“I’m Melvin Lindsey and you’re listening to ‘The Quiet Storm.'”

Long before listening habits were ruled by algorithms and auto-generated playlists, radio DJ’s set the mood for daily commutes, working hours, and late night sessions. The best radio DJ’s served as both musical guide and companion, telling stories through song, opening up pathways into worlds of sound.

One of the most influential radio DJ’s of the ’70s was Melvin Lindsey, a Washington D.C. native and Howard University graduate who invented an entire sub-genre of music through his smooth programming. The story goes that In 1976, General Manager of Howard University’s WHUR Cathy Hughes urged a young Lindsey to use Smokey Robinson’s “A Quiet Storm” as the theme music for a new late-night slow jams format that featured laid back soul and R&B from artists like Patti Labelle, Luther Vandross, The O’Jays, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole, and Bloodstone. By late 1977, Quiet Storm was the most popular music show in DC and stations across the country began airing their own “Quiet Storm” shows.

“You didn’t even have to have a radio in D.C. All you had to do is open the window. You couldn’t help but hear ‘The Quiet Storm.’ That’s how popular it was. It was the air that D.C. breathed,” said Donnie Simpson, host of “The Donnie Simpson Morning Show.”

“Cathy and her secretary, Tiza Gibson, said I ought to be ‘The Quiet Storm,’ Cathy said I was very quiet and I struck her like a storm, I surprised her like a storm.”

Melvin Lindsey

What made Lindsey’s show so groundbreaking? Fans would talk about the romantic mood and perfect ambience that Lindsey would create on the airwaves blending records that truly meant something to him. Listening to Quiet Storm felt like hearing someone share from their personal collection, rather than a commercial radio library, and Lindsey would often select the music based on how he was feeling that day. “If he came to work and he was sad, he was going to make you sad. If he came happy, he was going to uplift you in his music,” said Joe Gorham, WHUR’s music director.

While Lindsey’s presence was surely felt through his curation and effortless mixing, it was the music that was the star of the show. Lindsey was also the type of DJ who would let the music speak for itself, only offering a few words to guide the mood when the moment felt right. “There was no place, really, that you could just listen to slow jams all night long. People were in the mood for romance,” News4 anchor and Lindsey’s colleague at WHUR Pat Lawson Muse said. “Melvin Lindsey as the host barely speaking, but mixing and blending and segueing those songs to the point where it was so subtle you didn’t even realize when the songs were changing.”

In 2021, NBC Washington released a great 3-part documentary series celebrating the life and cultural influence of Melvin Lindsey.

Watch Part 2 of Quiet Storm here.

Watch Part 3 of Quiet Storm here.

Next Tuesday, we’ll be presenting a Past, Present, Future session at Zizou featuring some of our favorite Quiet Storm albums along with contemporary sounds that were influenced by the late-night radio format.

Tickets are available now! Don’t miss it 🙂