Reggie Miles The History
Reggie Miles entertained audiences in Chicago for twenty years as a Disc
Jockey. He began spinning records while attending college in 1972. After two
years at Lewis University, Reggie decided to attended Kennedy King College
in pursuit of a dream to become a radio personality. The journey began at
the newly formed WKKC FM. During his years at the community college station
Reggie’s fame spread into the Stepper’s music scene of Chicago. His versatility
with the music (R&B, Dusties, Disco, Jazz, Steppers) and a distinct radio
voice led Reggie to several established clubs and social clubs. His
emergence on the Chicago DJ scene was a direct result of the following he
created at WKKC FM. From 1987 through
1991, Reggie was recognized as one of the top Stepping DJ’s in Chicago and
was awarded the Steppers DJ of the year award in 1991. Mr. Miles established
himself among the DJ elite combining radio professionalism,
personality and innovative mixing techniques that laid the foundation for the
contemporary styles of Steppers' DJ's.
After nearly a 20 year absence from the Steppers scene Reggie’s talent
as a Stepper’s DJ is talked about as Legend.
At Kennedy-King College
Reggie began his broadcasting career in 1974 as one of the first
student announcers at WKKC-FM. Reggie Miles pioneered the "Best
Variety of Hits and Dusties" format in 1975. For 20 years, in an on
and off relationship with the community college station, Reggie made an
impact as a radio personality. In 1996, ater graduating from Columbia College, Reggie
returned to WKKC FM as Operations Manager and restructured
training for students.Through his efforts at WKKC, Reggie helped the station
to win it's first award "College Station of the Year Award" from the Black
College Radio Convention in April of 1997. Mr. Miles was promoted to Station Manager in June
1997.
Born and raised in the Englewood Community Reggie deeply desired to "give
back" and Kennedy-King College provided the opportunity.
During the fall of 1997 while in graduate school at Governors State
University, Reggie started his career as a college instructor teaching the
radio production courses. As manager and college instructor, Mr. Miles directed
WKKC FM as a recruitment tool resulting in increased enrollment in the
Broadcasting Department and college wide. In addition, Reggie
concentrated WKKC FM's programming on serving the community and training
students to be professionals. WKKC FM's popularity caught the attention of
Crawford Broadcasting in 1999 and hired Mr. Miles and several Kennedy-King
College broadcasting students as part-time personnel. In March 2002, Reggie
Miles installed a digital automation system at WKKC FM ushering in 24 hour
operation. Additionally, in April 2002, Mr. Miles was presented with
the Black College Radio Station Manager of the Year Award. The relationship
with Kennedy King College ended January 3, 2003.
Before being hired at Kennedy King College, Reggie Miles became a Christian
in November of 1994 and joined the Apostolic Church of God where he learned
the art and science of audio recording. Mr. Miles was drafted into the Audio
Ministry of the Church. "Your reputation precedes you," was the comment from
the director of the engineering team at the Apostolic Church of God. Reggie
was placed on the Television Audio recording team. At the Apostolic Church
of God, Reggie learned from two of the elite audio engineers in America,
sound reinforcement specialist, "Ernie Greene" of Sound of Authority, and
the legendary master engineer "Danny Leake" of Urban Guerilla Engineers. Mr.
Miles developed a signature sound signature sound that has been heard by
millions in Chicago through the weekly television broadcast of the Apostolic
Church of God. His audio recordings of the services at the Apostolic
Church of God led to the favorable recognition of abilities by the selection
committee at Howard University.
In August of 2003, Reggie Miles left Chicago for Washington, DC and joined
the faculty at Howard University as an Assistant Professor in the School of
Communication, the department of Radio Television and Film. Immediately
upon his arrival in DC he was hired by a Clear Channel Communications outlet
WCAO Heaven 600 as a part-time afternoon drive Gospel radio host. At Howard
University, he began teaching courses radio production, advanced radio
production, and audio for the visual media. His experience as a multi-track
recording engineer helped him to establish a new course at Howard University
called digital multi-track production. Within his first three years at
Howard University, Reggie established himself as a strong faculty member
through his students winning numerous audio production awards both locally
and nationally.
Mr. Miles became the faculty adviser of Howard University’s student-run
campus radio station WHBC in
2004. WHBC under the advisement of Professor Miles has received numerous
college radio awards and at the same time Mr. Miles lead by example and
continued on radio in Chicago creating a weekend Gospel program “Joy and
Jubilation” on radio station
WVON. The program focused on the history of the Gospel Music from Chicago.
His other research interests in minority media ownership led to the
formation of the Howard Media Group in 2007.
As a member of the faculty at Howard University Reggie Miles established his
credentials as a Master Teacher, his experience in radio and audio led to
further interest in new media specifically podcasting. Mr. Miles became
deeply immersed in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning using podcasting
as a supplemental aid to teach his production courses. His interest expanded in
Web 2.0 applications and led him to use the very popular social
networking site "facebook" to create virtual learning communiites for his
classes. Professor Miles has presented presentations at numerous conferences
around the country on the subject of podcasting. His work has been published
in the BEA Feedback Journal. His work with podcasting led to the
recognition by his peers at Howard University with an honorable mention in
2009 for Teaching with Technology. Professor Miles was recently awarded the 2010
“Teaching with Technology” Award for his work and research combining the
facebook social network site with podcasting.
