I forgot this ancient relic was back on the radio. He had his wife on and she sounded interesting for a few minutes. It seems like 1979 was a short time ago,but this guy has been hanging around the fringe of broadcasting since then it seems. He used to constantly bitch to his minions on how he was bigger than "all this" and he should be on the national stage.

He was wrong of course and the fact WLS gave him work is a shock to me at this point of his career.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

His current WLS show is terrible.

Him and his 2 goons are always trying to one-up each other with a one-liner and everyone just ends up talking over one another. Dahl has made millions. He should have just went away 15 years ago so his fans can remember him in a positive light.

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I could never understand how Dahl, Mancow or Kevin Matthews could make a living on radio..All three are boring and their show was awful. National stage? These guys shouldn't have been on a local platform.

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I'm assuming you're too young to remember when Dahl first hit town and how different, great, and important he was. Stern stole his entire act from Dahl. And Dahl's influence is pervasive in all of talk radio today, especially in Chicago.

I'm sure Mac would tell you how Dahl has influenced him and his career. A guy like bernstein would probably pretend he doesn't know who Dahl is, but I think it's likely that if Dahl hadn't existed bernstein wouldn't be doing what he's doing.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Yep everything from parody songs through blowing off commercial breaks to his kid's birth as well as a vasectomy on the air. Admittedly he is now what he was against but he still isn't Wally Phillips.

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Elections have consequences.

I missed the early years of Steve (both without Garry and with) because I was into R&B in high school and mostly listened to WBMX if I happened to have a radio on. But I was around for what I think their heyday was between 1985 and when they split up in 1993. Much like Roe Conn later, Steve just wasn't particularly listenable after Garry left. I don't think I've listened to more than three hours of Steve in the last 15 years.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Great show today!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

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Freedom is our Strength.

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The problem is the 2 goons are actually much more entertaining than the host. I was a huge Dahl fan back in the day but he ceased to be funny when he got sober. Good for him but bad for his audience.

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

This is really the crux of the problem for MANY entertainers. They were successful and creative because of the booze and the alcohol. With that kind of lifestyle either you die young, or you quit the party lifestyle and become stale. I guess you can't win either way.

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Who really still listens to Steve Dahl regularly?

I was too young to hear anybody in 70's or 80's but I tried to give Dahl a shot several times in the 90's. He followed Stern on 105.9 ..his show was brutal, I often thought my radio was broken or speakers blew after longgg dead air lapses.

I've never heard anybody but Dahl fans locally say that Stern stole his act, I doubt Howard ever heard his show..the first " shock jock" was a black dude in D.C. ( Petey Green) if anybody influenced Stern, it's him.

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IIRC, the Stern/Dahl story eminates from Stern being in Detroit around and after the time Dahl became big there. Then Dahl came to Chicago and Stern started in Detroit.

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Elections have consequences.

Right. Of course Stern heard his show. Dahl was groundbreaking in Detroit. I believe Stern copped bits directly from Dahl at the time.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Stern replaced Dahl in Detroit. JORR is correct. No matter how much Stern tries to pretend otherwise, he got his act from Dahl.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

312, you have some interesting takes on entertainment, and I usually just mutter "what an idiot" to myself and go about reading the rest of whatever thread you've contributed to. Not today, pallie.

I actually agree with part of your sentiment. The Mancow part. That guy's a complete asswipe. However, Dahl and Matthews? Completely offbase, as usual. Dahl basically indoctrinated Chicago to "guy talk," and though he lost me in the 2000s with his asslicking sycophants and "wheel of meat," the Stever is an all time great. Probably the best ever around these parts.

Matthews' absurb "theater of the mind" was genius. I realize it may not have been for everyone, but to say he shouldn't have been on a local station is just stupid.

Stern stole entire bits from Dahl as well. Being the voice of God. The black reporter in a helicopter bit that's in Private Parts.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Steve Dahl is my favorite radio guy of all time. OF ALL TIME.

But, I think he was pretty much done by 1990. I did see his 20 Years in the Can show at The Vic. It was pretty bad. I never liked the parody songs. I thought that was the worst part of his show.

But, he was hilarious when I listened from about 1983-1990. I can't listen today. I check in every once in a while but he's really turned into Wally Phillips, ironically.

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You know me like that.

Calling the Bijou Theater. Putting his wife and parents on the air.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

The early parody songs were great- "Oh Wally", "Ayatollah", and "Another Kid In The Crawl".

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Freedom is our Strength.

IIRC, Dahl was an unfortunate example of extreme abuse of a court's injunctive powers. I forget with which station it was in town, but during a contract dispute, Dahl stopped going to work. A court enjoined him from not showing up to work, which is about as close to you can get as court-ordered bondage in this day and age. But to hear others tell it, that's when Dahl got really funny/clever, and took every chance he could to shit on his employer.

You are well aware of that place?

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Elections have consequences.

If you listened to Stern or Dahl, you have heard of it.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I was channel surfing in the car the other day and came across his show. I was surprised to hear him on air....I listened for a little while but clicked away fairly quickly. The one thing I took away from it...was that his voice sounded terrible / weak. I mean that from a technology / amplification standpoint, and not from a health, so-to-speak, standpoint.

I was a fan of Dahl's back in the day.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Him trying to get fired or taken off the AM dial was the greatest radio I've ever heard.

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You know me like that.

A guy I know, Jim Desmond, had a song called "Bijou". One of the lyrics was, "Unzip your pants for some back row romance, at the Bijou". He even made a video for the song, which I believe was directed by a guy named Dan Dinello who was part of the Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris crew.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Eh, those three were OK to hear one time. I also wasn't a big fan of the Gary Dotson trial transcripts.

But, even still, loved that show and would run home from school to go to my room to listen to it since my parents told me I couldn't.

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You know me like that.

Good podcast topic for Dr. Ken. Let's get some Dahl talk going. You can spend the entire segment eating with long pauses of dead air.

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It's a splash on, Governor.

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Freedom is our Strength.