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As KTU’s top-rated on-air personality, heard weekdays from 9am to 2pm, Diane Prior is a friend to millions, but her style belies the size of her audience.
“I try to relate to people on a one-to-one level,” Prior says. “I think radio encourages that kind of rapport with the audience. On my program, I take calls from listeners. Mostly it is a song request, but sometimes it’s a person looking for relationship advice.”
Prior pens “Dear Diane,” an online advice column at the websterhall.com website. She approaches her daily program as if New York were a small town, not the nation’s largest metropolis.
Prior got her first job in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1979. In 1981 Prior got a job in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She soon began sending tapes of her work to the legendary 92 WKTU in New York, forerunner to today’s WKTU. Within in a year she had landed a weekend gig at WKTU and spent the next year and a half working seven days a week; weekdays at WAYV in Atlantic City and weekends at New York’s WKTU.
Eventually Scott Shannon heard Prior and offered her one of the coveted disc jockey positions that would catapult Z-100 (WHTZ) from worst to first in the 1980s. Prior stayed with Z-100 through 1989, when she took a break from full-time work to get married and raise a family. Her daughter, Holly, was born in January 1993.
Prior returned to broadcasting full time at WKTU in 1996, working nights. She reconnected immediately. Shortly after joining the new WKTU, Prior was reassigned to the midday program.
Diane Prior loves her work, and it shows on the air. She has appeared at thousands of neighborhood block parties, supermarkets, mall openings, night clubs, and charity events in the New York metropolitan area. Her causes include the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Juvenile Diabetes, and the Brooke Jackman Foundation. She continues to be in demand as a commercial spokesperson as well.
In almost a decade at the new WKTU Prior has shared the stage at station events with the top names of musical entertainment including Ricky Martin, Cher, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and more. She has been honored by the Museum of Television and Radio. She has been nominated time after time for New York’s Metro AIR (Achievements in Radio) awards, and won the award for the “Best Midday Show” in 2001. |
