Felicia “The Poetess” Morris – Owner of Morris Media Studios
This year marks my 30th year in radio. I was inspired by my late, great dad and radio pioneer Johnny Morris, who had been in broadcasting for most of his life. At 12 years old, he built his first radio station in his grandmother’s garage and at 16, landed his first professional gig at KLIP in Fresno. Some of my earliest memories are of me hanging out with my dad at KDIA, a station in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was 5 when I recorded my first radio promo. It took my dad nearly an hour to get me to say “KDIA Lucky 13 – Can you dig it?”
I was 10 years old when my pops took me to my first concert in 1977. It was Parliament/Funkadelic at the Oakland Coliseum. The Mothership landed on stage and blew my mind! It was then I knew I wanted to be in the music business! I followed my dad to LA after I graduated high school and took on my first internship at RCA/Jive under the mentorship of Lygia Lott. Later, I landed my first radio gig with Lee Bailey’s Hip Hop Countdown and Report and in 1992, recorded Simply Poetry on Interscope Records. Soon after that, I worked for 92.3 The Beat (later 100.3 The Beat) and Jamie Foxx’s The Foxxhole on Sirius XM.
My ultimate goal is to build an online Black talk network and open Morris Broadcast Academy in honor of my late father. The future of the radio biz is online and my father and I started Morris Media Studios to accommodate the growing needs of radio and the booming podcast industry.
A song that inspires me is “You Can’t Stop The Boss” by E-40. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @ogpoetess and @morrismediastudios.
#LLF2019 #BlackHistoryMonth #FamilyLegacy #NextGeneration