Dee Dee Renee and TT Torrez show why they’re tops

In a glass-enclosed space the size of a New York hotel room -- which is to say, twice the size of a typical radio studio -- TT Torrez works the phones, a blur of jangling bracelets and curly dark hair.

"All right, baby girl, thanks for calling in," Torrez says as she switches from one caller to the next. "We've got Maino in the studio today. You want to talk to him? OK, sweetheart, hold on a second."

In her staccato, Bronx-native accent, Torrez engages in a verbal ballet with her listeners -- chatting, listening, letting them toss a question to her rapper guest -- and making sure to inject WCDX's slogan, "iPower92.1 interactive hip-hop and R&B" into nearly every sentence.

It's just another midday shift for the 26-year-old Torrez, who arrived from the Northeast in February 2008 and within a year, boosted Power's ratings 20 percent among ages 18 to 34 listening between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

"It amazes me that people gravitate to me, because I'm not from their city," Torrez said during a break toward the end of her air shift. "When I first came here, there was a lot of, 'She's not going to work.' 'She's so New York.' 'She talks too much.' And then the people spoke and my first [ratings] book, I was No. 1.

"It was a humbling experience. But I think so many people gravitate to me because I am who they are. There's a little piece of them inside of me, and my audience relates to what I talk about on the air."

. . .

Across a hallway from Torrez, about 10 feet away studio door to studio door, Dee Dee Renee is wrapping up a phone interview with R&B singer Ginuwine.

She has barely said goodbye when she rushes from behind her studio console to embrace a visitor. Her warmth -- as well as her infectious smile -- immediately envelops anyone in her path, and even after she returns to sit behind the console and computer monitor to play some songs and answer some calls, her energy radiates with a silent buzz.

"I could stand in line at a Wal-Mart and talk to somebody," Renee says. "It's almost political. I hug all the babies and all the men. I give all of the ladies compliments. And that's just me. It's almost effortless to do it."

Renee is a native Richmonder and a single mom with four kids ages 8 to 27. She's 44, but could easily pass for 10 years younger. Her ensemble of black mini dress and long, swept hair, in preparation for the Beyoncé concert she was attending that night, only emphasized her youthful spirit.

In the 15 years she has been in the business, she has worked for only two radio stations -- WKJS ("Kiss" 99.3 and 105.7 FM) and WBBT (107.3 FM), now an oldies format that, during Renee's tenure, played'80s hits.

She returned to Kiss and its urban adult-contemporary format in 2003 and has consistently topped the ratings in her primary demographic of ages 25 to 54.

In the most recently released Arbitron book, Renee's 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift led the market in that age range with a 13.3 percent average share.

Her primary competition is Kat Simons at WTVR ("Lite" 98.1 FM), who often swaps the top spot with Renee in their shared demographic (Simons was second in the latest Arbitrons, with an 11 percent share).

"Kat is my competition. She's very strong and has her dedicated listeners," Renee said. "If you don't listen to me, you're gonna listen to Kat. That's why I try not to take too many vacations!"

Simons responded with a gracious thank you to Renee for her comments, and added: "[Dee Dee] is a sweet, talented announcer."

Renee credits her listeners for not only elevating her ratings, but her spirits as well.

"They're always calling me, telling me thank you," she said. "How many people do you really know who say, 'I can't wait to go to work tomorrow?' I don't have that problem."

. . .

If you ask Linda Forem, general manager of Radio One Richmond, which owns WCDX and WKJS (as well as WPZZ 104.7 FM) what makes Torrez and Renee -- two women able to command a chunk of the Richmond radio market -- so special, words such as "charisma" and "passion" and "enthusiasm" are quickly offered.

But then Forem continues.

"These women are self-made from sheer will and hard work. They're strong, they have amazing integrity, and they have a great sense of community," she said.

That ability to connect with and relate to listeners is fostered by their refusal to voice track -- pre-record -- their shows and be in the studio as much as possible to take phone calls.

At most radio stations, DJs often pre-record their shows so their time can be spent doing other things, such as working on production or music programming.

Since Radio One carries a significant amount of syndicated programming -- notably Russ Parr in the mornings on Power and Tom Joyner on Kiss -- it makes the existence of live bodies critical.

And whenever Renee and Torrez open their microphones to go live on the air, they're completely spontaneous, rapidly mish-mashing patter about weather, a song that just played or whatever topic they want to address.

"I don't like scripts. I don't like artist bios. I don't like pre-questions. I just want to have a conversation," said Torrez, who also is Power's music director. "I hate voice tracking. I hate not being in the studio. I feel so disconnected when I can't talk to the people or if someone is having a bad day and they just want to talk to me and I'm not there."

Renee is equally emphatic.

"If you take [interaction with the listeners] away, I wouldn't be successful," she said. "I let my interns sit in the studio because I want them to see how important it is to answer your phone and not to rush listeners off the phone. If they want to talk about something, it's not gonna hurt you to just listen.

"All the ladies think we're girlfriends and all the guys think, 'Heyyy, baby!' If we have that type of connection and relationship, you're gonna keep me on all the time."

. . .

The sense of community that Forem mentions isn't radio-management blather, but something genuine and meaningful to Torrez and Renee.

Torrez's hardscrabble life -- she was raised by her mother, grew up "very, very poor," and bounced from New York to South Carolina to anywhere her family could live until the next eviction notice -- is one she shares openly.

Her second passion, after radio, is working with teen girls because, as she said, "my story speaks for itself."

In May, Torrez established the Wait Until I Graduate campaign, which found her making personal appearances throughout the month to talk to young girls about teen pregnancy.

"Sometimes these young girls get into relationships because they're looking for attention, someone to love them. I know, because I was there," she said. "I know how real teen pregnancy is in our community because I get e-mails from young girls all the time. . . . The campaign was just something to say, 'Love yourself, respect yourself.'"

The majority of Renee's listeners skew a couple of decades older, which makes sense given that Kiss' playlist focuses on artists such as Chaka Khan, En Vogue and Jennifer Hudson, while Power, which plays plenty of current R&B acts, mostly leans toward the rap sounds of Rick Ross and T.I.

"Because I'm a single mom, I relate to the majority of my listeners, so they feel they can talk to me about being a single mom, too," Renee said, then added with a laugh: "If the men call to talk to me about stuff, I have no clue!"

. . .

While the women's victories can certainly be attributed to the old-fashioned concepts of simply being in the studio and talking to listeners by phone, both have fully embraced social media as another bonding opportunity, reaching out through blogs and videos and Facebook and MySpace.

Once they finish their five-hour air shift, their day is frequently filled with various duties including production work and taking music calls from record label representatives. Personal appearances -- for which they're usually paid extra -- often occur on the weekends.

But even when they're not at the radio station, there is always an attachment to listeners through their online endeavors.

Torrez's arrival last year prompted a rebranding of Power to "iPower -- interactive hip-hop and R&B" to take advantage of her cool, youthful vibe.

Now, courtesy of a live webcam, listeners can watch Torrez work via the station's Web site (iPower921.com), engage in chats with other fans or click on an array of blog posts and podcasts.

But Torrez also relied on traditional communication -- the telephone -- to call in live reports from Los Angeles the day Michael Jackson died. She had just landed there to cover last weekend's BET Awards when she learned of Jackson's death, and was able to keep Richmonders updated with the West Coast scenario.

Renee, meanwhile, gleefully boasts of her 1,800 Facebook "friends," and said she has no qualms about sharing personal details of her life with them -- to a point. Meaning her romantic life is verboten.

"I'll say things like, 'Hey, guys, Taryn [her 16-year-old daughter] went out last night, her curfew was 10, she got in at 10:20, how should I handle it?' And all the moms will be on there going, 'Dee Dee, if it's her first time, blah, blah, blah.' Or if I need them to pick me up, I'll mention that I'm feeling down and I'll get all these comments, like, 'Dee Dee, girl, just look to the sky,'" she said.

Renee also has a MySpace page, but notes with a smile: "I don't Twitter. It's just a little too much."

. . .

It's reasonable to deduce that Torrez and Renee possess a combination of steely determination and authentic affection for their audience -- personality traits that surpass what their immediate boss, Jeff Anderson, operations manager for the local Radio One stations, characterizes as a "charismatic swagger that can't be taught."

Renee's listeners, he said, are captivated by her charm and energy, while with Torrez, it's her "realness" that supplies the gravitational pull.

"TT has a 'no-excuses' attitude," Anderson said. "If there's a door that's locked, she'll look to see if there's an open window. If the window is closed, she'll look for a chimney. I mean, seriously, no one has drive like TT. . . . No one."

Torrez, who is taking acting lessons and working on an inspirational book about her life, channels that doggedness she developed during her challenging upbringing into what her listeners hear every day.

"I always say there is nothing I can't handle because I've. Been. Through. So. Much," she said, her words forceful and meaningful. "It builds you. It builds your character, it makes you stronger. It definitely teaches you lessons you can use for the rest of your life and makes you want to fight. That's why I have this need for success."

Renee, meanwhile, is equally unguarded with her listeners, but it's her unfettered pleasure with her job that seeps through the airwaves, leaving her fans with a little sound bite of sunshine.

"This [job] is the best thing I could have ever done in my entire life. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't working here now," she said. "I know I would do something in the community, because I'd have to stay around people. Or I wouldn't be happy at all."

Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or .