Don Steele - National Prominence

National Prominence

Steele became nationally-known as a DJ on radio station KHJ in Los Angeles, where he helped to promote the "ultrahip" top-40 Boss Radio format which began on April 27, 1965. He also appeared on TV as host Boss City and The Real Don Steele TV Show, a show which ran from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV channel 9 in Los Angeles. When the popularity of AM radio gave way to FM stereo in the 1970s, Steele continued to remain a popular personality at the station. Following the years at 93/KHJ, The Real Don Steele continued to be heard on Los Angeles radio stations, including KIQQ (K-100), KRLA, KCBS-FM and KRTH-FM (K-Earth 101), until his death in August 1997.

In the book Los Angeles Radio People, Steele recalled the beginnings of Boss Radio in 1965: "We were standing literally at ground zero, then (the radio format) became a huge giant. It was like a mushroom cloud that went up -- heavy on the mushroom."

Steele was never one to analyze the evolution of rock radio. In a 1995 interview, he insisted, "Look, you take the Motown sound and the British Invasion and you throw in Elvis and Roy Orbison, and you have a music mix that's hard to beat at any time or any place."

"Robert W. Morgan was the first one hired for Boss Radio," KHJ program director Bill Drake said. "He recommended Steele. He flew down from San Francisco. I was a little leery because I had heard he was kind of a crazy man, but it turned out he was very dedicated to his work."

The Real Don Steele stayed at KHJ until June 1973, then moved on to L.A. radio stations KIQQ, KTNQ, KRLA, KODJ, KCBS-FM and arrived at KRTH in July 1992. He recorded commercials, and at one time had a successful, nationally syndicated radio show.

That show, "Live From the 60's", was created by Steele along with friend and contemporary M.G."Machine Gun" Kelly, who followed Steele at KHJ-AM, then D.J'd with him in the '70s at 10Q. "Live From the 60's" was a three-hour program that featured oldies exclusively from the 1960s. Each hour of the show profiled a certain year from that decade. It was written and performed in present tense, and peppered with audio clips of news events, presidential speeches and TV shows that correlated with that particular year. The show ran in syndication, and was marketed to radio stations with an "Oldies" format from 1988 until 1993. Repeats of earlier shows aired in some markets as late as 1996.

Steele died of lung cancer on August 5, 1997, at the age of 61.