Bermuda’s own Elroy Smith, a former ZBM broadcaster who helped found the HOTT 107.5 radio, has been given recognition in the latest pages of Jet magazine in the United States.

The Philadelphia-based Mr Smith is credited by the magazine as one of the most prominent radio programmers in the industry who has scheduled the hits on US airwaves for almost 20 years.

Mr Smith shot to prominence in 1992 when he was appointed programme director of WGCI radio station in Chicago. It swiftly took over the top slot in the metropolitan area.

“When I was growing up in Bermuda, I was always fascinated by broadcasting,” he told The Royal Gazette at the time. “So I decided to go to ZBM and check out Roy Richardson, who was quite a radio personality.

“He really took an interest in me and gave me my initial exposure to broadcasting.

“Later, when the Southampton Rangers Lounge opened, Earl Iris gave me an opportunity to spin records even though I was only 16 at the time.

“He told me that because I was under age, I would have to stay in the booth.” Mr Smith helped found HOTT 107.5 in 2004. In 2007, he was recruited by Radio One as operations manager for its Philadelphia group, and in 2009 he became “inspiration format director” for Radio One across the US.

He made notable use of gospel and told Jet that he decided at Radio One go “ahead and embrace mainstream gospel, so your average person — the person straddling the fence — would listen”. Aside from his stature in a fiercely competitive industry, Mr Smith was applauded by the magazine for his humility, telling the magazine: “It’s not you; it’s the chair you sit in. When that chair is pulled away — you go to the grocery store like everybody else. When you become arrogant and pompous, God pulls it away.”