The Rickey Smiley Morning Show Debuts in Philly on 100.3 RNB

The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is set to debut on Radio One Philadelphia’s 100.3 RNB on Monday, February 17, 2020. The show will air weekdays from 6:00am-9:00am EST and feature the renowned radio personality, comedian and actor and his morning show team- Da Brat, Gary Wit Da Tea, Eva Marcille, Rock T, and Special K.

The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is a quick-paced show that perfectly blends music, Smiley’s unique brand of comedy and spiritual entertainment with today’s hottest topics in news, entertainment and sports. Smiley, a nationally renowned, award winning host, was recognized by the National Association of Broadcasters in 2017 as recipient of one of the top radio broadcasting awards, the Marconi award for “Top National/Syndicated Talent.”

“I’m excited to have this extremely funny and gifted talent in Philly” said Jay Dixon, Program Director of Radio One Philadelphia’s 100.3 RNB. “I know Rickey and his crew will bring the kind of morning show that’ll get this city going.”

Smiley is the successor for the Fly Jock, Tom Joyner, host of the Tom Joyner Morning Show who retired in 2019.  His commitment to historically black colleges and universities and family and parent initiatives are a noted part of his brand and an evident part of his program.

Radio One Philadelphia Station Manager, Ezio Torres “I’m excited to have the Rickey Smiley Morning Show join 100.3 RNB as he and his crew are the future and direction of our format and the perfect way for our listeners to start their day”

The Rickey Smiley Morning Show debuted as a nationally syndicated Urban AC morning show in January 2020. It is a product of Reach Media, Inc., a subsidiary of Urban One.

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This marks the second time Rickey Smiley's show has aired in the Philadelphia market on a Radio One station. The show was last heard on Hip Hop/Urban Hot 107.9 (WPHI) in 2012.

Interesting enough there will be some audio duplicating of the show heard by some Philly area listeners. The Rickey Smiley Morning Show also airs in nearby Wilmington, Delaware on the new Jammin' 96.9. WVJJ recently launched in November with the Tom Joyner Morning Show on 1510 AM which is licensed to Salem, NJ. The FM translator 96.9 W245CJ is licensed to the largest city in Delaware.

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This duplication is potentially more harmful for Jammin' 96.9 because unlike some Radio One stations across the country, The 100.3 FM signal is one of the strongest signals Radio One owns in their company. Their signal is a solid 40 miles in all directions from Philly. Unfortunately Jammin' 96.9's signal on the FM translator only covers 10 miles in an oval pattern with some drop out and their AM signal is a daytime only station with the inherent downfalls in music audio quality with that bandwidth. Getting listeners to stream their signal on their mobile device might be a bit of a challenge at this point when most people would find it easier to scan to another station.

In terms of advertising, Wilmington is considered a fringe market for most mainstream Philadelphia radio sales teams. However with a fairly large African American population percentage wise (Radio market #80 Population: 623,200-Black: 133,800-Hispanic: 50,000), many listeners tune to Philly radio stations. This has not gone unnoticed by Philadelphia heritage stations WDAS and Power 99. They have been most listened to stations in Delaware for years. Jammin' 96.9 launched in November in hopes of siphoning away ratings from the Philly stations to a local Wilmington station.

On the very first show, Rickey did shout out Delaware.


The first day on 100.3 RNB (Updated on 2/17/2020)