10 Questions with ... Gregg Diggs

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

I got my start in the music industry as a Club DJ in Washington, D.C., which ultimately lead to my first positon in radio as MD/APD at WKYS for eight years. I was then offered the post of Dir./Music Video Programming at BET where, for five years, I programmed all the music videos and booked all the celebrity interviews and performances that aired on BET. After a short stint as a Conference Coordinator at The World Bank, I spent seven very successful years as a PD at WorldSpace Satellite Radio. There, I programmed two music channels that aired in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and, one music channel that aired here in the U.S., on SiriusXM. In 2006, I founded my production company, Geez Dreemz Entertainment, which allowed me to hone my skills as a music producer and songwriter. The company is currently in the negotiation phase of a new syndicated radio music program, in conjunction with Bodacious One Productions. I am also very excited because of the recent release of the new book that I've written about my experiences in the music industry.

1) Could you tell us about your new book?

My book is entitled, "The Musical DNA Of Gregg Diggs (How A Club DJ Found Success In Radio, Music videos, & The Music Industry)." It is currently available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. The book is a career retrospective memoir that chronicles my experiences, challenges, triumphs, defeats, and my contributions in the music industry. I was inspired to write the book one day when I came across an unopened box that had been collecting dust in a storage closet for years. When I opened the box, I found assorted items of memorabilia from various stages of my career in the music industry. In that box, I found the promotional invitation for my special guest DJ appearance at Studio 54 in NYC, WKYS promotional items, my BET business cards, strategic and tactical programming plans for my channels at WorldSpace Satellite Radio, copies of the CD single that I wrote and produced for one of my artists on my record label, and several other souvenirs from career. Although I was aware of my career history, seeing all those items in that box made me realize just how diverse my career has been in its various incarnations and how I had successfully managed to reinvent myself professionally throughout the years. It was truly an eye-opener and it made me realize that I had a story to tell and that there just might be someone who would be interested in reading about it.

2) Would you share some of the behind the scene stories?

I've been blessed to have had some incredible experiences in the music industry and to meet some of the biggest superstars on the planet. In my book, I write about my encounters with Prince, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Madonna, Gladys Knight, Puff Daddy, Clive Davis, and several others. However, one of my most memorable encounters was with Janet Jackson at her beach house in Malibu, CA. When I was working for BET, I flew to New York for a business meeting with Janet's manager/husband, Rene Elizondo to negotiate a deal for the world premiere of Janet Jackson's music video, "Got 'til It's Gone." After the meeting, Rene mentioned that Janet had extended an invitation for me to have dinner with her at her home in Malibu, to listen to the advance copy of her forthcoming album "The Velvet Rope." When I arrived at Janet's beach house with two of my BET colleagues, we saw what looked like an industrial building and we were thinking that there was no way that Janet Jackson would be living there. Much to our surprise, when we got inside and Rene opened the door, we saw an amazing panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, a beautifully decorated living room with white furniture, white shag carpet, and dozens of lighted white candles. It was incredible! I noticed a small room away from the living room area that had several pictures that set on top of a mantle. I asked Janet if I could see the pictures and she said yes, grabbed my hand, and escorted me into the room. Once inside, I could see that pictures were Jackson family pictures and Janet proudly talked about each one of them but she was most proud of a picture of her and Michael Jackson when they were kids. She said that it was her personal favorite. That was a very special moment for me because Janet let her guard down and I could see the real person behind the video vixen mask. It was unforgettable and priceless!

Another very special encounter was with the late, great, R&B superstar, Aaliyah. I was the first music programmer in the country to play her debut single, "Back And Forth," weeks before it was officially released to radio. When I watched her music video in my office at BET for the first time, I knew the song was a hit and I also knew that Aaliyah was a star. So, I immediately placed the video into Heavy rotation on BET and the song exploded to the top of the music charts. I later booked Aaliyah and R. Kelly for an interview on BET's "Video Soul" and a few weeks later, the news broke about their controversial relationship. Although the media chose to focus on the scandal, I chose to focus on Aaliyah's incredible talent and her beautiful personality. I eventually invited her back to host "The BET Year End Top 30 Countdown Special." Aaliyah was a natural on camera and she was a joy to work with on the set. She was exciting, witty, spontaneous, and a true professional. One of my proudest accomplishments in the industry is playing a major role in introducing the world to Aaliyah. She was truly "One In A Million."

3) How did you get your start as a club DJ?

I started off playing for parties, weddings and cabarets, which eventually lead to Club DJ gigs in D.C. at Raphael's, The Chapter II, Tiffanne's, The Classics and The Ritz. I also had a very popular radio mix show on WKYS called "The Kiss Friday Afternoon Traffic Jam." I created the "Traffic Jam" mix show name and it's very flattering to see that it is still being used today on the radio. I also signed an exclusive contract with Miller High Life Beer to be their official Club DJ for the Washington D.C. area. Miller's very aggressive marketing campaign included promo posters with my name and likeness that were posted at all my appearances and a very cool Miller High Life neon sign, with my name in lights. However, the highlight of my Club DJ career was being invited to do a guest DJ appearance at the legendary Studio 54 Nightclub in New York City. For a club DJ at that time, it was like winning the Academy Award. It was the pinnacle of success for a Club DJ and one of the most memorable nights of my life!

4) What led you from the clubs to going into radio?

My transition to radio was uniquely unconventional and strikingly different from the norm. I was playing a song called "Rainforest" by Paul Hardcastle at the Classics nightclub and radio icon Donnie Simpson came back to the DJ booth to find out the name of the song. Since he loved the song so much and I happened to have two copies, I gave him one of mine. He gave me his business card and told me to call him if I came across any other songs that I thought would sound good on his radio station, WKYS. The next day, I heard him play "Rainforest" on his morning show and over the course of a few months, I continued to submit songs to Donnie. I later heard several of them played on the station. One day, I got a call from Donnie offering me a job a WKYS and I immediately thought that he wanted me to do the mix show that we had discussed but he said, "No Gregg, I want you be my MD." I was blown away! I had enrolled at Howard University and I was majoring in Broadcast Communications, just to get my foot in the door as an intern at a radio station. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that my first position in radio would be the MD at one of the hottest stations in the country and working with Donnie Simpson, one of the most revered radio broadcasters of all-time. It was an amazing blessing and the opportunity of a lifetime!

5) How important has it been to only work in the Washington D.C. area?

know that most people in radio have worked in numerous markets across the country and in some cases, all over the world. However, God has allowed me to accomplish everything that I have done in the music industry right here in the Washington, D.C. area. The clubs, WKYS, BET, WorldSpace Satellite Radio, and SiriusXM Radio were all located in D.C. It's truly mind-blowing to realize that I have been blessed to achieve major of success in so many different areas of the music industry without leaving my hometown. It's also mind-blowing to think about the incredible talent that I worked with during my eight-year tenure at WKYS. In addition to Donnie Simpson, I was privileged to work with top notched radio personalities like Melvin Lindsey, the host of the "Original Quiet Storm," Candy Shannon, Paul Porter, Kevin James, Jeff Leonard, Chuck Davis, and Tony Perkins, who would later go on to become the weatherman for "Good Morning America."

6) You talked about Donnie Simpson, would you share some more Donnie Stories?

I could not have asked for a better mentor than Donnie Simpson. He is truly a class act and one of my favorite people on the planet. When I first started working with him, it was extremely intimidating because I used to listen to him every day on the radio and watch him every day on BET. It was such a relief to find that the warm, funny, personable brother that I admired on the radio was "The Real Donnie Simpson." Donnie was genuine and authentic. His radio persona was not an act or a role that he played to entertain his audience. I also learned so much about radio and programming from him. He taught me the intricate nuances of timing, structure, music rotations, production, creating clocks, on-air presentation, counter programming, and a wide variety of other lessons. But one of the most important lessons that I learned from him was to always trust my gut and don't be afraid to break new music that your "MUSICAL DNA" is telling you is a hit.

7) How about the names of mentors?

In my book, "The Musical DNA of Gregg Diggs," I talk about one of my mentors, Gil Scott-Heron, the spoken-word music legend who is most famous for his classic hit, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." He was my instructor for a creative writing class that I took at Federal City College (now known as the Univ. of The District of Columbia). Once I got over my awe of his celebrity status, I realized that he was an excellent teacher, motivator and mentor. He would not accept anything less than the best from his students and one day he forced me to step up my game. He asked me to stay after class and told me that a story that I submitted was not worthy of my talent. He said that I had a lot of potential and that he knew I could do better. He told me to rewrite the story and when I did, he eventually gave me an "A." He slammed the paper on my desk and enthusiastically shouted, "Now, that's what I'm talking about. Good job man!" I can't emphasize enough how much Gil Scott-Heron helped to bolster and shape my self-esteem, my character, and my work ethic. He made me realize that I should never settle for anything less than excellence and that philosophy has served me well throughout my career in the music industry and throughout my life overall.

I know this may sound corny but one of my major mentors is my mother. When I was in elementary school, she gave me a piece of advice that impacted my perception of life forever. I was head over heels in love with my Spanish teacher, Senorita Pope. I loved that woman and I couldn't wait to get to her class every day. After being on vacation for a week, Senorita Pope returned to class and she wrote her new name, Senora Bennett on the blackboard. She explained to the class that she got married and that her new name was Senora Bennett. I was devastated and crushed. When I got home, my mother noticed that I was depressed, and she asked me what was wrong. I told her what happened, and she told me that there will always be changes in my life. Then she told me something that I will never forget. She said, "Gregg, the people who are most successful in life are the ones who can best adapt to change." She then told me that my teacher getting married was a change that I had to adapt to. That really struck a chord in my spirit, even at that very young age and I live my life by that advice today.

8) How hard was it going from radio to BET and Television?

It was extremely difficult initially because when I was first hired, I didn't have any TV experience. When Jeff Lee, the Pres./Programming at BET hired me, he told me that he wasn't satisfied with the way the music videos were being played and that he wanted someone to program the videos like music on a radio station. I was very surprised to find that BET was programming videos manually, so my top priority was to implement the RCS Selector music scheduling computer system. I entered every music video in the BET music library into the Selector database. I received a lot of resistance and complaints from the music video staff because they were accustomed to programming their shows and booking the celebrity interviews. All that changed when I arrived because it was my responsibility to program all the music videos and book all the celebrity interviews and performances for BET. As time passed, the staff realized that Selector was a more effective and efficient way to program their video shows and they grew to appreciate it. I knew how important it was to bring structure to the programming and it proved to be very successful. I also learned a lot from Lydia Cole, who was my immediate supervisor. She and BET Exec. Producer, Verna Dickerson helped me to learn more about supervising television productions, managing departmental budgets, and handling the massive responsibilities of overseeing the Music Video Department at BET.

9) Same question, but this time from BET to Satellite radio?

Out of all the things that I have accomplished in the music industry, my transition to satellite radio was, by far, the most difficult and most challenging. When Billy Sabatini, VP/Global Programming at WorldSpace Satellite Radio hired me, I thought because of my background, he wanted me to program one of the Urban channels. However, he told me that he had two music channels available, the African music channel and the World Music channel. Since I knew very little about both formats, I thought that it would be easier to program music from one continent than music from all around the world. Imagine how extremely difficult it was to create an African music channel from scratch without being able to understand the languages in the music and not knowing how to pronounce the names of the artists or the songs. It was a massive undertaking and fortunately I had the help of a young lady from Guinea named Folly Bah. With her help, I was able to successfully program and launch the channel, which aired on XM Satellite Radio, now known as SiriusXM. In addition to the African music channel, I was also tapped to program the Urban and the Love Songs channels on WorldSpace, which were heard in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. I was the only PD at WorldSpace who programmed three music channels for the network. Although I didn't know it then, I had become one of the pioneer music programmers in satellite radio history.

10) What has been your biggest surprise from writing the book?

Although I anticipated the support from the D.C. area and possibly across the U.S., I wasn't prepared for the outpouring of support for "The Musical DNA Of Gregg Diggs" internationally. It's been amazing! I have received e- mails, telephone calls, and social media responses from people all over the world. It was incredible to find out how many people around the world are familiar with R&B and rap music and how many of them were interested in my work experiences at BET and on the club scene. We live in a global marketplace and this book has been a prime example of that for me.

Is there a question no one has ever asked you?

No one has ever asked me how being a club DJ prepared me for the future challenges in my career. Being a club DJ was the foundation for my music career. As a DJ, you have to know how to read a crowd and know what songs your audience wants to hear. You also have to know how to present those songs in a manner that is creative and pleasing to the ear. Knowing how songs are structured, the tempo, the mood, and how they are classified is also very important. Presentation is imperative; you have to know how to execute the right music mix and music flow. All these skills proved to be extremely important for me when programming radio, BET, and as a music producer, and songwriter.

What are some of things about you that would surprise other people?

Although I am a music fanatic and music dwells within every molecule of my DNA, I am also a major astronomy enthusiast. Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by space and the infinite vastness of the universe.