Performer: The Steve
Miller Band
Songwriter: Steve Miller
Original
Release:
Living in the 20th Century
Year: 1986
Definitive
Version:
None.
In
Fall 1986, my radio-listening habits changed forever when I found Steve and
Garry. Before, I listened to radio for the music. After, I listened for anything
but the music, although I suppose I did listen to music radio after I moved
back to Columbus—mostly because there was no more personality radio.
That
isn’t to say that I never listened to music on the radio; it just wasn’t
specifically for that reason. As I mentioned, I got into a lot of songs through
Steve and Garry and the rest of the personalities on the Loop. This song was
one of them.
When
I listened to the radio, I didn’t want to listen to the same songs over and
over. Led Zeppelin had more than four songs, you know. If I wanted to listen to
music, I’d just pop in one of my tapes. When I listened to the radio, I wanted
to be entertained and maybe informed.
Steve
and Garry made radio entertaining. It all started during the flooding of the
Des Plaines River soon after I began at Northwestern. It rained solid for about
three weeks and flooded the western suburbs. As I drove out west in search of a
story for my Boot Camp class, I turned on the radio.
I
had remembered Steve and Garry from my drive into the city, so I dialed them in
on the Loop. They were mocking one of the local weathermen, cranking up the
volume on their teletype sound effect. It was funny, and I remember at one
point, Frank, who was in the car with me, said, “They can’t say that on the
air, can they?” They could and did.
But
the thing that really got me into Steve and Garry was the Bears. As I
mentioned, I was a huge Bears fan by the time I hit Chicago, and I listened to
every game. Of course, in 1986, my guy from Ohio State, Mike Tomczak, took over
for the injured Jim McMahon as quarterback for the Bears, and the same thing
started to happen to Tomczak as happened at Ohio State.
A
little back story: I loved Tomczak, or T-zak as he became known in Chicago, because
he was the anti-Art Schlichter. Everyone in Columbus loved Art Schlichter—everyone,
that is, except me. My friend Jim interviewed Schlichter for the high-school
newspaper, because Schlichter was pursuing Jim’s older sister, and Jim said he
was a real d-bag—unnecessarily arrogant and snide. (Of course, we all know how
Schlichter’s story ended—my assessment was vindicated.)
Tomczak
was the opposite—quiet, unassuming, humble—but because he was the first
quarterback to follow Schlichter, OSU fans held him to an impossible standard.
Maybe he wasn’t as good while at college, but he was plenty good enough to get
the job done.
Now
the same thing was happening in Chicago. The fans and the media hated Tomczak,
because he wasn’t Jim McMahon. No one was Jim McMahon, whom I also loved. Well,
that wasn’t universally true: Steve and Garry loved Tomczak and had him on the
show a lot. Hey, that’s cool. We both like the same guy. Then I began to notice
they had a lot of other Bears on, Tom Thayer, Jay Hilgenberg, Gary Fencik, Otis
Wilson. Well, if the Bears like these guys …
It
got so every time Steve and Garry had a Bear player on, I would stick a tape
into the boombox and record for myself but also Scott. Before long, I let
the tape run, even after the Bears were gone. Soon, I was tuning in just to
hear Steve and Garry. I was hooked.
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