10 Questions with ... Kelly Corday

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Kelly Corday has certainly had a fair-share of curveballs thrown her way throughout her life. While loss and grief can often have a hardening effect on some people's hearts, for Kelly, it's been an opportunity to exploit joyfulness and tenderheartedness to others. She has learned to not only accept life's inevitable trials, she's chosen to use them on-air as a demonstration of great hope to others, on and off the air.

1) Will you share your career path in the radio industry that's brought you to this point?

I sort of fell into radio in 1999. I was working as a producer for nationally-syndicated radio and TV Christian talk shows. It was a job I loved, but included a ton of travel. I was rarely on camera, but got to pick the brains of people all over the country in "on the street" video segments, and write scripts for the hosts on set.

I worked a couple years at that tiny AM Christian radio station. I was a producer, talk show call screener, tape dubber (cassettes!), and weekend host.

I moved over to commercial Hot AC in 2001, in order to learn more about music programming, and become full-time in the industry. At Hot AC station KYKY (Y98) St. Louis, I loved watching artists grow in their careers and being able to be part of that, and I also loved connecting with listeners during my midday show. I landed back in Christian radio, KLJY (Joy FM) in 2010, and was thrilled to be able to bring all I had learned about programming to a format that I truly believe in, songs I can be fully behind, artists and industry people I admire so greatly.

2) How are you different from the "Kelly Corday" who started at that tiny AM radio station?

I think I have grown in appreciation of what radio can do, what music does, how it heals.

I've learned to let go of fear over the course of my career. It wasn't a conscious decision; it was more that there were so many experiences throughout my career and personal life that were so difficult, downright scary; yet, here I am-still doing this, that I can't help but trust and love God more and more every day.

3) What would you say is the most significant way you are the same?

Well, I'm still unsure of why I get to do radio...that's the same. But I'm so honored. I think I am still as in disbelief of what God has given me as ever. I'm always amazed by the people and opportunities He so graciously places into my life.

4) In January 2015, your husband Dan passed after a four-year long bout with cancer. Would you say that's the most definitive moment of your life up this point?

Yes. In college I wrote the obituaries for the local paper, and I never really understood why people were listed as "survivors." It seemed a little over the top, a little dramatic.

But now as a "survivor," I get it. Mostly what I've come to understand is that we have an ability to survive difficult things, in an unpredictable and broken world, as we get glimpses of the big picture: eternity. I lost my mom at a young age as well, so from the outside, my life looks like loss upon loss, and it has been, but also it feels like strength upon strength, because I have had to cling onto eternity. In my weakness-so much weakness-I have a strong God.

5) Surely, living through that experience changed you on a personal level; how did it impact you as an on-air host?

I'm still grappling with that, muddling through. Losing a spouse of nearly 24 years was life-altering, jarring, and there's no way to come out of something like that looking much like you did before. And if your job is to put your personality out there, to be you in front of a bunch of people, well, it's a process!

I spent a year not talking a whole lot about loss-that first year-it was too difficult. Then I spent lots of time on the air unpacking it, piece by piece, in breaks that were rarely over a minute long. Then, in the past year, sorting through singleness, what it's like to be alone, and to date again.

I'm so thankful to have a place to do this openly, and feel the support from listeners and the industry in return. And somehow, God arranges it so that sharing these big things in community is healing for others, and I'm thankful for that gift.

6) What was it like to go through this process, being a public figure?

It's still a process. Last week, a listener approached me at a concert. She said losing her husband is her biggest fear, and the fact that I'm OK gives her help in overcoming that fear. So, I guess even if it's that I showed up for that first year of grieving, or that I was able to somehow eventually put into words what that felt like and how healing is taking place, or for all the single ladies to hear me face such things as broken toilets, the point is really that we're not alone. I think that's been the point. We are not alone, whatever it is. We have a God who sees us, and people He places close to us.

7) How did sudden singleness impact your self-identity-particularly as a radio personality?

It took me a year to realize I was single! I still heavily identified with marriage and the married life. Once I began to accept and embrace singleness, and talk about it on the air, I noticed that listeners weren't quite ready for that. I assume because they hadn't lived out that transition every day like I had. The first time I talked about dating on the air, about two years after Dan passed away, a listener called in and suggested I "just date Jesus." I kind of felt like I needed to run potential suitors by her! Again, all well-intentioned.

8) Can you say you're at peace with this role of being single on the air?

Sure. I'm content in this situation. So if I'm sharing on the air who I really am as I should be, it's pretty simple. However, the church seems to set marriage as the standard. There is that awkwardness and occasional sense of alienation, but I can help be one to change that. More than half of adults in America are single. So we are actually the majority.

9) Any interesting moments with your listeners when they've been impacted by your experience?

I posted a blog a few weeks ago about things I've learned since being single, and was so glad to hear from so many single women in the comments. I talked about how I replaced a toilet flush seal by following a YouTube video and felt pretty accomplished! I heard from all the single ladies, and they shared their ideas too. There was this instant community of women all seeking acceptance and love, and receiving it. I love that.

10) Valentine's Day is this week. As an on-air personality, do you approach that day differently now with your listeners than you used to?

I was never one to make a big deal about Valentines Day when I was married. So, on the air, it was not a big deal either. But since losing my marriage to cancer, I have a renewed sense about the importance of sacrificial love (because love is) and grace. Last year, on Valentines Day, I talked about my last Valentine's Day with Dan. He was so, so, sick, had spent the previous days in the hospital, released on Feb 14, and I was just glad to have him home. He could barely get around but retrieved a dozen roses from our garage where he'd hidden them before being admitted into the hospital. He was also determined to keep a dinner reservation.

For me, because he'd never been one to plan an evening like that-and in his most physically-challenged time, at the end of his life, what he knew would be our last Valentine's Day together-he did that. A sacrificial display of love.