We were lucky to catch up with Up Late with Sha & Del recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sha & Del, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about how you identified some of your key partners/vendors and how you made those relationships work?
When we first began working together, we were doing sketches. In 2010, Del had formed Another Sketch Comedy Show as a web series and Sha came on board as executive in charge of production. After about a year or two, we created Up Late with Sha & Del as a web series that still produced sketches but mainly featured our celebrity interviews.
Fast forward to 2019 where we reconvened Up Late with Sha & Del by uploading short-form content on YouTube; 2020 when we hit IG live every Monday night to discuss pop topics; and 2021, where we hit Facebook live every Tuesday for our celebrity interviews and audience participation.
Through these constant shifts, we discovered the consistent segments to keep on our show, kept tuning up what was working and when we discovered a new radio station in New York,108 Soul FM, we contacted them and pitched ourselves as a radio show. Two weeks after we pitched, Jamie Roberts, the owner of 108 Soul FM, invited us to host Up Late with Sha & Del as a weekly show on the air.
It was a case of preparing for the unknown and then the unknown showing up fast.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Up Late with Sha & Del is a radio show that airs weekly on 108 Soul FM on iHeartRadio. We are THE perfect mix of comedy and music on the radio with other cool segments throughout like Black Excellence, the latest grant info and prayer.
What we are most proud of is how we uplift our listeners. In every platform we have served, our listeners walk away feeling better, encouraged and they’ve had a great time. Funny story is: When we used to host Up Late with Sha & Del every Monday night on IG Live, we had regulars that would come to the platform.
We always invited celebrities to join us every week – in particular, famous director, Lee Daniels. One night, one of our regulars came to the IG live show and had just had a miscarriage. It was a heartfelt show and we decided to pray for everybody who was going through something at the end. With only 90 seconds left in the show, Lee Daniels came to the live and stayed for the duration prayer. From that day, we decided to pray for everyone at the end of each show. We learned there was a serious need for people to be prayed for.
That night, we discovered one way the Lord wanted to use us in addition to making people laugh with our opinions, funny stories and hilarious memes. When we got on the radio, we automatically knew the segment we HAD to keep.
So earlier this year when Sirius XM invited us to do the Black History Month special and the Women’s History Month special on the She So Funny Channel, we brought that same goodness to their platform – and of course, we kept the prayer. And it was hit! Stay tuned for more Up Late with Sha & Del on Sirius XM too.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Our mission is to get Up Late with Sha & Del (in the morning) on Daytime Television on ABC. We joke about it all the time but it is written on the vision board. People need the fun in the morning, the pop topics with our opinions, a bit of music and prayer. ABC, where yall at?
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
When we first began, we funded the business out of our own pocket and then we were ready to film a pilot, we created a go fund me. Sha’s dad gave us a thousand dollars and that made every body else take it seriously. We raised over $3500 and shot a pilot for Up Late with Sha & Del. As an IG Live show, listeners donated and that’s how we paid our engineer to edit the show
Now, here’s the kicker: since then, we have increased our skillsets and don’t have to outsource: Del edits the episodes, Sha markets the show and we both post to the pages on social media.
This show has also made us grow as business owners. If you take anything from this article, the one thing we ask you to do is tune in and hear it for yourself and be sure to subscribe.
Start listening now at: HTTPS://www.uplatetvshow.com/podcast
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.uplatetvshow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uplatetvshow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uplatetvshowfanpage
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/uplatetvshow
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/uplatewshadel
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/uplatetvshowpodcast