SPARKX RADIO

Who is DJ SPARKX you may ask? Well, we are more than happy to inform you here.

His given name is Marcus Jerome Dupree, born in September, of 1973, in a town called Marietta, in Georgia, currently residing in Lakewood, Colorado. Where he happens to be “The Finest, Most Popular DJ in this great nation.

DJ Sparkx began his career in the music industry with the recording deal of his cousin Kaycee Grogan with Columbia Records. This is where he would learn from the best in the business. He began working under Kim Burst, an A&R who also went on to discover Destiny's Child. He would work as a Street Team member, eventually becoming a Promoter. Back then Marcus would head up a street team and have them post fliers all over the city promoting events & concerts. Marcus would fly to different cities weeks before the artists would get there to set up store displays and go to radio stations to provide publicity, so that once the artists arrived, things were already in motion to make an immediate impact. The very first artist he would work for was a very young, little known female singer by the name of Mariah Carey. He was instrumental in helping her get recognized by promoting her arrival in various cities.

When Marcus was only 14 years old Columbia Records provided tutors on the road. when he was in Atlanta, he would attend High school on and off. It is safe to say that since a very young age he's been working in this industry. Marcus was making about 1700 dollars a month at 14 years old. Imagine!

After working with Columbia Records Street Team until the age of 16, Marcus began to express an interest in the recording studio. His first experience was in a studio where he met another very young man by the name of Dallas Austin. At the time Dallas was working with a group called ABC.

Marcus would sit in on sessions with another young intern named Kevin Parker, where he showed a willingness to learn so deeply that Kevin became inspired by Marcus's dedication. This was when another gentleman by the name of Alvin Spikes took them both under his wing to teach them how to engineer.

The very first project they worked on was with Michael Jackson and Biggie Smalls, called “This Time Around” Throughout the next three years they all worked on some of the biggest projects for many well known recording names in the industry, great talents like: Gun's & Roses, & The Foo Fighters,, Marcus worked with Slash, and even got a chance to work with Nirvana before Kurt Cobain died. Marcus went on to work for E.I. Studio's in Smyrna, Ga. where he began engineering on a young singers new album. Oh, the singers name: Usher! He did additional work for The Ying Yang Twins, Lil Jon Kings of Krunk, Ludacris, and many others. After a few years at E.I., now twenty-eight years old, Marcus landed an internship with V103, a radio station in Atlanta, but instead decided to work at a New Gospel radio station that was getting started over at 97.5. Here he worked under Ryan Cameron, and Donnie Mcclurkin, and this is where he was taught the art of broadcasting.!

His first interview was with Maurette Brown Clark at the Essence Music Festival in Atlanta. Here, on stage he got to introduce a young female group by the name of Jade, and while backstage he also met Bobby Brown, who took him into a limousine and offered him the opportunity to work as an intern at his new studio named “Bosstown”.

It was at this time that Marcus decided to go back to school to further his education at The Art Institute of Atlanta where he was befriended by a young African who went by the stage name of Akon.

He showed him around campus and helped him find housing, he was also a classmate. Here they met a new friend who also was about to graduate, and had a group preforming around town by the name of Arrested Development. They went around the city working on different projects, one such project was called The Looney Tunes.

Life took a turn for the worse, Marcus fell on hard times, then had to leave school, things became so rough, times became so hard that he fell into homelessness for almost two years. Then a church family in the vicinity that was doing some Out Reach noticed something about Marcus, saw something in him, enough so as to take him in and give him a spare room to help him get back on his feet. They bought him a computer tower. Marcus then learned to build a computer from scratch, piece by piece, by reading books from the library, learning how to fix computers, how to build them. He began to research how to build an internet radio station, and don't you know a Gospel Internet radio station was born, Dyznamic.com with Dj Minister Marc D.

He began broadcasting on air, things went so well a Dj Wade O contacted him and asked if he would like to interview a young up & coming Holy Hip Hop Artist named Lecrae, and thus began an internet revolution.! The interview then became a show, so popular that he was contacted by Christian Rapper T-Bone, who asked if he would like to be an official radio broadcaster at the Holy Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta.

Due to the success of The Holy Hip Hop Awards, a new opportunity appeared when, upon hearing the show, The Ohio Center for Broadcasting contacted Marcus, requesting that he come to Colorado to hone his craft at their facilities. So now a new adventure began. Arriving in Colorado, with no family, with no friends, not knowing a soul, Marcus began to work at La Quinta Inn, in Aurora, where he also lived, meaning he was going to be traveling by bus for three hours daily to Lakewood just to attend his classes. However, on the first day of school he landed an internship for KYGO working as a Country Radio DJ, the only Black man at the time on a Country Radio station. He was heard on the air by George Mcfly, who then visited Marcus to ask him to enter a contest named “Who Wants To Be A DJ” which was being administered by Noah Borwick, from Clear Channel Radio. Since he was working at the hotel, word got around that he was a contestant, so all the truck drivers who would come in would vote for Marcus, get on the CB radio, broadcast to other truck drivers, who would vote for him also. Marcus won by a landslide!! So just beginning classes, he already got hired to work for George Mcfly.

At that time the radio show was way down in rating's, but after working, and finding ways to make the show more appealing to the afternoon listeners, Marcus helped the ratings climb from last place to number two in the country!

Mr Mcfly's new disc jockey didn't have a name, so he put it out on the air and his fans came up with the name Holiday because, as they said, when Marcus was on the air it sounded like “Radio was on a Holiday”, fun,exciting and an unexpected treat to listen to, and so on 95.7 DJ Holiday was born.

DJ Holiday had finally arrived after his successes with the Pop station, yet the program director saw many more talents within this young man so he issued a challenge; “Our morning show on the Classic rock side has tumbling ratings, get them higher!!! He was then made assistant producer to Kathy Lee of 103.5 Foxx, for The Lewis and Floorwax Show, which was a morning talk show on a classic Rock station, a concept he had no idea about. DJ Holiday then went to school learning everything he could about Classic Rock artists and the music. This paid off with his first air-check on location interviewing people on the street. Rick Lewis saw a fresh new talent and figured out how to use it in the show. Sometimes he would go out and just talk to people, give out prizes on the air, do live remotes, the feature became very popular, people would tune in just to see what crazy stunt he would do next. Marcus felt like he needed a different name for a different station format, lo and behold, the internet team responsible for internet content for eight stations made a request of him for a “sparkling ad” to run on ISSA'S webpage for her show. The ad was the talk of the office and sold about a million dollars in advertising for the station, so people started calling him Sparkx after the ad that was so popular. So on the Lewis and Floorwax Show DJ SPARKX was born

The show was 35th in the nation. After a year it became number one. Stayed there for sixteen weeks, proving that DJ Sparkx was up and ready for anything, any format, any type of music. Yet even with all this success, being the only black man on Denver radio at the time, in a major market, a major milestone, times got hard and the station had to lay off most of it's employees, including DJ Sparkx.

He began putting resumes together, but found just rejection, with statements such as “I can’t believe they let a person who can’t Dj get on the radio” Upon hearing this type of backlash from various major radio stations in Denver. Marcus decided to go back to the basics. He started yet another internet radio revolution with the popularity of 95.7 The Party Show and 103.5 Foxx. DJ Holiday combined the names now DJ Holiday Sparkx was born anew.

DJ Holiday Sparkx now bringing fans from two different formats together to listen to their favorites has been going strong for over five in a major market city. He's interviewed many celebrities like actor Tom Cruise, Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy, Dave Chapelle, Rob Snyder, 3oh!3, Kesia, Kurtis Blow, Deitrick Haddon,, Lil Jon, Usher, Ying Yang Twins, Scola of Dru Hill, Lauren Hill, Tonya Blount, Mike Ivory, Boyz II Men, Denzel Washington, Alec Baldwin, Larry Miller, Coco Brown, Brandon T. Jackson, Lawrence Fishburne, Queen Latifah, Blair Underwood, Mario van Peebles, Gaylord Parsons of Cashflow, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy, Kurt Carr, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp , Earth Wind & Fire, R&B Group Next, Blackstreet, Jon B and the list goes on and on.

DJ Holiday Sparkx, a man who nobody believed in at one time, yet, a man others took a chance on, a man who sits beside you now Humbly giving thanks for this opportunity to be of service.

Now the Proud owner and Chief Executive Officer of www.sparkxradio.com and still, after all this time a part time Dj at 88.5 FM and 1390AM.

After paying his dues in life and in the industry now is getting ready to embark upon a new chapter in his life. To Be Continued…………

 

Favorite Quote:
Everyday is a good day to wake up and know GOD made you beautiful and your day is going to be amazing!! No matter what you go through Trust that God is able !