By David F. Rooney
He’s opinionated, fun, cares about the community and plays a mean guitar. He is DJ Steve Smith and he’s coming to you over the air from 6 am – 10 am at CKCR 106.1 FM.
“We’re calling it The Over Easy Show because I’m a very scrambled kind of guy,” he said in an interview Friday.
Smith has been on the air since June and has taken to airwaves like a duck to water. His debut on air has coincided with a few other changes at The Big R. The station has moved from its obscure storefront operation near First and Orton to nicer digs on the second floor of the Alpine Village Mall. But the biggest changes are on air.
“We’re broadcasting on both AM and FM for the next month, “That buys us some time to make the FM signal as crystal clear as possible. The other big change is a listener-driven one. We’re moving The Delilah Show from midnight to 5 pm and John Tesh will replace Delilah in the 7 pm-midnight slot.”
Well, that’s fine and good. But what about his own show?
Smith’s an irrepressible kind of guy and very community-minded, too. And that’s very apparent from his show.
“The premise of the show is to make sure that everything from a grannies’ quilt show to local sports gets a plug,” he said. “Our listeners want it to be as much like the Big R days when it was really local. That works for me.”
What also works for him is the fact that radio is still a relevant medium.
“A good example of that occurred back in July when a couple from Kamloops lost their Shi Tzu for 17 days when they were visiting Revelstoke,” Smith said. “I plugged it for days and then someone called to say they saw it near the water reservoir while they were driving by. They had heard about it on the radio. I called the owners in Kamloops and they dropped everything to come back. The dog, which was called Six, eventually showed up at a home on Fourth Street. The woman there called to say it was dirty and emaciated but alive. Its owners were ecstatic. So it’s not a big thing but I guess that shows the power of radio.”
That’s pretty characteristic of Smith. He’s the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and enjoys being able to help people even as he entertains them on air.
