{"id":5017,"date":"2014-09-19T18:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T23:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=5017"},"modified":"2014-09-19T18:04:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T23:04:07","slug":"a-grateful-richard-steele-to-retire-from-wbez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/09\/19\/a-grateful-richard-steele-to-retire-from-wbez\/","title":{"rendered":"WBEZ's Richard Steele to retire 'with gratitude'"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Richard<\/a>

<\/a> Richard Steele<\/p><\/div>\n

Richard Steele, who\u2019s been a warm, wise and engaging presence on Chicago radio since the early \u201970s, is retiring after 27 years with public radio WBEZ FM 91.5.<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago Public Media announced Friday that Steele, 72, would step down October 10 from his full-time position as program host and correspondent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been my privilege to work with such a great Chicago talent at WBEZ,\u201d Sally Eisele, managing editor of public affairs for WBEZ, said in a statement. \u201cOn air, he has helped shape the very sound of Chicago Public Media. Behind the scenes, he has been a great mentor to his colleagues and will leave behind a large legacy that we will benefit from for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

But retirement doesn\u2019t mean Steele will leave the airwaves entirely. He\u2019ll continue to host \u201cThe Barber Shop Show,\u201d the weekly talk show he tapes at Carter's Barbershop in the North Lawndale neighborhood. It airs Fridays and Saturdays on Vocalo<\/a> and Sundays on WBEZ.<\/a><\/p>\n

Born Richard Slaughter in Brooklyn, New York, Steele graduated from Hirsch Metropolitan High School on Chicago\u2019s South Side and landed his first full-time job as program director and on-air personality at WTOY in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1968.<\/p>\n

His Chicago radio resume encompasses a wide range of formats and stations, starting in 1970 at the former WGRT, where he became known as \u201cThe Real Steele\u201d and served as program director when the station was relaunched as WJPC. Other stops included WBMX, WVON, WGCI AM and FM, and WVAZ FM 102.7, where he kicked off <\/a>the station\u2019s urban adult-contemporary format as its first morning personality.<\/p>\n

Steele joined WBEZ as a part-time jazz host in 1987 and went on to anchor many of the station\u2019s most popular music and talk programs, including \u201cThe Richard Steele Show,\u201d \u201cTalk of the City\u201d and the flagship newsmagazine \u201cEight Forty-Eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe a debt of gratitude to [former program director] Ken Davis who hired me, believing that I had the capacity to shed the trappings of a commercial radio music personality, and become a \u2018connoisseur of content,\u2019 \u201d Steele said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m also grateful to the multitude of great colleagues I\u2019ve worked with and learned from. Their powerful influence helped me to become a better broadcaster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Steele, who\u2019s been a warm, wise and engaging presence on Chicago radio since the early \u201970s, is retiring after 27 years with public radio WBEZ FM 91.5. Chicago Public Media announced Friday that Steele, 72, would step down October 10 from his full-time position as program host and correspondent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5017"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5022,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5017\/revisions\/5022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}