Posted by chicagomedia.org on December 05, 2008 at 13:19:03:
In Reply to: Steve Dahl will be fired posted by Yo on December 04, 2008 at 20:10:03:
Friday, December 5, 2008
The years spin by...
In December, 1978, I had been married four months, and was living in Bolingbrook. I had quit my job, my law school and had left Detroit to be Steve's sidecar as he tried to break into the Chicago market. He did mornings on WDAI with a cast of cartoon characters. The climb was steep- his station managers had the belief that the clock drove all content, and that straddling the 15 minute marks with a song or captivating content was essential, because it drove the collation of positive ratings data. (If you straddled these quarter marks, the station was credited with two quarter hours!) On Friday, December 22, Steve did his show on Michigan and Wacker in a Santa suit, with a microphone dangling out of the studio window. In his post-show meeting that morning, the bosses told him that the station was shifting to disco. Steve could spin discs. He drove home in his Santa suit, with his stuff in a box. He had 13 weeks severance, and was locked out of Detroit by a no-compete clause. Merry Christmas.
It was a rough spot, but it had a happy ending. Many happy endings, really. The Loop, WLS am, WLS fm, The Loop again, AM 1000, WCKG, Jack. Every job had its personal challenges; Steve learned in every slot. He got crazy. He drank. He partied. He became a father. He grew up, grew wise, grew sober. With every year, his show evolved to reflect the man he was. He refused to be a fake personality. He couldn't do pranks. He grew tired of the old parody songs. His goal was to be a constant presence in the lives of his fans-a human being in a box, so to speak. It was his job to be an extended family member, a guy who gets to spin a story, comment on the vagaries of life, or laugh at its absurdity. He could give volume to Everyman's irritations. His financial goal was to get his boys through college- a goal refined by his own entry into radio at 16, armed with a GED and a dream. His determination to provide for his family guided him to CBS. It was acquiring Howard Stern, and Steve would be the afternoon Yang to his Ying. The rest is history. Done.
And as of today, it IS history. Thirty years later, the Santa suit is metaphorical, and Steve has more than a shoe box of stuff to bring home. But his days at CBS are over. He is unspeakably sad. I am, too. His team is unemployed. They are the best at what they do- loyal and earnest, dedicated to a fault. They have labored in single minded dedication to Steve, and the audience. I cannot begin to relate all the complicated feelings I am navigating, and the matrix of concerns Steve has to deal with. Radio is his first love; his family has always known and accepted this. There will be a vacuum. It is now our turn to fill that vacuum.
Steve will not be free to work for some time in radio. Perhaps he has reached his goals in the radio world, but maybe not. Time will tell. Radio is in a flux in Chicago, reacting to 6 months of beta data on a new ratings aggregation system. It has not been favorable to Steve, and so he is furloughed. It is not unexpected, but it is sad. Merry Christmas.
It is not my place to micro-examine the radio business. It is my job to love Steve, thank him for remaining true to his loves- of radio and of family. I can even thank CBS for the most stable 13 years we ever spent in radio. I am here for Steve, of course. But he will miss being with you every day. The Dahl families-radio and biological- need to mourn. Steve will have the chance to try new things: he is driven to communicate. He will reinvent. I will support. We will be here for you- as you have been here for us. Stand by. Life is a circle. I am not calling this "the end".
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
Joni Mitchell...