{{infobox film| name

Talk Radio | image Talk-Radio-Poster.jpg | captionTheatrical release poster | director Oliver Stone | producer A. Kitman HoEdward R. Pressman | writer Oliver StoneEric BogosianTad SavinarStephen Singular (book) | starring Eric BogosianEllen GreeneLeslie HopeJohn C. McGinleyAlec BaldwinJohn Pankow | music Stewart Copeland | cinematography Robert Richardson | editing David BrennerJoe Hutshing | distributor Universal Studios | released December 21, 1988(USA) | runtime 110 minutes | language English | country | budget $4,000,000 (estimated) }}

''Talk Radio'' is a 1988 American drama film, starring Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene and Leslie Hope. Directed by Oliver Stone, the film was based on the play by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. Portions of the film and play were based on the assassination of radio host Alan Berg in 1984. The film was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear.

Plot summary

Barry Champlain, a Jewish radio personality in Dallas, Texas, is a host with a caustic sense of humor and a knack for cutting people down with his controversial political views.

Champlain's radio show is about to go nationwide. A former suit salesman, he achieves his rise to fame through a guest shot on the Jeff Fisher radio show. He is subsequently given his own show. Barry has a substantial number of hostile callers trying to intimidate him and sometimes receives threatening fan mail, such as when one caller makes a bomb threat. His rise to fame is accompanied not only with attention from radical elements, but also with the alienation of his wife.

Production

Eric Bogosian wrote the screenplay with help from director Oliver Stone. The script was almost entirely based on Bogosian's original play with some biographical information about Alan Berg, a talk show host in Denver who was murdered in 1984 by white supremacists. In his research for the film version, Bogosian often watched the on-air production of Tom Leykis' talk show, then originating from Los Angeles station KFI. Bogosian's fictional character shares many speech patterns and mannerisms with real-life talker Leykis.

Filming took place mostly in Dallas, Texas and Irving, Texas. The original play takes place entirely during the on-air broadcast and there are no scenes outside the radio station.

Cast

Eric Bogosian ... Barry Champlain

Ellen Greene ... Ellen

Leslie Hope ... Laura

John C. McGinley ... Stu

Alec Baldwin ... Dan

John Pankow ... Dietz

Michael Wincott ... Kent/Michael/Joe (voice)

Robert Trebor ... Jeffrey Fisher/Francine

Tony Frank ... Dino

Anna Levine ... Woman at the Basketball Game/Denise

Rockets Redglare ... Killer/Redneck Caller

Park Overall ... Debbie/Agnes/Theresa (voice)

Earl Hindman ... Chet/Black John/Jerry (voice)

Linda Atkinson ... Sheila Fleming

Zach Grenier ... Sid Greenberg

Harlan Jordan ... Coach Armstrong

Bill Johnson ... Fan #1

Kevin Howard ... Fan #2

Bruno Rubeo ... Tony

Pirie MacDonald ... Judge Willard

Allan Corduner ... Vince / Morris

Mimi Cochran ... Girl #1

Teresa Bell ... Girl #2 / Lucy

Angus G. Wynne III ... Engineer

Chip Moody ... Announcer

David Poynter ... Engineer

Peter Zapp ... Josh / Vincent (voice)

Carl Kissin ... Glen (voice)

Michele Mariana ... Rhonda / Elderly Woman / Julia (voice)

John Seitz ... Bob (voice)

Kyle McClaran ... Arnold (voice)

Dee Pyland ... Nancy (voice)

Daniel Escobar ... Frank (voice)

William De Acutis ... John the Rapist / Ralph (voice) (as Bill DeAcutis)

Frederica Meister ... Sexy Woman (voice)

Luis Barajas ... Fred (voice)

Vernie Bailey ... Jackie (voice)

Martin Rayner ... Arnold (voice)

Alan Clark ... Larry (voice)

Moby ... Station Announcer / Newscaster (voice)

John B. Wells ... V.O. (voice)

Leigh French ... Newscaster (voice)

Walter Lynn ... Newscaster (voice)

Theresa Bell ... Lucy (uncredited)

Fernando Lara ... Newcaster (uncredited)

In popular culture

Parts of the film have been sampled by many bands. Barry's enthusiastic "Hooooo-oyy!" outcry mocking a caller's southern accent was used prominently in the 1990 Revolting Cocks song ''Beers, Steers, and Queers''. The conversation over the air with "Ralph" while Michael Wincott's character "Joe" enters the studio consisting of "Nobody's trying to change the system, there's too many people against it!" was used by the California punk band Lagwagon on the album "Blaze." The radio tower featured at the end of the film is used by KDFW, a local television station. At the time of filming, KDFW was a CBS affiliate, however has since become a FOX affiliate.

See also

List of American films of 1988

Hate speech

References

Rossi, Umberto. “Acousmatic Presences: From DJs to Talk-Radio Hosts in American Fiction, Cinema, and Drama”, ''Mosaic'', 42:1, March 2009, pp. 83–98.

References

External links

Category:1980s drama films Category:1988 films Category:American drama films Category:Films based on plays Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Oliver Stone Category:Films set in Dallas, Texas Category:Films shot in Dallas, Texas Category:Independent films Category:Universal Pictures films Category:Films about radio people

de:Talk Radio (Film) it:Talk Radio (film) pt:Talk Radio (Filme) ru:Радиоболтовня (фильм) sv:Talk Radio

Name	Morton Downey, Jr.
Birth date	Sean Morton Downey, Jr. December 09, 1932
Birth place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Death date	March 12, 2001
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Talk show host, Singer, Actor, DJ
Website	http://www.mortondowneyjrhome.com}}

Morton Downey, Jr. (December 9, 1932 — March 12, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program ''The Morton Downey Jr. Show''.

Legally named Sean Morton Downey, Jr., he dropped "Sean" from his stage name, as his father, Morton Downey had.

Career

Downey attended New York University. He was a program director and announcer at a radio station in Connecticut in the 1950s, and later worked in various markets around the U.S., including Phoenix (KRIZ), Miami (WFUN) and Seattle (KJR). Like his father, Downey pursued a career in music, recording in both pop and country styles. He sang on a few records and then began to write songs, several of which were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. He joined ASCAP as a result. In 1958, he recorded "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", which he sang on national television on a set that resembled a dark street with one street light. In 1981, ''"Green Eyed Girl"'' charted on ''Billboard Magazine'' country chart, peaking at #95.

In the 1980s, Downey was a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, California, where he established his abrasive and much imitated right wing, populist style, relentlessly deriding anyone who disagreed with him or had a liberal point of view. Downey's success laid the groundwork for more aggressive, opinion-based talk radio.

Downey was fired in 1983 for cracking "an ethnic joke about a member of the city council out there who was of Asian descent, and he refused to apologize [for it];" he was replaced on KFBK by Rush Limbaugh, who has held the time slot ever since, later via his national syndication. Downey also had a stint on WMAQ-AM in Chicago where he unsuccessfully tried to get other on air radio personalities to submit to drug testing. Downey's largest effect on American culture came from his popular, yet short-lived, syndicated late 1980s television talk show, ''The Morton Downey Jr Show''.

Television

Downey headed to Secaucus, New Jersey, where his highly controversial television program ''The Morton Downey Jr. Show'' was taped. Starting as a local program on New York-New Jersey superstation WWOR-TV in the fall of 1987, it expanded into national syndication in early 1988. The program featured screaming matches among Downey, his guests, and audience members. Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chainsmoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces. Downey's fans became known as "Loudmouths", patterned after the studio lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon mouths, from which Downey's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues.

Downey's signature phrases "pablum puking liberal" (in reference to left-liberals) and "zip it!" briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. He particularly enjoyed making his guests angry with each other, which on a few occasions resulted in physical confrontations. One that occurred on a 1988 show taped at the Apollo Theater, involving Al Sharpton and CORE National Chairman Roy Innis. The exchange between the two men culminated in Innis shoving Sharpton into his chair, knocking him to the floor and Downey intervening to separate the pair.

Because of the controversial format and content of the show, distributor MCA Television had problems selling the show to a number of stations and advertisers. Even Downey's affiliates, many of which were low-rated independent television stations in small to medium markets, were so fearful of advertiser and viewer backlash that they would air one or even two local disclaimers during the broadcast.

During one controversial episode Downey introduced his gay brother, Tony Downey, to his studio audience and informed them Tony was HIV positive. During the episode Downey stated he was afraid his audience would abandon him if they knew he had a gay brother, but then said he did not care.

''The Washington Post'' wrote about him, "Suppose a maniac got hold of a talk show. Or need we suppose?" David Letterman said, "I'm always amazed at what people will fall for. We see this every ten or twelve years, an attempt at this, and I guess from that standpoint I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy."

Celebrity, cancellation, and bankruptcy

The success of the show made Downey a pop culture celebrity, leading to an appearance on ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1988, WrestleMania V in 1989 in which he traded insults with Roddy Piper and Brother Love on ''Piper's Pit'', and later roles in movies such as ''Predator 2'' and ''Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation''. He was also cast in several television roles, often playing tabloid TV hosts or other obnoxious media types.

In 1988, Downey recorded an album of songs based on his show, entitled ''Morton Downey Jr Sings'' (released in 1989) . The album's only single, "Zip It!" (a catch-phrase from the TV show, used to quiet an irate guest), became a surprise hit on some college radio stations.

Over the course of the 1988-89 television season, his TV show suffered a decline in viewership, resulting in many markets downgrading its time slot; even flagship station WWOR moved Downey's program from its original 9:00 PM slot to 11:30 PM in January of 1989, where it was followed by the then-new ''Arsenio Hall Show''. However, following Hall's strong early ratings, the two series swapped time slots several weeks later, thus relegating Downey to 12:30 AM in the number-one television market.

In late April of 1989, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence , led many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention.

In July 1989 his show was cancelled, with the owners of the show announcing that the last show at been taped on June 30th, and that no new shows would air after September 15. At the time of its cancellation, the show was airing on a total of 30 stations across the country (including WPHL in Philadelphia), and its advertisers had been reduced primarily to "direct-response" ads (such as 900 chat line and phone sex numbers).

In February 1990, Downey filed for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Later career

In 1990, Downey resurfaced on CNBC with an interview program called ''Showdown'', which was followed by three attempted talk radio comebacks: first in 1992 on Washington, D.C. radio station WWRC; then in 1993 on Dallas radio station KGBS, where he would scream insults at his callers. He was also hired as the station's VP of Operations. The following year he returned to CNBC with a short-lived television show, ''Downey'', that was similar in theme to his earlier, more popular show. In one episode, Downey claimed to have had a psychic communication with O.J. Simpson's murdered ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

His third - and final - attempt at a talk radio comeback occurred in 1997 on Cleveland radio station WTAM in a late evening time slot. It marked his return to the Cleveland market, where Downey had been a host for crosstown radio station WERE in the early 1980s prior to joining KFBK. This stint came shortly after the surgery for lung cancer that removed one of his lungs.

On August 30, 1997, Downey quit his WTAM radio talk show to focus on pursuing legal action against Howard Stern. Downey had accused Stern of spreading rumors that he resumed his smoking habits, to which publicist Les Schecter retorted, ''"He hasn't picked up a cigarette."'' His replacement was former WERE host Rick Gilmour.

Following his death, news reports and obituaries incorrectly (according to the ''Orange County Register'') credited him as the composer of "Wipe Out." As of 2008, Downey's official website (and others) continue to make this claim. Prior to Downey's death, ''Spin'' in April 1989 had identified the "Wipe Out" authorship as a myth.

Controversies

In 1984, at KFBK radio, Downey used the word "Chinaman" while telling a joke. His use of the word upset portions of the sizable Asian community in Sacramento. One Asian-American city councilman called for an apology and pressured the station for Downey's resignation. Downey refused to apologize and was forced to resign, with Rush Limbaugh taking his place.

Downey was sued for allegedly appropriating the words and music to his theme song from two songwriters. He was sued for $40 million after bringing a stripper onto the show and calling her a "slut", a "pig", a "hooker", and a "tramp", claiming that she had venereal diseases, and banging his pelvis against hers.

At one point, he was arraigned on criminal charges for allegedly attacking a gay guest on his show, in a never-aired segment. In another lawsuit, he was accused of slandering a newscaster (a former colleague), and of indecently exposing himself to her and slapping her. Downey punched Stuttering John during an interview done for ''The Howard Stern Show''.

In various interviews, he expressed remorse for some of the extreme theatrics of his TV show, saying he had taken things too far. He added that he had been a "bastard." However, he also claimed that his show was of a higher quality and not as "sleazy" as Jerry Springer's.

Personal life

Morton Downey Jr's parents were also in show business; his father, Morton Downey, was a popular singer, and his mother, Barbara Bennett, was a singer and dancer. His aunts included Hollywood film stars Constance and Joan Bennett, from whom he was estranged, and his maternal grandfather was the celebrated matinée idol Richard Bennett. Born into a life of luxury, he was raised next door to the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He is not related to actor Robert Downey, Jr or to journalist Leonard Downie, Jr..

Downey was married four times and had four children from three of those marriages. With wife Helen he had Melissa, with Joan he had daughters Tracey and Kelli, and with fourth wife and widow Lori he had a daughter. He and Lori met when she appeared as a dancer in a show he attended in Atlantic City.

According to Terry Pluto's book, ''Loose Balls'', Downey was one of the owners of the New Orleans Buccaneers basketball team in the American Basketball Association in the late 1960s.

Downey was also president and co-founder of the proposed World Baseball Association in 1974. The WBA proposed a number of rule changes, including the use of five designated hitters to replace defensive players who would remain in the game; the use of one designated runner per game; the pitcher would be required to throw a pitch within 20 seconds; a walk would be on three balls instead of the usual four; and stealing home after the sixth inning would count as ''two'' runs. The WBA never played a game.

In the ''Super Mario Bros.'' video game series, the character, Morton Koopa, Jr. was named after him.

Death

In 1996, Downey was diagnosed with lung cancer and had one of his lungs removed. He did a complete about-face on the issue of tobacco use, going from a one-time member of the National Smokers Alliance to a staunch anti-smoking activist. He continued to speak against smoking until his death from lung cancer in 2001.

After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he commented, "I had spawned a generation of kids to think it was cool to smoke a cigarette. Kids walked up to me until a matter of weeks ago, they'd have a cigarette in their hand and they'd say, 'Hey, Mort,' or, 'Hey, Mouth, autograph my cigarette.' And I'd do it." He also blamed tobacco companies for lying to consumers about cigarettes.

Notes

External links

Official Morton Downey, Jr. Web Site

Category:1933 births Category:2001 deaths Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American Basketball Association executives Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Imperial Records artists Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of English descent

fr:Morton Downey Jr. it:Morton Downey Jr. fi:Morton Downey Jr.

name	Morton Downey
background	solo_singer
birth name	Sean Morton Downey
alias	Morton James
born	November 14, 1901
death date	October 25, 1985
origin	Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.
instrument	Vocalist, piano
genre	Jazz}}

Morton Downey (November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985) was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".

Early years

Sean Morton Downey was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, the child of James and Bessie (Cox) Downey. He later dropped his first name in favor of his middle name as his professional name

Music

For a time in the 1920s, Downey, a tenor, sang with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. He first recorded in 1923 for Edison Records under the pseudonym Morton James; the following year he recorded for Victor with the S.S. Leviathan Orchestra. In 1925 he began 4 years of recording for Brunswick Records. In 1926 he had a hit in the show ''Palm Beach Nights''.

He toured London, Paris, Berlin, New York City and Hollywood. He also began appearing in motion pictures in 1929.

Downey was also a songwriter whose most successful numbers include "All I Need is Someone Like You", "California Skies", "In the Valley of the Roses", and "Now You're in My Arms", "Sweeten Up Your Smile", "That's How I Spell Ireland", "There's Nothing New", and "Wabash Moon". He joined ASCAP in 1949.

Radio

In 1930, Downey began making national radio broadcasts after opening his own nightclub (The Delmonico) in New York. He was voted America's "Radio Singer of the Year" in 1932. At the time, Downey was featured nightly on the Camel Quarter Hour radio broadcast. In the 1930s he recorded for ARC, Hit of the Week, and Decca Records, and in the 1940s made records for Columbia.

Television

Starting in 1949, Morton Downey began appearing on television. In the 1950s, he hosted the television show ''Star of the Family''.

Personal life

Morton Downey was the father of the right-wing television personality Morton Downey, Jr., by his first wife, actress Barbara Bennett (1906–1958), the sister of actresses Constance and Joan Bennett, and with whom he ultimately had five children, four sons and a daughter: Michael, Sean (Morton Downey, Jr), Lorelle, Anthony and Kevin. Her early promise as a dancer and actress gave way to her turbulent marriage with Downey. The couple married in 1929, and divorced in 1941. She would marry singing cowboy actor Addison Randall shortly afterward. Downey's second wife was Margaret Boyce Schulze (1922—1964), the former wife of Prince Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and the granddaughter of Colorado mining industralist William Boyce Thompson.

Downey owned a house in Hyannis, Massachusetts next to Joseph P. Kennedy's. This house was used by John F. Kennedy as his summer White House.

Downey's third wife was Ann Trainer, the widow of Howell Van Gerbig and the former wife of John Kevin Barry; they married in 1970. Downey died from a stroke in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 83.

References

External links

Morton Downey Sr. at IMDB

Category:1901 births Category:1985 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American pop singers Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:People from Palm Beach County, Florida Category:People from Wallingford, Connecticut Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Disease-related deaths in Florida

it:Morton Downey

Lynn Cullen (born 1948 as Ida Lynn Miller) is an American liberal radio talk show host in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, she was briefly on radio station WAMO-AM 860 weekdays from 5-7 p.m. EST. As of May 15, 2009, WAMO and several sister stations are in the process of being sold, and Cullen and all other employees were abruptly laid off. On July 7, 2009, it was announced that she will broadcast a one-hour Internet radio show on the Pittsburgh City Paper's website starting on August 18, 2009

From 1999 until a format change on August 2008, Cullen was a radio talk show host on radio station WPTT-AM 1360.

Cullen's reporting for WTAE-TV from 1981 to 1992 garnered her numerous awards, including a 1991 Emmy award, four Golden Quills for Journalistic Excellence from the Pittsburgh Press Club, and three Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcaster Awards for feature reporting. She also received the Printer's Devil Award from Women in Communications for her ability to see humor in the world and to puncture the pompous among us. In addition, the YWCA honored her for her rigorous work against racism and bigotry. Her best TV work had a literate sense of irreverence that was unlike anything else in the Pittsburgh market at that time.

Cullen hosted a radio talk show on WTAE Radio from 1987 to 1997 and was twice named "Best Talk Show Host" in Pittsburgh by the readers of both Pittsburgh Magazine and In Pittsburgh Newsweekly. Vectors Pittsburgh honored her as the 1997 Person of the Year in Communications, and the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition similarly honored her as its Person of the Year in 1997.

Cullen also hosted two weekly public television programs: the statewide award-winning quiz show The Pennsylvania Game and the prime-time public affairs program Cullen-Devlin on WQEX-TV.

The ''Pittsburgh Post Gazette'' named Lynn one of Pittsburgh's fifty most influential cultural power brokers. She is listed in Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in American Media.

Cullen has also authored a chapter in a college journalism textbook on live television news reporting and provides op-ed pieces for local print media.

Before moving to Pittsburgh in 1981, Cullen was a television anchor and reporter at WISC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin. She attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she received her degree in journalism.

She is the sister of author and University of Michigan Law School professor William Ian Miller.

References

External links

Lynn Cullen's internet radio show can be found near the bottom of the Pittsburgh City Paper home page

‎

Category:American game show hosts Category:American talk radio hosts Category:Radio personalities from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:1948 births Category:Living people

es:Lynn Cullen

Name	Steve Dahl
Birth date	November 20, 1954
Birth place	Pasadena, California, USA
Show	The Steve Dahl Show
Country	United States
Web	Dahl.com }}

Steven Robert Dahl (born November 20, 1954 in Pasadena, California) has been an American radio personality and humorist for over thirty years. He is currently podcasting, and releases the podcasts for download daily from his own website as well as the iTunes store. Originally, Dahl broadcasted with Detroit stations WABX and WWWW and later with Chicago stations WCKG, WDAI, WLUP, WMVP and WLS. He also served as a columnist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' in their ''Live'' section as the resident "vice advisor" until November of 2010. Additionally, Dahl has served on the Board of Trustees at Columbia College Chicago.

Dahl's radio show took an "every guy" approach to life in Chicago and Dahl often told bucolic stories about his life and family on the air. Dahl is also well-known in Chicago for his song parodies and his impressions. He is considered a pioneer in talk radio and has been influential for many other radio personalities. He gained a measure of national attention after the Disco Demolition Night promotion at Comiskey Park, and he is also known in Chicago for his longstanding former role as one half of the "Steve and Garry" team (with Garry Meier).

In addition to his radio career, Dahl is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His band, ''Teenage Radiation'', recorded and performed a number of song parodies (which he often played on his show throughout the 1980s) and since 1990 he has performed and recorded as ''Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins.'' Dahl has also dabbled in acting, appearing in the 1984 cult classic, ''Grandview, U.S.A.'' with John and Joan Cusack. He also appeared in the 2004 film ''Outing Riley'', and in the 2006 indie comedy ''I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With'' (which was written and directed by Chicago native Jeff Garlin).

Dahl grew up in La Cañada, California, a Los Angeles suburb northwest of Pasadena. He is the son of Roger and Carolyn Dahl, an electronics parts manufacturer's representative and a homemaker. He is married and is the father of three sons.

Radio career

Early radio career

In the 9th grade, Dahl began hanging around a local underground radio station, KPCC-FM, in his home state of California. At the age of sixteen, after he starting working at the radio station full-time, he unofficially dropped out of high school. Dahl later explained, "I convinced my parents and the school that I would do an independent work-study thing. I never got around to it." At the age of eighteen, he obtained his GED and briefly married a woman he met after she called him on-air to request ''Suzanne'', a song by Leonard Cohen which told a tale of a troubled relationship. Dahl later explained his short-lived marriage by commenting, "I should have paid more attention to that song."

Dahl was told by radio executives that he'd never make it in radio because his voice was too high. At one point, Dahl was so discouraged that he quit for about six months and attempted to pursue a career as a recording engineer. However, this never amounted to anything more than making mix tapes of popular songs for play on airplanes. Throughout this time period, he was making efforts to reconcile with his ex-wife, who by then was dating the program director at the Los Angeles radio station where she worked. He later admitted to stalking her by sleeping in his Subaru outside her house.

In 1976, Dahl's ex-wife told him about an opening for a morning show in Detroit, Michigan on WABX-FM. He managed to secure the job, despite the fact that he did not think he was good enough for it (he later learned that the station was owned by the same company his ex-wife worked for). At WABX, Dahl learned as much as he could about what constituted "good radio" and also began experimenting with his content. His popularity increased to the point that he achieved a 7.2 market share.

During his time at WABX, Dahl was introduced to Janet, a junior high school English and drama teacher in a Detroit suburb, who was casually dating a friend of his and was also a listener of his show. The two hit it off after Dahl invited her to a "hump day" broadcast he was doing from the camel area of the Detroit Zoo.

WDAI executives in Chicago, attracted by Dahl's 7.1 share, approached him and offered to double his salary to $50,000 a year. However, Janet did not want to leave her family in Detroit and he did not want to leave her. This prompted Dahl to ask his bosses for $35,000 a year to stay in Detroit. They flatly refused by telling him to "Go fuck yourself. Go to Chicago. Fall on your fat face." In 1978, after Janet accepted his marriage proposal, Dahl left Detroit for WDAI in Chicago. The pair eventually married in 1980.

Rude Awakening

Dahl began at WDAI Chicago on February 23, 1978 with his solo "Steve Dahl's Rude Awakening" show, but it never achieved solid ratings despite media attention. Ten months later, on Christmas Eve, 1978, WDAI changed formats from rock to disco and fired Dahl.

Steve and Garry

In March 1979, after a few months without a job, 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, the two began a cross talk that eventually led to Meier being teamed up with Dahl as both sidekick and newsman. Dahl effectively forced Meier to use his actual name by calling him "Garry" on-air accidentally. After openly discussing the subject, again, on-air, Meier officially dropped his pseudonym. They also comically lampooned themselves with their out of commercial intro sung by a local trio, All Nite Diner (Mark Milano, Andrea Carlson, and Jim Molnar): "Steve and Gary, Scum Bag Worm Meat Idiots......" http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/multimedia/audio/1599-steve-a-garry-jingle-scumbag-worm-meat-idiots

Disco Demolition Night

In response to Dahl's firing from WDAI, Dahl and Meier mocked and heaped scorn on disco records and WDAI (calling it "Disco-D.I.E." mocking the station's slogan, "Disco-D.A.I.") on the air. Dahl even recorded and started playing a parody of Rod Stewart's ''Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'', which he called ''Do You Think I'm Disco?''. The song managed to crack the national charts to peak at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received airplay across the country.

During this same time period, Dahl and Meier, 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 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 $0.98 (for WLUP-FM's 97.9 location on the dial) and at least one disco record. The records were collected, piled up on the field and blown up. Hundreds of rowdy fans stormed the field, refusing to leave, resulting in the second game of the doubleheader being postponed. 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.

After the Disco Demolition Night promotion, disco began to lose its popularity.

Height of Steve and Garry

As a result of Disco Demolition Night, Dahl attained national recognition and his popularity increased significantly. He established a syndicate and the Steve and Garry show began airing in Detroit and Milwaukee, where it performed well. However, in February 1981, WLUP fired Dahl, citing "continued assaults on community standards." "It was going on in El Paso and Los Angeles, like, on Monday, and on Friday they fired me," Dahl later said. Meier was offered the opportunity to continue the show by himself, but he refused.

During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Dahl, along with ''Teenage Radiation'', recorded and released a parody of The Knack's song "My Sharona," called "Ayatollah." He also made on-the-air prank phone calls to the "Islamic Fried Chicken" (a play on Kentucky Fried Chicken), ordering buckets of chicken for the hostages in the US embassy, which the State Department later reprimanded him for. 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"). He stopped playing the song when parents of the murdered children called to complain.

Dahl and Meier won a local Emmy award for a television special they did in 1981 called, ''Greetings from Graceland'', which was a comedy spoof on the tourist shrine and featured Elvis Presley's "Uncle Vester" selling Elvis cookbooks from the guardhouse. They briefly had a morning television show, called ''It's Too Early'' on local Chicago station, WFBN-TV, which nationally syndicated columnist Bob Greene called "the best program on television", "amazing", and "hypnotic" in his June 20, 1983 column. The show was canceled after four weeks on the air because it was deemed "unsuitable for general viewing... in particular for young children" after Dahl was shown fully clothed sitting on a toilet seat reading a newspaper.

In 1982, he stated on the air that motorists could allegedly substitute Necco Wafers for coins in automatic toll booths on Chicago's tollways. The Illinois Tollway System later claimed that approximately a dozen toll machines broke down due to people trying to use the candy to pay tolls.

Dahl decided to get a vasectomy in March 1989, which was performed live on the air at a urologist's office in Indiana. According to Arbitron ratings for that survey period, Dahl and Meier's ratings jumped from a tie for seventh place in afternoons to a tie for third place.

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 at WWWW Detroit (which Dahl had left when he moved to Chicago).

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 new 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."

In 2003, Robert Feder, a columnist for the ''Chicago Sun Times'', said, "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.

WCKG years

Dahl ended up on WCKG, broadcasting an afternoon show on that station. He eventually teamed up with Buzz Kilman, who was Dahl's newsman starting in 1980 on WLUP, and the show was available as a podcast at Dahl's website and streamed 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 June 22, 1999, Detroit's WKRK FM 97.1 dropped his show, replacing it with the Erin & Gonzo Show. This ended Dahl's bid to achieve syndication.

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 contributed to each others' shows, and Meier spent the first hour and a half in studio during Dahl's show on the 28th year anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, recounting the events of that night.

Jack FM

Dahl announced on October 29, 2007 that he would move to mornings at WJMK on November 5, 2007 as WCKG changed formats. He was the only live personality at the Jack FM outlet as the rest of the station is preprogrammed and run by computer. Dahl's son Matt was part of the regular WCKG lineup and hosted the show immediately following his father's. However, the WCKG format change, from an FM talk station to an adult contemporary station was the end of Matt's show on WCKG.

On December 5, 2008, Dahl announced the end of his show on Jack FM due to low ratings.

"They were saying, 'Well, do a couple of weeks, a farewell.'" Dahl said. "I said, 'It's not a farewell. You guys are taking me off the air. I'm not retiring.' ... "I still have two and a half years left on my deal so, quite frankly, I'm not letting them out of it." Dahl stated that he is prepared to stay off the radio for the remainder of his contract, which extends to mid-2011 and is said to be worth more than $1 million annually.

After the end of Dahl's final broadcast, Howard Cogan, the normally sarcastic signature voice, Jack, heard on many Jack FM stations, delivered a sincere sendoff to Dahl followed by ''Life's Been Good'' by Joe Walsh, a long-time friend of Dahl.

Podcasts

Dahl was still under contract with CBS when they agreed in July, 2009 to partner with him on a daily podcast that included some paid commercial breaks. Dahl began the podcasts from the basement of his home on September 8, 2009. Most of the podcasts are about 90 minutes long and include guests and familiar Dahl friends like Tom Thayer and Buzz Killman. It was assumed Dahl would return to radio when his CBS contract, which prevented him from working on any radio station while he collected the remainder of his contractual salary, came to an end in 2011.

Dahl's contract with CBS expired in July 2011 which fueled speculation that he would return to the airwaves in Chicago. Merlin Media's WKQX & WLUP and even the Tribune's WGN were seen as the most likely possibilities for Dahl. He sent out a Tweet on July 11, 2011 stating that he would continue his podcasts for a fee of $9.95/month as of August 1, 2011 which set off a tirade of angry sentiments from long-time fans who felt betrayed that they would now have to pay for podcasts that had been available for free since September, 2009.

Musical career

In addition to recording parody songs for his radio show with his early band ''Teenage Radiation'', Dahl began recording and playing live performance with a new band in 1990, called ''Steve Dahl and the Dahlfins''. This band has recorded and released several albums, including 1992's "Tropical Tides" and 1997's "Mai Tai Roa Ae." In 2007, backed by Des Moines, Iowa band The Nadas, Dahl embarked on a tour of Chicago-area concert venues. In collaboration with record producer Joe Thomas, Dahl 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 claimed to provide backup vocals on the song as well, although has not been credited as such on the liner notes of the album. An alternate version of "Your Imagination" with slightly different lyrics and Steve Dahl singing lead is occasionally played on ''The Steve Dahl Show''.

Personal life

Currently, Dahl resides in the western suburbs of Chicago with his wife Janet, a non-practicing lawyer, whom he married in July, 1980. Before law school, she taught junior high for seven years in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. They have three sons: Patrick, who works with video media for the Chicago Blackhawks; Mike, a writer/producer at Comcast SportsNet in Chicago; and Matt Dahl, a recent graduate of DePaul University who is following in his father's footsteps in broadcast radio, along with being the drummer in the band Pet Lions. Dahl is also an avid Chicago sports fan, holding season tickets to the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears, and Chicago Blackhawks.

Controversies and personal battles

Dahl has battled alcoholism throughout his adult life, which he has alluded to a number of times. He has been sober since 1995, the day after a drinking bout at the White Sox home opener, achieving it cold turkey.

In 1999, his wife filed a multi–million dollar lawsuit against Mancow Muller over lewd comments Muller made about her on his show. In 2001, the case was settled. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it was reportedly seven figures.

Also in 1999, Steve Dahl admitted secretly recording conversations among staffers at WCKG because he suspected they were talking 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" 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."

Criminal suspect Drew Peterson and his lawyer, Joel Brodsky, called in to Dahl's show on January 23, 2008. Dahl had been lampooning Peterson since the start of the former police officer's notoriety. Brodsky suggested that Dahl host an on-air "dating game" with Peterson the following day, but WJMK managers and Dahl later decided not to go through with it. "

References

External links

Official website

Steve Dahl's articles in The Chicago Tribune

Biography from Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real Story documentary site

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