Top of the Morning

He tried it -- and continually found success. Simpson caught on as a "Soul Teen" reporter at WJLB in Detroit, an R&B station, recording 90-second news bits about his high school. A year later, he was working nights at the station. The job also led to lucrative side gigs as an emcee at local dances and concerts.

Simpson chucked all that after attending the University of Detroit. He blew out of his home town at 23, moving to Washington with Pam, his childhood-sweetheart wife, and their infant son. He started as the night man on the old WWRC-FM, but moved to the morning slot within two years. When the station was re-christened WKYS ("Kiss FM"), Simpson became its program director.

Thanks to Simpson's knack for picking hits (a gift honed in his mother's shop, he says), the station went to No. 1 in the ratings with an "urban contemporary" format and stayed there for several years.

Simpson also evolved into a two-media star. In 1983, a cable TV entrepreneur named Robert Johnson hired Simpson to co-host a program called "Video Soul" on his fledgling Washington-based network, Black Entertainment Television. Simpson spent almost 15 years on the program; the camera loved his haunting hazel eyes, and Simpson became internationally recognizable.

But radio remained Simpson's first love. The love was returned when WPGC lured Simpson away from WKYS in 1993. The six-year deal paid Simpson almost $1 million annually, making him the nation's first African American personality to make that much for a local radio show.

Simpson also can take credit for launching the career of another local TV personality: Channel 5's Tony Perkins. Simpson hired Perkins, a former stand-up comic, as his radio producer in 1985, then put him on the air as his sidekick. When Simpson left WKYS, Perkins was hired to doing the morning weather on Channel 5; he then made the leap to network television as "Good Morning America's" weatherman.

"My theory on Donnie is that people who are the most successful in this business, in broadcasting, are the ones who tend to be themselves on the air," says Perkins, who will co-host tonight's tribute along with Chris Paul. "If you meet them off the air, they tend to be the same person. Bill Cosby is like that. Johnny Carson was. Same with Charlie Gibson. And so is Donnie."

Simpson sounds like a contented man on this anniversary, and has no plans to change his game. He says he's been approached repeatedly for syndication -- among the top programs intended for Washington's African American listeners, his show is the only one that is strictly local -- but he's declined. Simpson thinks he'd lose his local flavor if he took his program into other markets, and he's not eager to take direction from multiple station managers. Besides, he doesn't need the money or crave the attention.

"I work four hours a day!" he says animatedly. "I get 10 weeks off a year. I get to kick it with people I love, including my son. And they pay me for it. I can't imagine a better life, but if I could" -- and here Simpson gets a mischievous twinkle in those hazel eyes -- "it would probably involve Shakira."