Live Magazine September 2017

YOUR INTERVIEW SAY
AVCON INTER
Paul: So, joining me for interview
number 3 at AVCon 2017 is Steve
Downes.
Steve: Hi Paul, how are you? Nice to
meet you.
Paul: I’m good. It’s a pleasure to
meet you.
Steve: Thanks.
Paul: I find your story very interesting.
A couple of months ago I finished
a bout of radio school, 13
weeks. And you got your start as a
DJ.
Steve: Yes I did.
Paul: You were a DJ for many years,
and still are.
Steve: Well yeah, part time now. I
was full time for 44 years, and now I
still do a syndicated radio show that
actually runs in Australia. Although,
if you ask where I don’t know, because
I didn’t do my homework.
*laughs* But I know it airs in certain
cities in Australia, called The Classics,
which is a 2 hour syndicated,
sort of retrospective on classic rock
kinda thing. It’s all over the United
States, Australia, New Zealand, I
think Ireland, a few places. So I still
do that. I still do some of what we
call promo work for the radio station
I used to work for, but as a full time
DJ I retired about 2 years ago, so
now I play a lot of golf. *laughs*
Paul: I was talking to Jen before,
and she said she had a bit of a stint
doing DJ work. Jon St John, Kyle
Hebert, voice actors who got their
start in radio. How did you get your
start in radio itself?
Steve: Well I was a frustrated musician
as a youngster, and it’s sort of
the classic story. When the Beatles
came out it was like, ‘OK, I want to
do THAT!’ *laughs* Mainly because
of the whole ‘girl action’ thing. It’s
like, ‘oh, that’s how you get girls! OK,
I’ll learn how to play guitar and grow
my hair long and all that.’ When I
was in college, at some point I realised
that maybe being a drummer in
a rock band wasn’t the most secure
career choice one could make, but
I wanted to do something that kept
me close to the music, and originally
I thought being a music producer
would be a good outlet. So,
the closest thing I could get to that
was working at the college radio
station and starting to take some
courses in radio and I just fell in love
with it. Between being close to the
music and satisfying my ever expanding
ego, it just seemed like a
dream come true that I could actually
make a living doing something
that I truly love, and that was really
the beginning of that radio part of
it. It morphed into voice over, again
because of the production element,
because I loved, initially, the technical
hands on producing of a radio
spot, which I would do and also at
the time, voice, and fell in love with
that. Then the voice part of it sort
of took over and I left the producing
part behind. But that’s really how it
began, and I was blessed to have a
very nice career in it for a number
of years, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Paul: And you must have been good
at it. I mean, you had a drive show
for 9 years. That’s a huge achievement.
Steve: I was actually on The Drive
for 14 years altogether. I was in
Chicago. I came to Chicago in ’97
and worked at a station called “The
Loop”, who eventually bought The
Drive, and then I started on The
Drive when The Drive went on the
air and did that until 2015, and before
that I was in Los Angeles for
quite a long time. So yeah, I’ve been
very fortunate and very blessed to
have that kind of run.
Paul: Now I read that you had a call
in show.
Steve: Yeah, Rockline.
Paul: What were some of the more
memorable calls that you got?
Because I imagine some of them
would have been a bit interesting.
Steve: Well there were a few!
*laughs* My favourite one, the
most infamous one... I mean, we in-