Detroit radio and dance music have a symbiotic relationship, but the personalities that have helped shape the city’s sound on air are relatively few. One of the biggest personalities aside from the legendary Electrifying Mojo is Lisa Lisa. In this extended interview, conducted as part of research for an article on Detroit radio, Ashley Zlatopolsky speaks to the on air personality about her history on the airwaves in the Motor City.
How did you first become interested and involved in Detroit radio?
I loved Detroit radio when I was a kid. I would listen to Keener 13 and CKLW on a little red transistor radio. When I was in junior high and high school, I would listen to WGPR, and WDRQ when the station was on 8 Mile Road. I would actually go to Buy Rite Records and buy 12-inches of the dance, disco and R&B I heard. When I went to college at the University of Michigan, I met a guy named Sean Ross. He’s one of those walking encyclopedias – if you asked him who was the lead singer on this track and this year, he could spit it out.
U of M had a legendary station called WCBN – it was kind of like the [Ann Arbor] WDET of the college circuit. There was an AM station also in the same building that was totally student-run. Sean and I decided to petition the FCC to make it a top 40 station. We actually changed the call letters to WJJX, programmed the station and of course did air shifts on the station. I was in U of M pre-law and that was when I decided that when I graduated, I would be in radio. Getting out of school, I didn’t have a job in radio so I went to my favorite radio station and said, “Hey guys, I want a job.” The station was WDRQ when it was over on Civic Center Drive in Southfield. They kind of laughed at me. There was a guy named Brian White, who was the program director. He and I instantly hit it off, so he was like, “Come on, I’ll let you do an internship.” So I was doing a morning-to-noon internship for no money and Jerry Clifton, the consultant, came into town one day, and I guess he just thought I was a hard worker and he liked my voice, so he put me on Sunday overnights from 1 AM to 6 AM.
I told them I wanted to do this for a living, so they said, “Get an air check together.” I had no idea what that was. I decided to go to Flint, and WDZZ gave me Saturday and Sunday night, 7 PM to midnight, but I would come back [towards Detroit] and do overnights at WDRQ, 1 AM to 6 AM and do my internship all week.
For more information and the full interview, visit Red Bull Music Academy
