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Steve Dahl (born November 20, 1954) has been an American radio personality for over thirty years. Dahl is currently on the air at WCKG Radio, in Chicago, Illinois. Before WCKG, Dahl was with Chicago stations WDAI, WLUP, WMVP and WLS. He also currently writes for the Chicago Tribune in the At Play section as the resident "vice advisor".

Dahl's show is notable for its "every guy" approach to life in Chicago where Dahl often tells bucolic stories about his life and family on the air. Dahl is also famous for his song parodies and his impressions. He is considered a pioneer in talk radio and has been influential for many other radio personalities.

Early career

Dahl began his radio career in his home state of California at the age of sixteen. He later moved to Detroit, Michigan where he broadcasted on WWWW in 1976. In 1978, Dahl left Detroit to join WDAI in Chicago. Less than a year later, WDAI changed formats to disco and fired Dahl on Christmas Eve, 1978.

Steve and Garry

In 1979, Dahl was hired to do a morning show at WLUP where he met overnight DJ Garry Meier (who was then broadcasting under the pseudonym of "Matthew Meier"). Shortly thereafter, Steve and Garry began a cross talk that eventually led to Meier being teamed up with Dahl as both sidekick and newsman.

During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Dahl, along with his band Teenage Radiation, recorded and released a parody of The Knack's song My Sharona, called Ayatollah. He also made on-the-air crank phone calls to the Tehran Kentucky Fried Chicken, ordering buckets of chicken for the US embassy. Dahl also parodied the John Wayne Gacy murders with his song Another Kid in the Crawl (to the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall).

According to Paul D. Colford, a former writer for Long Island Newsday, Howard Stern listened to tapes of Steve and Garry sent from Chicago by a friend of the chief engineer at WCCC Hartford. Colford claims Stern eventually developed his on-air style as a result of these tapes. Later, Stern was hired to replace Dahl at WWWW Detroit when Dahl moved to Chicago.

Disco Demolition Night

Dahl, along with both Mike Veeck (son of then Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck), and Jeff Schwartz of WLUP promotions, came up with a radio promotion and tie-in to the White Sox called Disco Demolition Night which took place on on Thursday, July 12, 1979. The concept was to create an event to "end disco once and for all" in the center field of Comiskey Park that night by allowing people to get tickets at the box office if they brought $0.98US and at least one disco record. The records were collected, piled up on the field and blown up. Ultimately, this resulted in the second game of the double header being postponed due to hundreds of rowdy fans storming the field and refusing to leave. American League President Lee MacPhail later declared the second game of the doubleheader a forfeit victory for the visiting Detroit Tigers. Six people reported minor injuries, and thirty-nine were arrested for disorderly conduct.

Dahl had been mocking and heaping scorn on disco records on the air, along with recording his own satire, Do You Think I'm Disco? (a parody of Rod Stewart's, Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?) for some time. After the Disco Demolition Night promotion, disco began to lose its popularity.

End of Steve and Garry

Steve and Garry moved to WLS, but ultimately returned to WLUP where they stayed until their split in 1993. The alleged reason for the break-up was Dahl's on-the-air comments about Meier’s new wife, commercial real-estate broker Cynthia Fircak, while the couple were on their honeymoon. Meier also blamed Dahl's alcoholism and unpredictable behavior. Dahl, for his part, blamed Fircak for the split, once saying on air "When I met her, I knew the rules had just changed."

Robert Feder, a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, wrote, on June 3, 2003 the following observation about this breakup:

It's the divorce that just keeps on giving: A decade after Steve Dahl and Garry Meier severed their legendary radio partnership, their breakup remains a source of bitterness and anger for them — and continuing fascination for their fans.

After the team broke up, Dahl went to sports talk WMVP AM and teamed with Chicago sportscaster Bruce Wolf.

After Steve and Garry

Dahl ended up on WCKG, broadcasting an afternoon show on that station. He is currently teamed with Buzz Kilman, who was Dahl's newsman starting in 1980 on WLUP, and the show is available as a podcast at Dahl's website and streams live on WCKG's website. Dahl's afternoon show was rated fifth (4.1) among men 25-54 in the winter 2006-2007 ratings report. Recently Dahl was named one of the '100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts' by Talkers magazine.

On Friday, August 18, 2006, Dahl was doing a remote broadcast of his show at Oak Street Beachstro, a restaurant on Chicago's Oak Street Beach. Coincidentally, Garry Meier was eating lunch there with friends. After Dahl learned of Meier's presence there, he invited Meier to appear on the air with him, which Meier accepted. Meier wound up staying for the remainder of the show. This event was covered widely throughout the Chicago media that evening.

On April 2, 2007, Meier returned to Chicago radio, doing the 8 AM-11 AM show on WCKG. He appeared briefly on Dahl's show that same day. They occasionally contribute to each others' shows, and they spent several hours in studio together during Dahl's show on the 28th year anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, recounting the events of that night.

Dahl's son, Matt, is now part of the regular WCKG lineup and hosts the show immediately following his father's.

Musical career

Dahl is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. In addition to the song parodies performed with Teenage Radiation, he has performed and recorded as "Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins," releasing several albums. These include 1992's "Tropical Tides" and 1997's "Mai Tai Roa Ae." In 2006 backed by Des Moines, Iowa band The Nadas, Steve embarked on a tour of Chicago-area concert venues.

Dahl, in collaboration with record producer Joe Thomas, played a large role in the comeback of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. The three co-wrote the song "Your Imagination" which appeared as a single and on Wilson's 1998 album "Imagination". Dahl provided backup vocals as well.

Controversies and personal battles

Steve Dahl has battled alcoholism throughout his adult life, which he has alluded to a number of times. He has been sober since 1995, achieving it cold turkey.

In 1999, Dahl admitted secretly recording conversations among staffers at WCKG because he suspected they were saying mean things about him behind his back. In snippets Dahl has played on his afternoon show, two station employees can be heard mocking him as "Steve Dull," calling him names and ridiculing his show. Dahl said, "I did it within my organization to confirm my suspicions. This was in a studio filled with microphones and cameras. Legally, I don't feel they had any expectation of privacy in that case."

On June 22, 1999 Dahl's ill-fated attempt to syndicate his program beyond Chicago failed as his only affiliate, Detroit's WKRK FM 97.1, dropped the show, replacing it with the Erin & Gonzo Show. ]

Other activities

Dahl has dabbled in acting, appearing in the 1984 cult classic, Grandview, U.S.A. with John Cusack and Joan Cusack.

Additionally, Dahl is currently serving on the Board of Trustees at Columbia College Chicago.

References

1. Chicago Sun-Times Steve Dahl biography
2. Feder, Robert. "Like it or not, folks, Steve Dahl did drop." Chicago Sun-Times January 16, 1989
3. "Steve Dahl, the talent from WCKG/Chicago, who brought his brand of shock and awe to radio decades ago and redefined the medium for his generation" (Radio Magazine Online. "Radio Currents Online: Apr 3 - Apr 9, 2006." Radio Magazine April 4, 2006)
4. ^ Colford, Paul. Howard Stern, King of All Media: The Unauthorized Biography (Diane Publishing Company, 1996) ISBN 0788163361
5. "Anti-Disco Rally Halts White Sox" New York Times July 13, 1979. pg. A16
6. "Shock Waves" Macaulay Campbell. New York Times September 16, 2002. pg. C.7
7. Beaton, Rod. "No anniversary party for disco debacle." USA Today. July 12, 2004. pg. C.03
8. "WLUP Chicago Reminisces", Billboard. April 22, 1989. Vol. 101, Iss. 16; p. 10
9. Feder, Robert. "Meier blasts 'delusional' Dahl over radio breakup." Chicago Sun-Times June 3, 2003
10. Knopper, Steve. "'Subtler' Steve Dahl still rocks Chicago." Billboard March 7, 1998. Vol. 110, Iss. 10; pg. 68
11. Kampert, Patrick, "Hispanic stations in 3 slots of Chicago radio's Top 10." Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2007
12. "Talkers Magazine Heavy Hundred: The 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts In America." Talkers Magazine Online
13. Dahl.com store listing for Tropical Tides
14. Dahl.com store listing for "Mai Tai Roa Ae" )
15. "Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins Summer Tour, 2007" WCKG Homepage. September 11, 2007
16. CMT Artist Biography: Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins
17. DeRogatis, Jim. "Brian Wilson, 'Imagination'" Chicago Sun-Times May 24, 1998
18. Steve Dahl Memories. Dahl.com.
19. Steve's Web Log, December 8, 2006
20. Feder, Robert. "For Steve Dahl, it was the tale of the tapes." Chicago Sun-Times October 21, 1999
21. Columbia College Board of Trustees biography for Steve Dahl

External links

• Official website
• Steve Dahl at IMDb
• 105.9 WCKG - The Package
• Steve Dahl's articles in The Chicago Tribune
• Steve Dahl Show Podcasts
• Biography from Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real Story documentary site

• American radio personalities
• Living people
• 1954 births
• American film actors
• California actors
• California radio people
• People from Chicago
• Shock jocks