Hey y'all it's Laydie Fluent here. Co-Founder and CEO of the FluentRadio studio and BossFluent Entertainment. As we embark on our one year BossFluent Entertainment / FluentRadio station anniversary tomorrow, we would like to take a second to thank each and every single one of our loyal listeners, followers and supporters for keeping up with us every step of the way. Now I would like to take everyone on a personal walk down memory lane with a lil' story about how everything started...... So take a seat and set aside 6-7 minutes of your day so I can take you on this swift journey through BossFluent Entertainment / FluentRadio history .
And the story begins as such.............
Circa December 2018, the owner and founder of the FluentRadio show, Mel, decided to put his dreams into effect. Having recently returned back to Illinois from Florida after a few years of relocating down south, he met with the CEO of a local radio station in Lisle, Illinois called ESM radio in hopes of having his very own radio show. On January 10,2019 he made his radio debut on 88.9fm on the ESM network. Not everything started off great, there was a little nervousness and shakiness involved although long behold, all that was needed was a little bit of consistency and determination. Starting off with just 17 listeners on his first show, things began to take off and grow very quickly. The newly launched and soon to be prolific show was named "FluentRadio" and he was self proclaimed as "MisTa Fluent". He prouded himself on being consistent and creating a show to allow people to share their thoughts and talents. Amongst all, FluentRadio was created to "Change the narrative".
Being a choreographer and well versed in the dance and acting scene, MisTa Fluent was ecstatic and humbled to have his first notable guest interview on his show in March of 2019, Mr. Shane Sparks. Sparks is well known for havng choreographed the 2004 movie "You Got Served" with cast Omarion (B2K), Lil' Fizz (B2K/Love & Hip Hop); Raz-B (B2K), Marques Houston (Immature/IMx/Sister Sister), actress Meagan Good and actor and comedian Steve Harvey. Sparks also applied his choreography on the long running TV dance series "So You Think You Can Dance" and was a judge on "America's Best Dance Crew". This interview deeply inspired MisTa Fluent to explore the possibility of having other notable and well know guests and celebrities appear on his show.
Not too long afterwards, the lovely and smart Sandra ....BKA Laydie Fluent ... (myself Lol! But I'm going to continue speaking in the third person haha!) was introduced into the world of FluentRadio by MisTa Fluent himself. Luckily both believed in the vision of what FluentRadio was and where it was going and began to embark on the journey of a lifetime together. In June 2019, they were invited to the Chicago City Winery and had the privilege of sitting down and interviewing the legendary voice of "With you" and "Everlasting Love", Mr. Tony Terry. Being very amateurish in interviewing celebrites at venues, it wasn't their best production but nonetheless, they got through it. Everything they experienced from there on out was considered to be a learning experience and only pushed and helped them maneuver differently in the future. Laydie Fluent soon became the Director of Public Relations of FluentRadio. Not long thereafter and also in June 2019, MisTa Fluent invited the lovely Ms. Shantay McKennie (Birth doula, life coach and woman of life) to co-host a show with him. The reaction was so huge that he invited her on the very next week for a part 2 and Shantay was soon thereafter established as being the offical co-host of the FluentRadio show. While having their show at the ESM studio, they continued to get invited to different venues, concerts, events and movie releases to conduct interviews and perform media coverage. This consisted of interviews with group Public Announcement, Carl Thomas, R&B group Silk, Glenn Jones, T.L. Williams, Mikki Howard, CeCe Peniston, Digable Planets. Jon B, Max-A-Million, Elle Varner , J. Brown and battle rapper Goodz Da Animal, and Van Johnson and Kat Tat from VH1's Black Ink Crew Chicago during the NBA Allstar weekend that same year. By this time, those initial 17 radio listeners rose to an incredible 18K listeners. Social media accounts also began to rise exponentially with video views peaking at over 30K and averaging between 10K - 30K views each. Under their belt were also two very successful rap / hip hop cyphers that they hosted, however, there was still more work needing to be done and a gap that had to be filled somewhere, somehow.
In December 2019, MisTa Fluent and Laydie Fluent began brainstorming on how they could expand their fast growing radio show and turn it into an entertainment company. That's when BossFluent Entertainment was launched and made it's debut. BossFluent Entertanment, being the hub company and branching off into FluentRadio in the music field, advertising, commerica
ls, conducting media coverage for events, hosting events, press releases, clothing lines and apparel and in 2020, they would soon be able to launch The MAG entertainment magazine and a line of his and hers fragrances called Monsieur and Laydie (coming soon).
The new formation of BossFluent Entertainment posed the need to have their own larger space to be able to accomidate all their needs and expand appropriately. With some initial station start up guidance and help from the ESM network, MisTa Fluent and Laydie Fluent sought and secured their studio location in the heart of Oak Lawn, IL in the south suburbs of Chicago. This is where the Fluent Radio station currently resides under the umbrella of BossFluent Entertinment. A once small radio show, soon became a radio station and entertainment company and they both became CEO's and founders of both. Their first FluentRadio show was broadcasted live in the new FluentRadio Oak Lawn studio on Thursday Feburary 20, 2020. A week later, the first three new shows aired live, two of which are still part of the FluentRadio team; The Live Show and The DMZ. Along with the FluentRadio flagship show, the studio peaked at a total of 16 live weekly shows and hosts. Saturday March 7, 2020 they hosted a very successful studio Grand Opening and although the event was a great accomplishment, they had no idea what was to come days later and how it would impact their new company and studio.
March 15, 2020 the Mayor of the City of Chicago announced a city and state wide lockdown due to the fast spread of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) that reached the US in early 2020. Initially, like many others, confusion set in and they began to brainstorm of how to keep the ship afloat. After shutting down the studio for one week to regroup, they soon realized that slowing down and giving up was not an option. With extra sanitary precautions and health security measures in place, the studio reopened it's doors. They welcomed several new shows to their platform and with the assistance of virtual software applications were able to have legendary interviews with celebrites and notable figures right on their computer screens. Some of these legendary people have been actress Suzzanne Douglas, Reginald Ballard AKA Bruh Man from Martin, Dawn Robinson of Envogue, Actor Miguel Nunez Jr of Juwanna Man, Actor Omar Gooding of Baby Boy, Hip Hop moguel and "The Originator" Jaz-O, comedian T.K. Kirkland, Mike and Slim from R&B group 112, comedian AJ Johnson of I Got The Hook Up, singer and superwoman Karyn White, Freestyle King Lil' Flip, NFL free agent Maurice "Moe Legg" Leggett, singer and former founding member of Az Yet Shawn Rivera, Hip Hop violinist and Grammy Award winner Miri Ben Ari and more recently actor Bill Duke, whose interview alone has received over 106K views and streams!! Many of the other interviews that they've conducted were also very noteworthy such as undefeated boxer Mikey Dahlman, child actor from Mixed-ish Ethan William Childress, Queen of the Ghetto Gospel Johni Demeatri, founder of local Chicago TV station "Swaag TV" Mr. Joseph Sanchez, lyricist Akbar the Great, singer and actor Nitty Green, local hip hip lyricist "WRDS", actor Darrin Henson, R&B singer Sean Wyte, Torranio, local comedian Don Richie, Daeja Hinton marketing and PR (Thomas Krown/Dash Digital Studios), singer J Chosen, actor Robert Parham, J-Stylz newest member of Blackstreet, DJ Huskey and Ryan Toby. The Solutions Radio Show on FluentRadio that is hosted by Pastor Correy Wright, was also very humbled to be able to have the son of Fred Hampton Sr (Former chairman of The Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party) Mr. Fred Hampton Jr., (current active Chairman of the Black Panther Party Cubs), to be a guest speaker on his show. To say the least, a global pandemic has yet to slow them down or stop their grind !
Added to the BossFluent Entertainment and FluentRadio family recently in December 2020 is audio director and producer of the FluentRadio station, "Jefe" better known as Jeff Loving. Jeff is also a local hip hop artist and has an article review of "Tha Carter II" by Lil'Wayne in the new publication of The MAG. He has also helped to revamp their new and growing YouTube page "Fluent Radio 2021".
The horizon and outlook for BossFluent Entertainment and FluentRadio is bright, wide and has no ending in sight. Recently added to the resume of the BossFluent company is a new and fresh entertainment magazine called "The MAG". Thus far one issue has already been published in October of 2020 and widely distributed. The self made publication was both hard copy and digital. The second issue is set for it's release this Spring 2021. It features artists, entrepreneurs, business owners, advertisements, segments of past interviews on their station, partner affiliations, sponsors and sooooo much more. Also coming soon is "Monsieur" and "Laydie" !!! Two BossFluent fragrances for men and women. Final touches are being made to both fragrances and are set to be released this Fall 2021! And just as fresh collaborations are necessary they have several successful partnerships. FluentRadio has partnered with local media outlet CEO Demetria Brown of "The BluePrint Media Company" to provide media coverage and cross promotion; CEO Sean Johnson of "Imagine the Essence" a local fragrance company; Mike B of "We Book Celebs" known as "The Connected N' Well respected celebrity plug" and Legacy Jay Wooten program director of Philly Jamz 95.3 FM and host of "Who got next radio" have teamed up in radio syndication. The FluentRadio show can be found live on PhillyJamz 95.3 fm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon at 3pm (cst) / 4pm (est) on WWW.PHILLYJAMZ953FM.COM . The "Turn up show" with hostess Tasha Lil'Queen Poindexter from PhillyJamz 95.3 fm can now be found live on FluentRadio every Tuesday at 5pm (cst) / 6pm (est) on WWW.FLUENTRADIO.COM . The future has so many endless possibilties for BossFluent Entertainment and we can only hope that each and every one of you are going to be around to witness the greatness as it continues to unfold.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLUENTRADIO STATION AND MAY YOU (WE) CONTINUE TO HAVE MANY MORE! ~ Published by LAYDIE FLUENT 2/19/2021
MisTa Fluent ~ CEO, founder and owner of BossFluent Entertainment (FluentRadio, The MAG magazine)
Laydie Fluent ~ CEO, founder and owner of BossFluent Entertainment (FluentRadio, The MAG magazine)
Shantay McKennie ~ FluentRadio show co-host and director of Public Relations
Jeff Loving ~ Audio director and FluentRadio studio producer.