Elvis Duran, The Man Behind the Voice: Top 40 Radio Host Dishes on Famous Guests Who Have Been Rude, Wonderful
— -- In a morning radio show universe where many of the biggest players are deliberately obnoxious shock jocks, the most popular Top 40 host breaks the mold of the stereotypical morning DJ entirely.
He’s a 50-year-old openly gay man named Elvis Duran.
Duran’s show, “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” is the No. 1 Top 40 show across men, women, young people and even celebrities. The comfortable atmosphere Duran creates on his morning show, which he hosts with two women, has made it a magnet for the biggest stars on Earth. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus are just a few celebrities who have professed their love for “Elvis Duran and The Morning Show.”
“One of our rules for the show, I guess the filter we try to pass everything through, is it’s a safe place for women to be,” Duran said. “It’s not a show for women, because we’re basically 50/50 men/women in our audience, but it’s a safe place where women win. Women never lose on our show. I think that’s very important. It’s very unusual.”
Watch ABC News' Dan Harris' full interview with Elvis Duran HERE
Just this past weekend, Duran was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Taylor Swift, Adam Levine and Iggy Azalea at Jingle Ball in New York City's Madison Square Garden -- one of the biggest nights in music.
“Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” doesn’t shy away from provocative topics, but Duran’s approach is to make the show seem more like joking around with his best buds, rather than being cruel.
“When Kim Kardashian’s rear-end pictures came out, rather than going on the air, [as] I’m assuming other shows did, and making fun of it, I came on the air and said, ‘Hey, you know what, this is a great time for us to celebrate the booty,” Duran said.
“We are living in a day and age now where Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian and all these celebrities, Jennifer Lopez, they’re showing that the female form in any shape or size is beautiful,” he added. “So we actually celebrate the booty. I invited all the big-bootied women to call up and talk about how much they love their butts that day. It was a great opportunity to show that side of us, the backside.”
Duran invited “Nightline” to spend some time behind the scenes with his whole cast, including mother of two Danielle Monaro, new girl Bethany Watson, and a menagerie of merry characters with names like Froggy, Skeery Jones, Greg T and Carla Marie -- all familiar voices to the show’s seven million listeners each day.
They play music and yak for four hours every morning. Sometimes, they go on the air with no plan at all. Duran jokingly said he and his cast really don’t know what they’re doing, “and that’s the magic of our show.”
“If we know what we’re doing, we wouldn’t be the same show,” he said. “We spiked the ball and then we do to the locker room and pat each other on the butt.”
Things are slightly more organized when a big star arrives in the studio. Even though A-listers love Duran because he’s both respectful and wildly popular, he’s not afraid to give his candid take on them. He thinks Mariah Carey is “fun, interesting, complex, beautiful” and also “lonely.” He called Lady Gaga, who grew up listening to his show, someone who “always gives everything” she’s got. Katy Perry is “fun” but “a little guarded,” Duran said, and said he had no problem telling her to show up on time.
