My boy Steve McCoy started DJing on Atlanta radio in 1981 on the station I listened to back in the day Z-93. His job was to be an “on air personality” and he was with a couple of other stations here in Atlanta, also in Dallas and Denver.
On air personalities do all kinds of crazy stuff to be entertaining. Prank phone calls, bogus interviews, remote broadcasts from crazy places etc..
Steve-O was a funny dude for many years in this city. Then he got let go in 2010 and got a job in Denver. His family still lived here and he came home when he could, but as you can imagine that sucked. He lasted 18 months in Denver and decided to hang it up and move back to A town. He then got a job for news radio 106.7. This isn’t the best fit, old funny boy Steve reporting the news but hey, it’s a paying gig.
So while reporting the news, Steve was expecting a phone call from Donald Trump for an interview and the call never came. Steve, resourceful funny man that he is and having been promoting this interview, whipped out a recording of an old interview and played it as if it was just happening.
Here’s the problem. On a radio station that is mostly music and you are an on air personality, you aren’t expected to be all that credible and if you get busted playing some BS interview, that’s no biggie. BUT… If you are a newscaster on a news radio station and you play some BS interview, it’s yo ass. Because then you are a news reporter who’s just a big fat liar.
If only Steve knew then what he knows now, poor guy. I think he’s 61 and he has Parkinson’s now. I have no idea what his finances are like but I hope he doesn’t need a job to pay the rent.
All in all though, I love ya Steve buddy and I’m sorry this happened to you!
TED — OUT