Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:24, 3 October 2007

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.

Steve is known for his "every guy" approach to life in Chicago where he often tells bucolic stories about his life and family on the air. Many Chicagoans grew up with Dahl's family, through the stories he told on the radio. Dahl is also famous for his song parodies and for the many impressions that he does. He is considered a pioneer in talk radio and has been influential for many current and upcoming radio personalities.

Early career

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

Steve and Garry

In 1979, Steve was hired to do a morning show at WLUP where he met up with 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 Garry being teamed up with Steve 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 phone calls to the Tehran Kentucky Fried Chicken, and ordered a few buckets for his friends in the 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 "King of All Media: the Unauthorized Biography of Howard Stern," by 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 that it is possible Stern eventually developed his on-air style as a result of these tapes. In an ironic twist of fate, 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. They decided to end disco once and for all in the center field of Comiskey Park that night. 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.

Never as popular in the midwest as it had been on the coasts, by 1979 dislike of disco had transcended musical tastes. Steve had been 'destroying' 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?), due to the 'fact' that he believed that 'disco sucks'. After this promotion, disco soon began to lose its popularity.

End of Steve and Garry

Steve and Garry went to WLS, but ultimately returned to WLUP where they stayed until their split in 1993. The alleged reason for the break-up was Steve’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, Steve was shipped off to sports talk WMVP AM and teamed with Chicago sportscaster and funny man Bruce Wolf. Various factors caused his ratings to suffer.

Current

Dahl ended up on WCKG, doing an afternoon show, on that station. He is currently teamed with Buzz Kilman, who was Dahl's newsman starting in 1980 on WLUP. Dahl's show is available as a podcast at his website and live streaming on Free FM's website.

On Friday, August 18, 2006, Steve 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 Steve learned of Garry's presence there, he invited Garry to appear on the air with him, which Garry accepted. Garry wound up staying for the remainder of the show. This historic event was covered widely throughout the Chicago media that evening. A portion of that broadcast can be found here.

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 Steve's show on the 28th year anniversary of their Disco Demolition Night recounting the events of that night.

Dahl's afternoon show was rated fifth (4.1) among men 25-54 in the winter 2006-2007 ratings report.

Dahl is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Over the years, as "Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins," he has performed and released albums (1992's "Tropical Tides" and 1997's "Mai Tai Roa Ae"). In 2006 backed by Des Moines band The Nadas, Steve embarked on a tour of Chicago-area concert venues .

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

Other activities

• Steve currently writes for the Chicago Tribune in the At Play section as the resident "vice advisor".
• Steve has dabbled in acting. Steve was in the 1984 cult classic, Grandview, U.S.A. with newcomers John Cusack and Joan Cusack.
• Recently Steve was named one of the '100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts' by Talkers magazine.
• Steve is currently serving on the Board of Trustees at Columbia College Chicago.
• Steve has been sober since 1995. He achieved it cold turkey.

Steve and his friend, record producer Joe Thomas, played a large role in the comeback of Steve's idol, Brian Wilson. Thomas developed a friendship with the former Beach Boys leader and became his neighbor (in St. Charles, IL), songwriting partner and producer. Together, Wilson and Thomas recorded the CD IMAGINATION. The song, "Your Imagination", which was released as a single, was co-written with Steve Dahl, who also provided background vocals.

References

1. "Anti-Disco Rally Halts White Sox" New York Times New York, N.Y.: July 13, 1979. pg. A16
2. "Shock Waves" Macaulay Campbell. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: September 16, 2002. pg. C.7
3. "No anniversary party for disco debacle;" Rod Beaton. USA Today. McLean, Va.: July 12, 2004. pg. C.03
4. "WLUP Chicago Reminisces", Billboard. New York: April 22, 1989. Vol. 101, Iss. 16; p. 10
5. "'Subtler' Steve Dahl still rocks Chicago." Steve Knopper. Billboard. New York: March 7, 1998.Vol.110, Iss. 10; pg. 68
6. Kampert, Patrick, "Hispanic stations in 3 slots of Chicago radio's Top 10." Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2007

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

• Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from September 2007
• American radio personalities
• Living people
• 1954 births
• American film actors
• California actors
• California radio people
• People from Chicago
• Shock jocks