition and, in many ways, I'm grateful that Delilah, the music she plays, and the audience that adores both are still around ... for now.