STEVE DAHL Chicago Sun-Times - 2014-12-21 AS TOLD TO MIKE THOMAS, STAFF REPORTER Email: mthomas@suntimes Twitter: @MikeTScribe Sober 19 years, married 36 and a Chicago radio fixture for nearly four decades, Steve Dahl is calmer and more enlightened than he once was. Having returned in early November to the station — WLS-AM890 — where with erstwhile on-air partner and Disco Demolition cohort Garry Meier (they acrimoniously split in 1993 and, save for a brief 2006 broadcast reunion at Oak Street Beach, have been estranged since) he made waves more than a quarter-century ago at a different location, Dahl is striving to re-establish himself in a medium he has repeatedly blasted and from which he was long absent. After being dropped in late 2008 from WJMK-FM with more than two years left on a reported seven-figure contract, he started a podcast. The subscription-based venture was produced from his suburban basement and is now recorded at 190 N. State, down the hall from Dahl’s new radio digs. They’re the same digs where Roe Conn and Richard Roeper manned the afternoon microphones starting in 2010 until one day this fall they didn’t. Dahl says he knew from the start of his negotiations with WLS that he’d be taking over that ratings-challenged slot if he chose to return. Conn and Dahl have yet to speak about what went down. Dahl, though, is focused on the future. “I guess I wanted to come back to radio,” he says, “and maybe go out onmy own terms.” Originally, Roe and I talked about maybe trying to do something together, but the economics of that didn’t really work out for Roe— or for me, I guess. [Conn remarks, “I think it was a little more complicated than that, but I wish him the best.”] Iwas under the impression that he knew what was happening [at WLS]. But then after it happened, I sort of got the feeling, from what he was saying anyway, that he didn’t know what was happening. So I’m not really sure where we’re at, but I’m sure we’ll be fine. When I first started [at WLS], I hadn’t been out of my basement in six years. And so I’m having meetings with these guys and they’re holding me in high regard and I’m like, “Oh, yeah.” I kind of forgot that people felt that way about me. I think if I didn’t have a podcast, the radio would bug me a little bit, ’cause it’s pretty formatted just in terms of times and stuff. [Radio] is a different energy. You have to just go and you can’t really stop. I don’t think [Garry] liked me drinking and what not. But I think the biggest issue was that it wasn’t a 50-50 partnership [financially]. At the time, I just didn’t want to do that. When he got married, I knew something bad was going to happen [between us] and I think, subconsciously, I kind of sped it up a little bit. Because it was gonna happen no matter what. You could tell that there was discontent there, and it wasn’t going away. Itwas more family stuff that made me get sober. Pat [one of Dahl’s sons] was going to high school and he was 14, and I was like [to himself], “Dude, you gotta break this cycle.” Because my parents were drunks. So it was more of a personal thing. It just made everything easier. Life is way easier for me. I’m fairly shy and fairly introverted, and I got into radio because you could hide in a room and entertain people and you never had to see anybody. And then I got to be successful and I had to go out. I wasn’t comfortable being out if I wasn’t drunk. I just got high. Then I’m the idiot everyone wanted me to be. I meditate now every day. I do 20 minutes or a half hour a day. I don’t think Iwould have done this [WLS] deal and I don’t think I would be able to comprehend doing both shows if I hadn’t spent almost a year meditating every day. Because it settles my brain down. When I start meditating my head is f----- up. And every time I start, I go, “There’s no way this is gonna f-----’ straighten me out today.” And then by the end it’s like, “F---. It worked.” I have not seen her since I started [at WLS], but I spent the last three or four years going every week to see [a therapist]. I tried it off and on before, but never really consistently. It worked out to be a really good thing for me. [My wife, Janet, and I] have a lot of respect for each other and love each other. It’s not always easy, but we’ve never, ever thought about— at least I haven’t, and I don’t think she has — throwing in the towel. It was always worth trying to save it. We’re both pretty open to listening to what the other person has to say and trying to modify our behavior. Me, especially, because I’m kind of the monumental f---up. She’s always been a really big supporter of me and never second-guessed me or my career choices and stuff, so that goes a long way. That’s never an issue. Mydad had started being an announcer, but he ended up being amanufacturer’s rep. He had the gift of gab, for sure, and I realized in later years that I got a lot of that from him. Hewas proud of me but always like, “Well, how come Howard Stern is this or that?” Or, “How come Johnny B is this or that?” And I’m like, “I don’t know, Dad. I really don’t know. I’m doing the best I can here.” I had opportunities. I squandered some of them and some just didn’t pan out, but I don’t really care anymore. As long as I feel like I did a good job, I’m OK with it. So whatever happens is gonna happen. © Copyright Sun-Times Media, LLC
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 01:23:35 +0000
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