Wendy Williams - The Wendy Williams Experience

T he Wendy Williams Experience. That is the name of my nationally syndicated radio show. But the Experience is almost twenty years of growth and insight. It is a reflection of where we have come from as a society and a reflection, in many ways, of where we are going. I started in radio at a crucial time in our history. America was going through the Reagan years of the 1980s, heading into a very selfish, me-first period. The thing that was called rap was evolving into a hip-hop movement. The thing called cocaine had moved into the darker period of crack and was infecting our neighborhoods throughout the country.

What was once fun and games was becoming very serious in music and in life. And my career has chronicled this period. And as I have grown up, my radio show has become one of the history makers of our times. Some will say that perhaps I reflect the worst of what we human beings have to offer. I say, I reflect exactly what is out there in its natural state. If you dont like it, look in the mirror.

The Experience has evolved itself over the last decade into a brand of entertainment that I must say is totally for the people. Many tune in to my show and think its all about the gossip and all of that. But the show is, more than anything else, about you people and what you want to know about and what you have to say about the things going on. And as I comment on the things you want to know and want to hear, and relate these events to my own life, this show has become the experience.

Take, for example, my interview with Whitney Houston. Diane Sawyer had made history just a couple of weeks prior to my interview with Whitney. It was the second-highest-rated broadcast in entertainment historybehind Barbara Walterss Monica Lewinsky interview. A huge buzz followed Diane Sawyers sit-down with Whitney. There was so much fodder for conversation that by the time I interviewed Whitneywho will be covered in great detail in a chapter in this bookpeople were still talking about it.

Diane Sawyer asked all of the right questions. In fact, for me that interview solidified Diane Sawyers place as the number-one interviewer in the game. But... Diane Sawyer couldnt duplicate what I did with Whitney on the Experience. My interview with Whitney Houston was more than a one-on-oneit was a culmination of years of discussion on my show about her with the people. It was answers to the questions many of you had. And it was an insiders look into what was really the deal with Whitney. See, Whitney, for those listening to the Experience, is family. Her appearance on my show was like a homecoming long overdue.

While she was trying to keep it together in front of Diane Sawyer, on the Experience Whitney Houston couldand didlet her hair down. She could be herself. She was raw and got down and dirtyas you will see in the transcript of that interview. And it was the best radio I had ever done. That interview was a prime example of what the Experience is all about. Its real. Its raw. Its about and for the people. And more than anything, its not predictable. I love doing my show because its as much a surprise for me most days as it is for you all.

And while I may go down in history as delivering the most interesting interview with one of our iconsWhitney Houston my entire career has been built on such moments. I have become known for my celebrity interviews. People enjoy the kinds of questions I ask, they enjoy the kinds of answers I often provoke celebrities to give.

I dont do interviews based on a celebrity bio. People come into the studio with their publicist, a bio, and a list of questions I should ask. Pu-lease! That all goes in the garbage. I hate that. The last thing I get around to talking about when I do an interview is a celebritys actual product of the moment. Boring! It might be that a person is coming out with a movie or a new CD. But we wont talk about that. I will mention it in the beginning and I will mention it in the end, but everything that goes on in the middle is about their personal lives.

I like to find out about people for the first time while the mics are open. If I have never met them before, I will learn about them when everyone else does. I dont want anything to taint the purity of the interview. During commercial breaks I wont even sit in the studio with my guest because I dont want to be tempted to have any conversation with them that might be interesting and then have to try and re-create that moment on the air. So in order not to waste one drop of entertainment, I will send my guest into the other room with their publicist or whoever they came to the studio with. And I will bring them back when the break is over. That formula has worked well for me over the years.

There are many celebrities, including rappers, and other entertainers who avoid my show like the plague. And there are others who are forbiddenby their handlersfrom coming on my show. Babs from Da Band, which was featured on MTVs Making the Band, wanted to come up to the show to get some things off her chest. When her label, Bad Boy, found out, however, they put the clamps down and forbade her to come. That happens a lot. (She has since come on the show.)