Former Miss Alaska Malie D is Press Picks winner for Best Radio DJ
*Courtesy image
When 101.3 KGOT’s Breakfast Club co-host, Malie Delgado, walks in a room it is immediately filled with effervescent energy. A former beauty queen, Delgado radiates natural beauty and a wholesome way of communicating that could make even the Grinch smile.
“I love when people tell me that I am wholesome. To me, that is a really big compliment. I want to be a role model,” explained Delgado. At only 23-years-old, Delgado credits her poise and confidence to her time spent as Miss Alaska 2014.
“I was recruited for the pageant when I was competing in the Great Alaska Talent Competition. Miss Alaska was actually my first ever pageant and I won which was totally crazy,” said Delgado with a huge smile. “I feel like pageants got me ready for being on the radio because you are constantly giving interviews and making public appearances. It teaches you to conduct yourself with dignity and grace. I always tell people that I don’t know what kind of person I would be if it weren’t for being Miss Alaska.”
Despite a soaring confidence level, Delgado never anticipating finding her calling as a radio personality. As she put it, things just kind of fell in her lap when she received an out-of-the-blue phone call from iHEARTMEDIA Regional Program Manager Mark Murphy, who told her she had a cool female voice for radio.
“I guess he liked my sort of raspy voice—like I guess it’s unusual for women,” laughed Delgado, who found herself doing an impromptu job interview when she filled in for long-time radio host Bill Stewart. Delgado admits that, at the time, she had no idea what she was doing, but she figured she could catch on quickly. Three days after her first radio appearance, Delgado landed a full-time position as a morning anchor and the rest is history.
“Working in radio has been pretty awesome because I actually get to spend my time on Facebook and keeping up with pop culture—I mean how cool is it that I get to do that for job?” gushed Delgado.
But occasionally, even a girl who seems to be able to do anything she tries, has momentary blunders.
“[My co-host] Casey B and I spend a lot of time combing through weird news headlines to talk about on-air and this one time we found one about a guy who was having raging orgies in his suburban home. I mean we are talking about a hundred-people orgies! But what was weird about it was that the people were all like 60-years-old and older. Well, I’m trying to find a way to explain the story without using the word ‘sex’ but I couldn’t think of a euphemism. Without thinking, I whispered to Casey B ‘can we say s.e.x?’ He just starts cracking up and says Malie, ‘you know thousands of people listening in right now can hear you whispering,” Delgado said with a laugh. After her sex talk, Delgado found herself on the receiving end of an angry phone call as a listener complained about having to explain what “s.e.x” spelled to her young child. She’s since taken a page out of Casey B’s book and now refers to sex as “making whoopie”.
Although Delgado’s humble nature prevents her from admitting it, her budding career has been a mix of a little luck and a lot of hard work. In addition to working a job that begins at 6 a.m., Delgado is also steadily working towards her college degree at UAA. She continues to be involved in local theatre and music, last appearing as a guest performer in UAA Theatre’s production of “Working”. She’s also spends hours after her shift on-air voicing commercials, editing the station log to keep the music flowing all day, writing blogs and scouring the internet for new music.
“Definitely one of my proudest moments was finding a YouTube video of ‘Shut Up and Dance’ way before the song was even on the radio. Casey B and I just fell in love with the song and put it in the rotation. Literally a week later, we started hearing the song all over the place. We like to joke that we broke that song,” laughed Delgado who has since turned her ear toward Ariana Grande’s new album. “If I had to start every morning with the same song, I think I would go with ‘God is a Woman’. That song is so powerful and really makes me proud to be a strong woman!”
