At the age of 13 Steve and his family moved to Shrewsbury, PA. Steve attended York County Vocational Technical School (YVTS) for grades 10-12. His first year he spent trying to learn electronics. "I hated it! There was way too much math involved and the scheduling department messed up my daily schedule so I ended up missing half the classes in the first six months." In his second year at "Vo-Tech" he tranferred to the food service class. It was that year that he realized his dream. Not to be a food service worker though. "The school had a closed circuit TV studio. I was an anchor on the YVTS-TV morning announcements. That's where I learned to love the broadcasting field." Steve's love of broadcasting didn't end there. "It helped me realize what I wanted to do after high school, ahh high school, remind me to tell you the three-wheeler story." It seems Steve has had problems with small gas engines.

In his 11th grade year at Vo-Tech, Steve signed on with the U.S. Air Force, but not as a broadcaster. "At the time I thought of being a cook. After the recruiter saw my ASVAB scores, he showed me the book of jobs, I kicked the food service idea to the curb and went with the broadcasting career field." In his senior year, Steve competed in the school's talent contest as a stand-up comic. "I love making people laugh. It's very hard to do but you can touch people on a personal level and make them happy." Steve says happily. "That makes me happy, my act was pretty unrefined though…you should see the video, I took all my jokes off a little card to remind me what was next and I actually had HAIR!" Steve was asked by his drama teacher to be the Master of Ceremonies (MC) at his senior prom. "I didn't have a date at all in high school, like I said, I was a nerd, but it was great! To hear myself announcing the prom court candidates over a music bed the DJ was playing sent chills up my spine! I knew at that moment what I wanted to do for the rest of my life." "I knew at that moment what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

Steve entered the Air Force on October 14th, 1988 at the age of 17. "My parents were ready to get me out of the house, and I was ready to go." Steve struggled through basic training and was recycled 7 days. "I missed my broadcasting class start date, they told me I had to choose another job. I was devastated!" They wanted me to be an electronics specialist, I remembered how much I hated electronics in high school." Steve chose Aircrew Life Support and went to technical training at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. In February 1989, his first assignment was to Rhein Main Airbase in Germany. "It was a very important job being a life support specialist. You work on equipment that saves lives, like helmets, oxygen masks, life preservers, parachutes, things like that, but I felt my talents were being wasted." It was at Rhein Main that Steve met his wife, Irene. "She really pushed me to look at retraining, she supported me because she knew how much I wanted this job!" While at Rhein Main in 1992, Steve competed in another talent contest with his comedy routine. "This time I had a much better act with better flow. The drummer of the band really helped me figure out how to go from one joke to another." Steve won 1st place in the specialty category and "Best of Show". After the show Steve was asked by the M.C. to narrate a video about Rhein Main. "The captain in charge of Combat Camera liked my voice and asked me to narrate a video about the base which I gladly did." Steve went to the Public Affairs office about an ad in the base paper where they were looking for a voice for the radio. Since it was right up Steve's alley, he fought for the position of a community reporter voicing 60 second long radio commercials at AFN. "It was strange to hear my voice on the radio, to this day I hate the sound of my voice." "To this day I hate the sound of my voice."

Steve PCS'ed to RAF Alconbury, England in the summer of 1993. He worked with the 21st Special Operations Squadron in life support on MH53J "Pavelow" helicopters. All the while wanting a broadcasting job. In 1995, the squadron moved to RAF Mildenhall in England. In 1997 Steve's career field as a life supporter had manning overages and the broadcasting field was undermanned. "I count my blessings everyday, the life support job had 16 people over the manning need, and the broadcasting field was undermanned by only 3. I was so lucky to get this job." In the summer of 1998 Steve attended the Basic Broadcasting Course at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Meade, MD, "It was the best thing that could have happened, I was 40 minutes from home so I could hang out at home on the weekends and drink Dad's beer." Steve graduated DINFOS in August 1998 and returned to England to out-process. He wanted to return to Germany at AFN because he was familiar with the area and his wife is from the Frankfurt area. Steve began working as a disc jockey on the Z-98 morning show in December of 1998 as a fill-in jock for the holidays. "I was so nervous!" Whenever Steve is on the air he makes a copy of the show so he can listen to it and critique himself. "You should hear my very first air check, I sucked, I was so nervous that I sounded hyper! I still hate the sound of my voice." Steve moved to the European Broadcasting Division of AFN (Headquarters) in March of 2001. "It was a little scary, I really loved doing the radio show but folks felt like I needed more experience as a broadcaster." Steve began as a producer of AFN's "Morning Newswatch". "Basically all I did was push buttons and make sure we hit our time cues, on time, every time." Steve began working as the Newswatch anchor in May and got along well with Patience Hurley. "When you have to come in at 3am it's a little crazy. I missed my NASCAR or my sleep. I chose to lose sleep. Patience is great to work with. If you don't get along with someone that early in the morning, you probably won't get along at all." Beginning in July Steve became a TV news anchor and doesn't think of himself as a famous person, but when people recognize him in the commissary he has to be on his best behavior. "It's hard to deal with, I mean, I used to be anonymous, now I really can't go out to the store wearing cut off shorts, flip flops and a pit stained shirt", he laughs, "though some people are stand-offish as if I've got the plague or something. They tend to just stare, at least they aren't pointing and laughing", Steve chuckles. The worst part about being on TV is having to wear make-up. "I was so embarrassed buying make-up, I had to have my wife with me, I mean hell, I didn't even know how to tell if I was getting the right color. That stuff itches too. I don't know how women can deal with that stuff. I only have it on for a few hours...they wear that crap all day!" Steve has to be careful too since if the slightest smudge of make-up gets on his uniform...it can pretty much ruin the way it looks. "The camera doesn't lie. Sure they say you look fatter on TV, but I think that's just what they say to feel better about themselves I guess." On August 17th of 2002 Steve volunteered his Saturdays to broadcast "Schoolhouse Rock" on Z-98. "It's a blast!", he says. "Where else can you sit around for three hours and rock the air waves?" Steve says the meat and potatoes of his show are the phone calls. "I love 'em, the phone calls are the best part of the show. It gives me a chance to intreract with the audience. When I can play something for someone, it makes me feel good that I've maybe cheered that person up for a little while. Maybe they're having a bad day and just that little bit that I can do to make them smile, or maybe get a laugh means the world to me." Sure he gets the annoying phone calls too but he says the true listeners who call and want to hear something make him feel good. "The best calls I get are the ones where someone isn't sure of the name of the song, or the artist, but they know how it goes. That's when you get them singing to you. It's funny! Whenever I can...those calls ALWAYS get on the air. The hard part is I tend to have as much trouble as they do, remembering a song. They start singing...I can recognize the song they're trying to sing...but I can't for the life of me think of the title or artist." That's when Steve has to dig around to try and find that song. "It can be frustrating. With over 30,000 songs in our database, trying to find that one song is like looking for that set of keys you know you had, you can't remember where you put them, but you know you have them, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to get in the house. When you find those keys...it's more of a relief than anything. That's kind of what it's like when someone calls with a song you know you have...but you don't know where to find it." The Z-FM station has stacks and stacks of CDs. "The station has so many discs, with more coming in every week, it's difficult to keep track of them all. We don't get albums like you find in the store. We get 'Hit Discs' which have about 15 songs from 15 different artists on one disc. You need to have a computer to keep track of all of the songs. Occasionally, I'll get a request...the computer shows me which disc the song is on...but the disc is missing. It really sucks when I can't play a song someone requested because the disc is missing. Makes you feel really bad." Beginning in December of 2002, Steve was approached by the AFN commander about taking 'Schoolhouse' network-wide. "I was shocked! I didn't expect that at all. I really didn't think the show was good enough to be heard in 56 countries. But who am I to say no to something like that?" It was the first radio show of its kind in over 5 years. Steve is proud of his efforts. "It's like my baby. I came up with the idea and I've really seen it grow. When I get the occasional email from Afghanistan, or the phone call from Bosnia, or the message from a spouse or child back here to send to their husband or daddy...it makes me realize that the show is really going that far. That's why I give up my Saturdays. To know that I'm touching people that far away...that far away from their homes and loved ones, means so much to me. I do the show for them." Beginning on April 1st 2004, Steve returned to anchor the nightly television newscast. "It's nice to be back in the news chair. Destinations was fun, but it's a hectic schedule. I never knew where I was going to be or what I'd be doing from day to day. The news show has a much more ridged schedule. Dede's great to work with to!" Steve will be here in Europe until September of 2004. "I love what I'm doing, I'm living my dream and I never want to wake up!" Let's hope he doesn't wake up either. Oh, and the stories about the lawnmower and three wheeler? Email Steve and ask him about them. He tells them best.
Photo by SPC Brenda Grogan

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