We were lucky to catch up with Del Olaleye recently and have shared our conversation below.
Del, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
My father is a first generation immigrant. He’s from Nigeria. He met my mother while in school in the state of Florida. Some of the tropes about the “hard-working, education first immigrant” parent certainly held true with him. From my POV as kid his background affected me most through his decision to not allow me to watch TV during the school week. TV time was only Friday Afternoon-Sunday Night. When the Miami Dolphins played on Monday Night Football I was able to watch them. That was really the only weeknight exception. School week nights were spent with homework, reading(for fun) until my father put this elaborate radio in my room. This thing was big. Think back to the mid 90s and then go back another decade(he liked to keep old stuff) for what this thing might look like. Two large speakers. The radio wasn’t digital. It had a knob that you had turn to get to the right station and the display lit up at night. Sure I listened to music and recorded songs off the radio but what I did most was listen to sports talk radio. Every day when I got home I’d listen until I fell asleep. My favorite station was one based out of San Diego. I don’t remember the name anymore. Just one of the host. His name was Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton. He was the play by play man for the Chargers. I didn’t know it at the time but that radio changed my life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I guess you can call me a podcaster now but I’ve been in radio for most of my adult life. It certainly was how I identified for a long time. Saying “I work at radio station” was a conversation starter. You usually met with “Oh that’s cool, where do you work?” and the conversation would go from there. My path was straightforward but it came out of nothing. I was going to school to get a business degree. Something I was not interested in at all. So much so that I dropped out of school. I never thought to myself that I wouldn’t go back to school. Just that business school wasn’t for me. So I got a job at a pizza place as a delivery driver and a dishwasher as I tried to figure out what was next.
The place was owned by a husband and wife. Rolfe and Susan. In getting to know Susan I must’ve mentioned my love of radio. By chance she happened to listen to a college radio station for Alvin Community College. She mentioned that to me and I was certainly interested. I enrolled there. After going through the radio program for a couple years I got an internship with a new radio station in town called 1560 The Game. They’re now ESPN 97.5 in Houston.
From there the story is relatively straightforward. Intern to part time. You begin working on the weekends and planning the rest of your life around this thing you’re not sure is gonna work out. The part time work isn’t well paid but I knew immediately what it meant to me because I took any shift available just because it was the only thing I wanted to do. I became a full time employee 4 years after I became an intern. My official role was as a producer. Traditionally not a role for someone with aspirations of being a host. Most professions have jobs you can aspire to if you prove capable. Those promotions come with experience and performance. Radio operates differently in some ways. While it has become less rare, the transition from producer/board op to host isn’t a common thing. You’re either one or the other. I consider myself lucky that I worked with individuals that found value in what I had to say. Guys like David Nuño and Raheel Ramzanali who I worked with as a part time producer early in my career and John Granato and Lance Zierlein whose morning show I produced all allowed me to have a voice on their show.
As I became more vocal on air, coworkers noticed how much I had to say when college football was the topic. They’d ask me questions on the show about games and teams and that eventually led to suggesting I start a college football podcast in 2020 and a weekly college football show in 2021. There have been starts and stop along the way as life has intervened but for the 2022 season I upload a podcast twice a week every week.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Thinking about this question caused me to realize something. I enjoy the prep work and production of my podcast more than the end product. I host, engineer, edit and produce the podcast and my favorites things about it are all the things done before I’m ready to hit publish. I value and appreciate everyone who takes any time out of their day to listen. These are strangers for the most part who have decided of all the things they can do for 30-35 minutes the thing they’ll do is give me a chance. That is something you can’t count on or measure its meaning.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Support is about honesty and empathy. It might be some utopian dream I’m cooking up but I get the sense that most creatives approach their projects earnestly and are willing to listen to critiques when they come from those they believe have no ill will. Few people produce things that are beyond improvement. While creatives can’t expect an approval rating of 100% an environment where conversations about their work are honest and understanding helps the work and individual.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/respect-my-decision-with-del-olaleye/id1318343118, https://open.spotify.com/show/0CCkRpmnVYuu8qqZRuhN5V
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delv2/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lbdaytona88
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/del-olaleye-46621648/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DELv2
Image Credits
Del Olaleye, Brandon Strange