Headed To New Horizons

Daytona Beach, Florida native and new media entrepreneur Lamonda Williams has successfully turned her fascination with radio into a long and successful career. Her combination of “coloring outside of the lines,” bending the rules and being tenacious enough to ask for what she wanted secured her first radio gig reading news from the AP wire.

While Lamonda’s USC classmates partied their weekends away, she spent weekends holed up in the schools inter-dormitory radio station broadcasting to an audience of ninety-nine.  While pursuing a Master’s Degree in Journalism, she landed a coveted on air shift at Temple University radio’s WRTI while interning at WUSL under the tutelage broadcast veteran Lorraine Ballard-Morrill. After a short detour as a sports grant writer, radio came calling and she spent the next several years at various Connecticut radio outlets juggling four jobs a week.  Lamonda’s drive and dedication paid off when she landed a programming gig at WNHC-AM without realizing the magnitude of this turning point in her career.  “I am so grateful to many people who’ve influenced me and supported my career aspirations including Paul O Robertson, Lynn Briggs, Steve Hegwood, and Jerry Boulding, and especially WNHC’s owner, Edie Rozier, for essentially empowering and entrusting  me to manage a radio station as a rookie Program Director. She taught me how to read a ratings book and gave me the opportunity to flourish.  It truly was a hallmark for a lot of radio gigs that I ‘ve been blessed to have,” said Lamonda.

Her tenure at WNHC fast tracked Lamonda in the major league of radio at Philadelphia’s fledgling WPHI as Assistant PD under the direction of Mic Fox and Steve Hegwood which soon parlayed into a PD gig at WCDX in Richmond where she had a very successful tenure. After a brief stop at WPGC where she filled in for radio legend Donnie Simpson, she headed further south to New Orleans as a PD for On Top Communications under Hegwood. Her ongoing desire to blaze uncharted territory brought her to New York based Music Choice as Director of Urban and Latin Programming and Video where she was responsible for programming music to over 40 million households. Lamonda added “when I got to Music Choice, I hung up my headphones, yet in 2013, being back on the air in the #1 market on the #1 Urban station WBLS is so cool! The station I used to listen to is now the station I am on and my mother can finally hear me!! I hold the highest regard for my PD/OM, Skip Dillard. He’s a great, awesome leader!”

Lamonda’s focus today is as an entrepreneur developing her brand via her media consultancy, Lamar’s Daughter, which she counts as her most rewarding experience ever.   The company focuses on business and product development, social media programs, content and programming strategies for record labels, radio stations and video networks. She adds, “My other focus has been looking at emerging platforms like VOD, TV Everywhere and mobile media that is the new measure of viewer behavior.”  In closing, she wants to remind everyone that “the commonality is greater than our differences. Organic harmony is at work so we must make time to give back.”