Miami Radio: Elvis Duran To Be Parade Grand Marshal

Elvis Duran

Syndicated Morning radio host Elvis Duran will be grand marshal of the 2016 Miami Beach Gay Pride parade, the festival committee announced over the weekend.

The Miami Herald reports Duran came out as a gay man on air in 2010. Before coming out, Duran said he didn’t want his hit radio program to become “The Elvis Duran Is Gay Show,” he told GLAAD interviewer Claire Pires earlier this year. “I didn’t want it to be about me being gay, I wanted the show to be about all of us being who we were.”

Then Duran broke up with his boyfriend. “When I was out in the dating world, I thought there were some interesting stories I needed to share. That’s when I said well I need to talk about my life. That’s when I started talking about being a gay guy,” he told Pires. “I’ve never really been in the closet. I just never addressed it.”

Broadcasting live from WHTZ 100.3 FM Z100 in New York and WHYI 100.7 FM Y-100 in South Florida, “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” consistently ranks #1 across multiple demographics and top markets, attracting a weekly listenership of more than 5.5 million fans.

Duran’s radio career has spanned 30 years and has included both host and program director duties at Philadelphia’s WIOQ and Austin’s KBTS, as well as stints at Z-93 in Atlanta and KRBE Houston. He began hosting his daily radio show on New York’s Z100 in April 1996. Since then, the show has enjoyed much success resulting in a national deal in March 2009 with the country’s leading radio syndication company, Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeart Media. “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” added more than 30 stations in the first year of syndication and today, the program can be heard in nearly 80 markets, including Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Austin, Milwaukee, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Richmond, Rochester, Dayton, Des Moines, Spokane and Wichita.

Since its inception in 2009, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown from a neighborhood event to an event on the global stage with celebs such as Mario Lopez as Grand Marshal in 2015, Gloria Estefan as Grand Marshal in 2014 and Adam Lambert performing in 2013.