Growing up in an Army family, Dennis Jon Bailey attended more than a dozen schools in a dozen years and found his calling as a high school senior in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1974, he realized getting on the mic for school announcements was a blast, so he walked into WFOR, a local, AM station, and landed a job, thus beginning his five-decade broadcast career.
Known simply by his initials, DJB is an award-winning broadcaster known for his longevity on small market airwaves and for national voice overs. The “voice guy” for Westwood One’s Mainstream Country format, DJB is heard coast to coast on the nation’s largest 24/7 music network and has done national campaigns and signature voice work for a myriad of companies.
Studying broadcasting in both Kentucky and Mississippi, he is a certified broadcast meteorologist from Mississippi State. At one point in his career, he was an on-camera meteorologist while simultaneously doing mornings … for TVs and radios in both Dayton and Cincinnati.
In 1976, an WRKO program director heard him on the Jackson, Mississippi airwaves and DJB went north to join that legendary Boston station. In 1980, he came to WNAP in Indianapolis and has been in the Hoosier state – or very close by – ever since. A staple “smooth voice” throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, Indy listeners first heard DJB on WNAP … fun fact: he was originally hired by WIBC but ended up being sent down the hall on his first day to WNAP!
From NAP, he did Mornings on oldies WKLR, then Mornings on WENS with Mark Patrick, a 2023 I.B.A. Hall of Fame inductee.
It’s been at Evansville’s 104.1 WIKY radio where DJB has made his biggest mark, earning industry recognition but also positively impacting the community.
Since joining WIKY in 2004, he and his Morning Show Co-host Diane Douglas have raised more than two-million dollars via the WIKY Radiothon for Riley Children’s Hospital.
An off-hand, on-air question – “do you think we could raise a literal ton of turkeys?” – became reality and, over the years, DJB has spearheaded giving more than 37 “tons of turkeys” to the Tri-State Food Bank.
“Ton of Toys” was the next natural step with DJB’s fans gifting new toys to hundreds of at-risk children through St. Vincent de Paul’s Christmas initiatives.
DJB started a free Veterans Day Breakfast, to honor his father, a career U.S. Army officer, combat veteran and purple heart recipient, as well as all veterans. The event fed military personnel and their families while broadcasting live from a museum ship docked in the Ohio River but soon outgrew the ship. It is now held in Evansville’s Wartime Museum.
When DJB is not getting up early for morning broadcasts, you’ll find him rising early to fly fish in locations near and far…all over Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, and in the Catskills, Northern California, and the Rockies. Dennis has been married to Lora since 1985 and they have three children: Michael, Amanda, and Kathryn.
