Biography:As a typical teenager in a small town in coastal Alabama, Leslie Fram frequently called the request line of her favorite radio station in Mobile, WABB-FM. Station personnel recognized her voice, and they noticed that young Leslie knew music. When it came time to get a part-time job, Fram knew exactly where to start looking. She landed a job at WABF-AM in Fairhope, just south of Mobile. Program Director Gary Mitchell hired her to run the show "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem" on Sundays, and she soon moved into a full-time position on the station's FM side. Childhood friend and former neighbor Febe Brazeal Wallace remembers Leslie's first days in radio well. "Leslie hosted 'Platter Ladder' on the weekends in high school," Wallace said. "It was cool to us to have a friend who was on the radio, and she was always the level-headed one in our group." Wallace, who today practices medicine in Illinois, stays in touch with Fram, mostly through their families, which both remain inAs a typical teenager in a small town in coastal Alabama, Leslie Fram frequently called the request line of her favorite radio station in Mobile, WABB-FM. Station personnel recognized her voice, and they noticed that young Leslie knew music. When it came time to get a part-time job, Fram knew exactly where to start looking. She landed a job at WABF-AM in Fairhope, just south of Mobile. Program Director Gary Mitchell hired her to run the show "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem" on Sundays, and she soon moved into a full-time position on the station's FM side. Childhood friend and former neighbor Febe Brazeal Wallace remembers Leslie's first days in radio well. "Leslie hosted 'Platter Ladder' on the weekends in high school," Wallace said. "It was cool to us to have a friend who was on the radio, and she was always the level-headed one in our group." Wallace, who today practices medicine in Illinois, stays in touch with Fram, mostly through their families, which both remain in the Mobile area. Based on what she heard during those high school days, Wallace said she isn't at all surprised at Fram's success in the music industry. Fram, who gives her age as "30-something," has come a long way from those early days of radio in southern Alabama. Now she's plastered on billboards dotting metro Atlanta's major thoroughfares; she shows up in prime-time television commercials; and she reaches a wide audience on 99X, one of north Georgia's leading radio stations for listeners ages 18 to 34. Leslie, Barnes and Jimmy - "the Morning X" - wake up nearly a half-million Atlanta radio listeners each weekday morning with their dry humor, cutting-edge wit and rapid-fire jabber. Fram regularly handles the "Celebrity Sleaze," reports about the latest hot celebrity gossip, and works as a character foil for Jimmy and Barnes - banter that sometimes can become a little snappy and terse. All this combines with the backdrop of today's alternative rock music to bring together a targeted sound, one that draws listeners to the station with such promotions as the 99X Freeloader program, 99XPress monthly magazine and dozens of personality appearances each month. More than a voice on the radio - even a station as popular as 99X - Fram also works in upper-level management with Susquehanna Radio Corp., serving as programming director for 99X. As such, she has the final say in what goes on the air and what shape the station takes as it grows. She and the station's staff have netted numerous awards for their work: Best Drive-Time Morning Show in Atlanta, awarded by Creative Loafing in 2000; Modern Rock Station of the Year, awarded by Billboard magazine; Station of the Year, named by the Gavin Report 2000; and Air Personalities of the Year, awarded by Radio & Records. Fram also has won her share of awards and kudos in the competitive world of radio. She is the first woman to receive the TJ Martell Award in recognition of outstanding performance in the music industry. In 2000 and 2001, she also was named Program Director of the Year by the Gavin Report and Program Director of the Year by Radio & Records. Leslie Fram at Work When her four-hour morning shift ends, the day literally has just begun for Fram, whose workdays typically can stretch to 13 or 14 hours. Although her morning starts at 4:30 a.m. (she can sleep a little later than her co-hosts because she lives less than five minutes from the station), she's at work by 5:30 a.m. each weekday - after reading several newspapers, catching up on early morning television news/talk shows and going through her own morning ritual to get ready for work. She then helps man the airwaves from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. By 10:15 a.m. she finds herself in the middle of production work cutting radio commercials, and then she takes off to meet with staff at the station, confer with promotions folks or talk with the station's assistant program director, Chris Williams, about new music to add to the station's playlist. To stay on top of such a hectic schedule, Fram credits her assistant, Jay Harren, with keeping her on track. Every now and then, Fram gets the chance to catch her breath and scan the view, such as it is. Her office off Piedmont Road at Ga. 400 overlooks the growth area near Lenox. "The landscape of Atlanta has certainly changed over the past decade," she said, almost wistfully. The look on her face says that while she welcomes the growth, she will miss the wooded view that keeps shrinking as more retail stores and office buildings reshape the skyline outside her fifth-story windowed office. Like the popularity of musical groups and artists, though, change is inevitable, and Fram realizes that. In many ways, she has changed over the past decade as well. Fram came to Atlanta in 1990 as part of the Breakfast Club on WARM-FM with Rick Stacy, Major Tom, Don Lardo (the voice of then-producer George Lowe) and a host of other characters on the Top-40 station that since has evolved into 99X. Of the original group, only Fram remains at the station. The station changed formats in 1992, taking on the call letters WNNX-FM and turning itself into 99X. In 1996, Fram became program director, taking on even more responsibility for the station's direction and position in the marketplace. Since then, her office has filled with gold and platinum CDs and albums, photos of bands, awards and stacks of CDs. Somehow, a sense of order underlies it all, which no doubt helps with all the discs waiting for a listen and the chance to be selected as the next new music on 99X. Fram said she listens to 50 to 75 CDs each week as part of her job. To the casual observer, she has a near-perfect job - free music, a voice and face recognized across the Southeast and even free admission to concerts. In fact, she and the station currently are getting ready for one of Atlanta's biggest music events: Music Midtown, which takes place May 4-6. The station sponsors one of the many music stages. "I listen to music all the time ... at home, here at work and in the car," she said. "I really do have the ideal job, because I like music so much." The Other Side of Leslie Music even seems to drive Fram's personal life, down to how she met her now-husband Lanny West, who manages bands in the Southeast. They first crossed paths when he consulted for music clubs in the late 1980s and Fram still worked in radio in Alabama. "We hated each other at first," she said. "We disagreed about the music he suggested for the club where I was doing appearances and promotions. It was just a fiasco." Proving the old adage that "timing is everything," West turned up again shortly after Fram moved to Atlanta, this time at a radio convention she attended. They were thrown together on conference calls and started talking on the phone. "Then he dropped the bombshell that he was moving to Atlanta, and I wasn't sure what to do," she said. However, six months later the two were engaged and now have been married for nine years. "Lanny's my biggest supporter, and it's great because he's in the business too, so he understands the long hours and the nature of the work," Fram said. "He was the first person I ever dated who understood my lifeand supported me in it." The two share many hobbies, including collecting folk art and traveling. "London is our favorite city, because we can walk everywhere," she said. "The history, the museums and the shopping ... we love it all." They have no children but recently adopted an 18-month old black Labrador retriever and named him Bosch for the fictional character Detective Harry Bosch. They rescued him from a farm in McDonough where he was running wild. Now, Bosch has a warm bed and three square meals a day, plus great parents who discovered that having a dog adds even more enjoyment to their leisure time together. "He's changed our lives," Fram said. "I had no idea ..." All in all, life's more than good for Leslie Fram. And, she said, she really can't see it getting any better. "After all, not many people get to make their living the way I do - listening to music and having a great time."…Expand
