Steve Somers

Steve Somers (Born April 17, 1947) is a radio host on the New York City sports radio station WFAN (660 AM). Steve usually works during the evening on weekdays. His program can be anywhere from 6:30pm to 2am, depending on whether or not the station airs a sporting event that night. Somers has been with the station since its beginning in 1987, spending his first few years with the station as the overnight host. He spent a few years co-hosting the 10am-1pm slot with WWOR-TV sports anchor Russ Salzberg. The program was titled "The Sweater and the Schmoozer."

Prior to coming to WFAN he had a tryout at 660am/WNBC NEW YORK.

Steve’s path to sports talk radio WFAN began in the Bay Area where he was born. Even before graduating high school, Steve was working at KYA radio in San Francisco delivering on air high school sports reports.

Steve graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969. One of his roommates at Berkeley was Ben Fong-Torres, who later became a writer at Rolling Stone and was a character in the movie Almost Famous. He began hosting a news talk show on KNEW in San Francisco long before the talk radio format became popular. In fact, "Time Magazine" ran a story naming Steve the youngest talk show host in the country at that period of time.

Television beckoned and Steve joined CBS affiliate KPIX-TV as a weekend sports anchor in 1970, where he won a San Francisco Press Club Award. Steve then moved on to KOVR-TV in Sacramento as the full time on air sports anchor as well as serving as Sports Director.

Next up for Steve was ABC-TV affiliate WXIA in Atlanta as Sports Director. While in Atlanta, he won a local Emmy for a half hour documentary on Ted Turner’s victory in the 1977 America’s Cup.

Steve headed back west to Los Angeles’ KNBC-TV in 1979. While serving as both a television sports reporter during the week and a sports anchor on the weekend, Steve also ventured back in to radio, hosting his own sports talk show on KMPC.

Steve has become a popular fixture on WFAN and has been the recipient of lots of press coverage and critical acclaim. In the 90’s, Steve was featured as part of a story on Late Night New York on the Television news program "48 Hours". He has also been profiled on MTV News and was named one of New York’s “77 Essential New Yorkers” by Time Out New York.

Somers is known as "The Schmoozer" because of his early years on WFAN. He used to be on the all-night show in those years, and he used to refer to the fact that the callers and he were "schmoozing" under the covers (since it was so late at night). "Schmooze" is a Yiddish expression that means to talk casually.

For several years during his stint as overnight host, Somers used the recorded opening of the classic 1930s -1950s Captain Midnight radio show introduction as his own. The intro would begin with the classic, "Captainnnn Midnight," and end with "you'll never want to miss a single broadcast of Captain Midnight, and you'll want all your friends to enjoy it too." Somers subsequently began to be occasionally known as "Captain Midnight" because of this.

Somers has a smooth voice, quick wit, compassionate demeanor, and employs slick wordplay. A unique aspect of Steve's character is that he very rarely will use an abbreviation of a word or phrase (he will always say every digit in WFAN's phone number, and he always refers to the New York Mets as the "Metropolitans", and the New York Knicks as the "Knickerbockers"). Somers is an avid fan of the New York Rangers and jokingly refers to the arch-rivals New York Islanders' home, the Nassau Coliseum, as the Nassau Mausoleum, while also calling the Islanders the "Icelanders." He also talks about how Islanders fans will "drive their tractors to the game". He sarcastically calls the controversial general manager of the New York Rangers, Glen Sather, "Glen the Savior" in reference to the once-heralded coach/GM's inability to produce a winning team. As an unapologetic Mets fan, Steve sometimes makes jabs at the rival New York Yankee; for example, Somers refers to admitted steroid user Jason Giambi as "The Sultan of "Shot." and Alex Rodriguez as "The Lightning Rod" rather than his traditional nickname "A-Rod." Other nicknames for Yankee players include "Johnny Angel" for Johnny Damon, and "Captain Cologne", referring to Derek Jeter's cologne: "Driven."

Referring to Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, he calls him "Barroid" Bonds. For the Sacramento Kings, he refers to them as the "Kings of Sacratomato." He also refers to the Los Angeles Lakers as the "Hollywood Fakers." He also refers to the New England Patriots' Tom Brady and Bill Belichick as "Shady Brady" and the "Hooded Hoodlum", respectively.

Another gimmick that Somers uses involves quietly engaging a caller (often an Islanders fan) in small talk until he builds up excitement ("something like this-!") and proceeds to play a radio highlight that leaves the caller steaming and the audience laughing. An often-used example is Stephane Matteau's winning goal in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.

Yet another gimmick Somers utilizes is his creation of the "Fearless Forecaster." Speaking in the third person, Somers explains the predictions that the "Fearless Forecaster" has made.

Somers has several other "common phrases," including leading into WFAN's 20/20 updates by saying very fast "you get a flash, a twenty-twenty update, the whole thing, with ." He crescendos to the name, then the update sound immediately starts.

Somers is not only famous for his sign-on on every show (see below)- "Good evening to you, and how ye be? Steve Somers here, and you there." He then goes into a monologue about recent happenings in the world of sports. His monologue is usually several minutes long and is filled with puns and jokes on many different levels, from obvious to subtle. It may also include audio highlights that he and the producer have selected. Somers' sign-on is frequently used by ESPN anchor Steve Berthiaume by saying, " [Player 1] here, [Player 2] there" when commenting on a good play in SportsCenter.

Somers (with one M) is not to be confused with another late-night talk radio host, truck-talk host Steve Sommers (with 2 Ms).

Commercials

Particularly when Somers was working the overnight shift on WFAN, many commercials would air on a regular basis. Steve cultivated a very close relationship with a number of these spots (often prefacing them with "for the [x] th time tonight.... for your listening pleasure...", including:

*Cowboy Marty's Boots

*The Best of Victor Borge on Video

*Men's Hair Now (featuring Chris "Mad Dog" Russo's opening of "Face the Facts! You are losing your hair and it is not going to grow back!" Somers would often segue into this spot by saying something like "...for the Strangers, and the Knick-Knacks, it is time to....FACE the FACTS...!"

Movie career

Steve appeared in the 1979 film "The Visitor".

Callers

Often when a famous caller calls in Steve will introduce him as "a first time caller" and then say when that caller talks "wait a minute, you're not a first time caller. Maybe just first time tonight."

Regular listeners and some time callers to the Steve Somers program include Charles Grodin and Tony Roberts. Jerry Seinfeld is also a frequent listener and caller to Steve’s show and has served as a guest host on the program several times in the past.

Arguably the most knowledgeable caller to WFAN is William Stimers from Brentwood, more popularly known as "Bill the Baker", who has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball, along with an unmatched ability to recall not only specific baseball moments in the past 50+ years, but the exact dates that those games were played. Although Bill calls the FAN on an almost daily basis, Steve - along with his listeners - is so constantly in awe and impressed with Bill's baseball intellect that he often jokes that Bill "has to be looking at a book." On 23 February 2008, Bill was the victim of a hit-and-run accident on Long Island and suffered severe injuries. [cite web|url=http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-i5591977feb26,0,4970355.story|date=26 February 2008|publisher=NY Newsday|accessdat=2008-03-03|title=Man, 61, seriously hurt in hit-and-run]

Another renown caller is Jerome Mittelman, widely known as "Jerome from Manhattan." Jerome refers to Somers as "Steveareno." A die-hard Yankees, Jets, and Knicks fan, Jerome is famous for his on-air take-no-prisoners blistering rants and raves, as well as his unique take on the English language. One of his favorite exclamatory phrases is "frickin' frack!" He refers to the bullpen as the "ballpen," and, when his teams aren't doing so good, he shouts that the team is "...done! D-O-E-N [sic] , DONE!" The 50-something Jerome lives in the same Manhattan building as his mother, and his relationship status is intriguing enough for Steve to once give Jerome $60 to take a lady out on a date, only for Jerome to keep the money and not go out on the date. Steve's former colleague Sid Rosenberg once asked Jerome if he was upset that he was not taking his eagerly anticipated trip "...to Colorado?", and Jerome replied, "No, to Denver." Unfortunately, Mr. Mittelman's health problems have kept him from the WFAN airwaves on his usual daily basis since late 2004, although he did call on 31 March 2005 and January 28, 2007 to appease his fans; he is under doctor's orders to refrain from calling because his abjectly unsubdued demeanor while on-air may further complicate his health. Calls on February 24, 2007 and March 25, 2007 featured a subdued Jerome, hinting at further personal difficulty. Steve, however, did not ask for details. Jerome has returned to calling in often in June of 2008, but has showcased his subdued personality and has not "flown off the handle" as he had previously. His calls are preceded by a parody of The Twilight Zone theme with an humorous introduction for Jerome. Steve once spoke with Jerome's "mudda", gaining invaluable information into the life of Mr. Mittleman. Mrs. Mittleman told Steve that Jerome was a premature baby, and that as a child he was forbidden from playing sports by his doctors because he was too small. However, "Jerry" always snuck out and wanted to play sports with the bigger kids.

Doris Bauer [c.1945-2003] , more affectionately known as "Doris from Rego Park," was a fan of the New York Metropolitans, and was beloved by WFAN listeners. Her knowledge of the Mets and baseball as a whole approached that of Bill the Baker, and she called the station almost daily since its first night on-air. Doris suffered from neurofibromatosis, and at least three different cancers; nevertheless, she kept the Mets and WFAN close to her heart until her premature passing at age 58."Jay/Gustav/Chester" is a wacky character that likes to call Steve during the baseball season, usually with a bizarre accent and makes wacky comments that are often very topsy turvy such as his bizarre suggestions and sometimes even sound effects which leaves Steve to say rather funny comments such as the classic "Gustav is on too much coffee, arthritis rub and flax seed oil." Another classic phone call involved the "Jay" version to suggest that Yankee Stadium should have a different sound, and actually made the sound effect on air, causing Steve to comment on the sound effects and compared it to his own level of comedy. Jay later called another time as "Chester," and Steve admitted that he was getting "off the charts".

Jerry from Queens," aka Jerry Seinfeld, has called the station many times over the years. An avid Mets and Steve Somers fan, Seinfeld has even appeared in-studio along with The Schmoozer, as well as guest hosting. Seinfeld once compared coming on Somers' show to visiting his uncle and aunt.

Once in a while, a Jewish caller will say a few words in Yiddish to Somers, who usually responds "(caller's name) is getting ethnic!"

Begins most sentences with the word "Listen" and uses the term "but the bottom line is" frequently.

References