By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed March 19, 2012
Egypt Sherrod over the past year has gotten married, had a daughter Kendall and moved to a new city for a new job at V-103 as their latest mid-day host.
“Three huge life events, but I’m still standing!” she said last Friday in an interview at the Starbucks downstairs from the radio studios.
She began her first shift today, replacing Ramona Debreaux, who remains at V-103 but whose new job has not been specified publicly.
“I feel like a kid on the first day at a new school,” said Egypt to listeners this morning at 10 a.m. Her new boss Reggie Rouse decorated the studio with an Egyptian sarcophagus and a throne. They also catered a big buffet in the green room, including peach cobbler and pot roast.
“I have never had a welcome like this in my entire career!” she said on the air. “I feel very blessed.” Over four hours, she talked to Keith Sweat, Musiq Soulchild, Jazze Pha, the Braxtons and Marsha Ambrosius, among others. She also solicited ideas from listeners who could play Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown and Bobbie Kristina in a movie about the late singer’s life.
Egypt’s approach is a bit like that of Wendy Williams: no old-school jock pretenses, just girlfriend-to-girlfriend honesty and dishing.
“I’m a personality,” Egypt said in the interview. “I’m not a talking head. I don’t just read liners and go in and out of music.”
Before passing the baton to Ryan Cameron, she gave a motivational speech. “People only do to you what you allow them to do… Know your self worth.”
Sherrod said she was doing well at WBLS-FM in New York, the No. 1 market in radio. But she woke up one morning and felt she needed a change.
“It was a cold winter morning in New York,” she said. “Need I say more?
Her husband Michael, a professional DJ who goes by the DJ name Fadelf, agreed.
“New York is fabulous,” she said. “I spent 11 years in New York City. It was a great season in my life. But it was time to open another one. It just made sense.”
She spent summers in Atlanta as a teen-ager with relatives and has nothing but warm memories. So when V-103 dangled the job offer, she jumped.
V-103, she said, “is a station that truly leading the trends. They have huge ratings, top-ranked personalities. They are where other stations look to for ideas and promotion.”
Egypt, who is in her 30s but wouldn’t specify her age, said she has been in radio since she was 19 years old at what was then R&B station 103.9 in Philadelphia, her hometown.
She believes in FM radio’s viability even in this day and age of Sirius/XM, Pandora and Spotify. “No other space can you turn to get local personalities and local information.”
She hopes to have a long-term relationship with Atlanta: “I will peel back the layers so people get to know me and hopefully love me. I’m very compassionate and community oriented. I love my family. I’ll talk about my crazy friends.”
You may have seen her on TV over the years. She was a correspondent on the “Maury” show. She now hosts HGTV’s “Property Virgins,’ which features Egypt helping newbies buy their first home. (She was a full-time real estate agent a few years ago between radio gigs.)
The show, which is moving to Atlanta for production to accommodate Egypt, begins next season’s casting next month. She plans to shoot the show on weekends. She said if you’re interested being on the show and are seeking a new home for the first time between April and September, email propertyvirgins@cineflix.com.
Building her multi-media persona, she now has 36,000 followers on her Twitter page. (www.twitter.com/egyptsaidso) And she’s part of an upcoming film called “Life Love Soul.”
“I’m going to be here for awhile,” she promises. “Uprooted my entire family, a long hard move in the middle of maternity leave.”
You can watch her live stream here from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.
