“I am trying to seek damages for a song I hear on ‘The Rickey Smiley Morning Show,” West writes in the six-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. She alleges the show’s theme or other program music uses her work and says Radio One and Smiley failed to obtain permission “to play my song or notes in their program.”
West says she first became aware of the alleged use while listening to Radio One’s R&B WTLC Indianapolis (106.7) and recording the “Rickey Smiley Morning Show” during its Cash Blast contest around October 2025. She says she was recording the program on cassette so she could listen for her name to be called as part of the contest. It was while listening back to the recordings that West says she noticed music during the show’s “Front Page” segment, which she describes as covering sports and entertainment news.
“When I heard the Front Page program, I thought that sounds like my song,” she writes. “This is why I am filing my complaint against Radio One.” West says she subsequently heard the music again in May and June 2026. The complaint names both Radio One and Smiley as defendants…