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DJ Heavy – The Traffic Jam & Southern Soul at 6 Darrell Harris—better known as @Dj Heavy —was a Durham, North Carolina radio institution long before he landed at 94.9 The Surf in August 2022. His “Blue Light Basement Party” was a Raleigh-Durham area number-one rated radio show for thirteen years. He toured the country with the Blues Is All Right tour in the late nineties, working alongside Bobby “Blue” Bland, B.B. King, Lenny Williams, Percy Sledge, and Sir Charles Jones. He was the house DJ at the Sheraton near Raleigh-Durham airport, where he met artists passing through town—including, the Rolling Stones, who invited him to hang out in the presidential suite for three days. The name DJ Heavy? It dates back to when Harris weighed nearly 490 pounds. He’s since undergone major weight-loss surgery and survived a harrowing bout with malabsorption that put him in the hospital for months. He went from a hospital bed to a wheelchair, from a wheelchair to a walker, from a walker to a cane—and then had to do it all over again when he relapsed. Heavy credits his recovery to faith and sheer determination. His path to the Surf began about twenty years ago over breakfast at Mammy’s Kitchen in Myrtle Beach. The Surf was playing in the restaurant and Heavy thought: “I could work for that station. They play everything that I love.” It didn’t happen right away. Years later, when the station was adding to its lineup, Jim Quick—who had known Heavy for thirty-plus years since legendary shag DJ Big John Ruth introduced them—picked up the phone. Within a week, Heavy had sold his house in Durham and moved to Ocean Drive. His first show debuted August 15, 2022. Today Heavy hosts The Traffic Jam (weekdays 3–6 PM) and Southern Soul at 6 (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). He brings encyclopedic knowledge of R&B, blues, and beach music to every show, mixing songs with stories from his years on the road. His approach is simple: “When I’m on the air, I try to make you feel like you’re in my living room.” And his signature sign-off has followed him from Raleigh to Ocean Drive: “I love you and ain’t a doggone thing you can do about it.”

Back over the Fourth of July weekend in 2018, 94.9 The Surf counted down the Modern Era All-Time Beach Top 40—a listener-voted list of the best beach music songs from the contemporary era. It was a snapshot of where the genre stood at that moment, and looking back at it now, it holds up remarkably well. At number one: King Tyrone & the Graveyard Ramblers with “Mama’s Drinkin’ Liquor Again,” a song that captured the rowdy, fun-loving spirit of the modern beach music scene. Jim Quick and Coastline landed at number two with “Turn Me Over,” and Too Much Sylvia claimed the three spot with “Stepped Right Out of My Dream”—a song that remains a shag floor staple. Mayer Hawthorne’s “The Walk” at number four was an example of how the beach music community has always had an ear for crossover material, adopting songs the mainstream never tagged as beach music. The list told you a lot about who mattered in modern beach music. Band of Oz appeared three times (“Build Me Up” at #8, “I Can’t Think” at #11, and “Dance to the Radio” at #33). Gary Lowder & Smokin’ Hot showed up three times. Too Much Sylvia had three entries. Jim Quick had two as a solo act and with Coastline. The Entertainers placed twice. These were the workhorses of the genre—the bands putting out new music year after year, keeping the pipeline full. Then there were the surprises. Rod Stewart’s “Sexual Religion” at #7. Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor’s “Let’s Marvin Gaye” at #15. Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” at #27. Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill’s “Don’t Rush” at #28. Lisa Stansfield closing out the list at #40 with “8 3 1.” The shag community has always been selective about which pop and R&B songs it adopts, but once a song gets the stamp of approval on the dance floor, it belongs to beach music forever. Almost eight years later, many of these songs are still in heavy rotation at The Surf and on shag floors across the Carolinas. Some of these artists—Jim Quick, Gary Lowder, Craig Woolard—are still charting new material on the Surf Countdown. Others, like Ms. Jody (“Still Strokin’” at #12), represent the southern soul side of the genre that DJ Heavy champions every afternoon. The Modern Era Top 40 wasn’t just a holiday weekend countdown—it was a time capsule of a genre that keeps reinventing itself while never forgetting where it came from.

Bruno Mars Takes the Crown on the Surf Countdown "I Just Might" Climbs to #1 on Valentine's Day, Proving the Carolina Coast Has Room for Everyone Jay Kinlaw had a Valentine’s gift for his listeners on February 14th, and it didn’t come wrapped in a box of chocolates. When the host of the Surf 94.9 Beach Music Countdown unveiled this week’s chart, a global superstar sat in the seat usually reserved for Carolina royalty. Bruno Mars and his silky new single “I Just Might” had climbed all the way to number one. Let that sink in for a moment. On a station that lives and breathes the music of the Grand Strand—where North Tower, Jim Quick, and the Swingin’ Medallions are household names—a pop megastar topped the chart not because of hype, but because the listeners put him there. That says something important about what Beach Music actually is in 2025, and what it has always been at its best: a feeling, not a formula. A Song Built for the Floor “I Just Might” earns its place honestly. The track sits at a comfortable mid-tempo pace, roughly 115 to 120 beats per minute, and rides a steady, soulful backbeat that practically dares you to stay in your seat. For line dancers, it’s a natural fit—the groove locks in and doesn’t let go. For Shag dancers, it runs slightly faster than a traditional walking-tempo number, but experienced couples will find plenty of room to settle into a smooth style, letting the rhythm carry them rather than fighting the clock. West Coast Swing devotees will feel right at home with the high-energy pocket the song creates. The Chart Runs Deep What makes this week’s countdown worth studying isn’t just the song at the top—it’s the company it keeps. North Tower holds strong at number two, Jim Quick is right behind at three, and Jackie and Terri Gore’s “Unforgettable” sits at four. Drop down to number seven and you’ll find the Swingin’ Medallions bringing the horns with “Hit Me with Them Horns,” a title that doubles as a mission statement. The Tams deliver the soulful harmonies that have defined Carolina dance floors for decades, while Gary Lowder & Smokin’ Hot remind everyone why the smooth end of the spectrum never goes out of style. That’s the depth chart of a scene that is thriving, not merely surviving. When a Bruno Mars single can coexist at the top alongside artists who have spent their careers playing Myrtle Beach pavilions and Shag club fundraisers, you’re looking at a musical ecosystem that knows exactly what it is.

Written by J.D. Shropshire Jr. What's the #1 all-time most-requested song at Surf 94.9? Jim Quick says Chairman of the Board's "Carolina Girls" has been there for years, and the latest listener poll taken for this past Labor Day weekend confirmed it once again. The song that gave Carolina girls their anthem wasn't born in a recording studio or written by a Motown hitmaker—it was penned in 1973 by J.D. Shropshire Jr. of Forest City, North Carolina, while he was attending barber school in Raleigh. By 1980, General Johnson had reinvented the Chairmen of the Board. After the group's spectacular early-seventies run on Invictus Records—"Give Me Just a Little More Time," "(You've Got Me) Dangling on a String," the Grammy-winning "Patches"—Johnson retreated to the Carolinas and reformed the group with Danny Woods and Ken Knox. They founded their own label, Surfside Records, based in Charlotte, and began recording music aimed directly at the beach music community that had always embraced them. "Carolina Girls" appeared on their album Success and was released as a single that topped the Beach Music chart, though it never crossed over to pop radio That regional focus proved to be its strength. As Danny Woods explained in an interview with Blues Critic, before the song came along "there was no style. You know you had the New York girls, California girls and they all got the attention. Even songs about them. And that just made Carolina girls feel like nothing." Fellow Chairman Ken Knox, who today leads the group, Page 4 of 6 followed up: "Girls became prideful. High schools and colleges use that song. Marching bands play 'Carolina Girls.' It's on T-shirts and we're glad about that." The song arrived at a pivotal moment. The first Society of Stranders event had just been held at Fat Harold's in North Myrtle Beach, and beach music was being institutionalized through dance competitions, DJ organizations, and awards shows. "Carolina Girls" became part of that new wave alongside the Embers' "I Love Beach Music" and the Fantastic Shakers' "Myrtle Beach Days"—songs written specifically for the beach music community rather than repurposed R&B hits. It wasn't trying to be a national phenomenon; it was written about the beach, for people at the beach.