Written by: Maya Perry
“I knew from the beginning that my name Leigha Fox lent itself well to the entertainment business. I once had a Key West drag queen call me “Laya Fox” I had to put a stop to that quick. I knew I wanted to work in radio from the time I was 12 years old with influences from local radio personalities in NW Arkansas all the way to Oprah Winfrey. I wanted to fall somewhere in there.”
Leigha Fox is an open book. After seeing one of my women in radio blogs on Apple News, she reached out to me via Facebook (THE POWER OF THE INTERNET) to tell her fascinating story in radio.
With over 20 years in this media industry, I was ready to take a walk down memory lane with The self-proclaimed “Radio Lady Gaga”. She explains, “As soon as I got my high school diploma I started banging on radio station doors trying to get hired. I recorded a lot of free public service announcements and commercials because I didn’t even have an aircheck. I took my first radio job at Country Lovin’ KTCS in Fort Smith Arkansas. It was supposed to be just the weekends but as soon as I started, the overnight guy had to go to rehab. I ended up working seven nights a week, midnight to 6 am, for a solid year.
During that time I learned that I was not a night owl. I am now and have always been a morning person. The effects of working all night, every night was starting to take a toll on me psychologically and physically. I became disenchanted with radio. So, I ran away and joined the Navy. I did four years of active duty in the service and two years in the Navy Reserve.
In the summer of 1998, the Reserves brought me to Key West. I fell in love with the place. I went back to Arkansas had a big yard sale and moved here with what I could fit in my car. I took odd jobs and volunteered with a lot of different charities. Then one day I saw an ad in the paper that said “Radio Personality Wanted. Must be able to show up on time. I thought to myself “I can do that! “.
As of the summer of 2020 hits, I will have been back in Radio for 20 years.
I am the Florida Keys Radio Girl. I have a career with a cluster of eight radio stations that span 108 miles of the island chain, 43 islands connected by 42 bridges. I drive across the ocean every day on my way to work. I occasionally see dolphins and sting-rays jumping in the water as I drive across the 7-mile bridge each morning. I host a live radio show 9-10 am M-F, called Biz -Biz (short for bizarre bazaar) on US1Radio. People from around the islands call in to buy, sell and trade their boats or to sell a stand-up-paddle-board that they used one time or a variety of other things from Cars to Rusty rakes. The show is sprinkled with local advertisers that we talk to live. We also take calls from around the community for nonprofit events and concerts and other local stories of interest. I am pre-recorded on US1Radio mid-day. In addition to being on-the-air seven days a week and my radio sales advertising job, I also write and coproduce the commercials and do collections. You can also catch me on Conch Country on the weekends.”
Leigha Fox has many accomplishments including multiple Edward R Murrow awards for hurricane coverage spanning the last two decades. When asked what she would tell her younger self, she states, “Radio didn’t forget about me and now my relationship with my first love (radio) is strong and secure. It’s everything and more than that little 12-year-old girl from Arkansas could have ever dreamed it would be.”
We concluded the interview with her advice upcoming women in radio, she explains, “Remember “No” only means “not now” (in radio) and that being naive can serve you well by allowing you to accomplish things that you wouldn’t have if you had known that you couldn’t do it.”