Steve Dahl

Steve Dahl (born November 20, 1954) is an American radio personality. 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 began his radio career in his home state of California at the age of 16. He then moved to Detroit, Michigan and was then on the air on WWWW in Detroit, Michigan in 1976. Then in 1978 Steve left Detroit to join WDAI Chicago for just under a year until WDAI turned to a Disco format and fired Steve on Christmas eve, 1978. Steve was known for his open life discussion format on the air. He would tell stories about his life and family on the air. He was on the air in Detriot around the time Howard Stern was starting in Detroit radio. Some of the Howard Stern open discussion format was influenced by Dahl.

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

During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Dahl recorded and released a parody of The Knack's song My Sharona, called "Ayatollah." He also made fake phone calls to the Tehran Kentucky Fried Chicken, and ordered a few buckets for his friends in the embassy.

Dahl, along with both Mike Veeck (son of then Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck) and Jeff Scwartz of WLUP promotions, came up with a radio promotion and tie-in to the White Sox, Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979. Prior to this event, Steve had been 'destroying' disco records on the air due to his hatred of the music and they decided to do the same in center field of Comiskey Park that night. This event resulted in the second game of the double header being cancelled due to hundreds of rowdy fans storming the field and refusing to leave. Six people reported minor injuries, and 39 were arrested for disorderly conduct. The White Sox forfeited the game to the Detroit Tigers.

Steve and Garry went to WLS, but ultimately returned to WLUP where they stayed until their break up in 1993. The 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 break-up, saying on air once "When I met her, I knew the rules had just changed." But the untold story was that even before the wedding Meier had shopped himself out to other stations as a solo act. One such place was WGN where their former producer, Dan Falato had taken up work. When asked about Meier, Falato said, "Without Steve, he's nothing."

In a recent column in The Chicago Sun Times columnist Robert Feder wrote:

"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.

Dahl eventually went on to WCKG in afternoons and back on the FM dial. He is currently teamed up with Wendy Snyder and Buzz Kilman, the latter of which was with Dahl as his original newsman back when he started in the Chicago market.

External links

• Official website - Dahl.com
• Site of news clippings critical of Dahl's radio career in Chicago
• Biography from Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real Story documentary site
• Howard Stern gleaned the basic structure of his show from Dahl's show in Detroit.

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