Steve Stone was born and raised in Iowa and is currently in
Ashland Wisconsin with his wife Brianna and their three dogs.
Steve began his radio career in 1979 when he called the
local radio station, KCII in Washington, Iowa on a dare and asked for a
job. The management of the radio station
gave him the opportunity and training and after a short time hired him to do a
Saturday night radio show. Within a month, he had taken on the Sunday morning
show as well and a few months following that he was hired full time for the
nights at the radio station.
Over the coming months, Steve took the opportunity to fill
positions as music director and news director and all day-part air shifts to
further his knowledge of the radio business.
In 1981, he was offered the position of Program Director at
WCAZ in Carthage Illinois. During his tenure there, he assisted in putting an FM Oldies
station on the air with a studio in Keokuk Iowa, began his experience and
career in sales and eventually assisted in the sale of WCAZ FM to a local
investor, taking the position of General Manager.
In 1995, Telecom Giant AT&T recruited and moved him to Texas as a retention specialist, charged with keeping current customers with the company and winning back those that had left AT&T for other telecommunications carriers. While at AT&T, Steve became a “Certified Network Engineer” for the company, specializing in Data and Internet solutions, while maintaining an average attainment of over 180% of his quota. In 2000, he moved to Broadwing Communications as a Sales Manager and Trainer for the Houston office. Within a few months he was promoted to Director of Inside Sales.
Having had enough of the big corporate rate race, Steve
moved his family to rural Northeast Connecticut in the fall of 2005 to partner
and manage a Family Alpaca Farm and General Store. He returned to the airways
after meeting Connecticut Radio Legend, Wayne Norman on the alpaca farm, who
asked him to sit in when he was away. During his time at WILI, Steve also
served as afternoon News Director and a create specialist.
In 2018, Steve returned to Iowa to be closer to his father
who was in poor health, as afternoon News Director at a six station cluster in
Burlington Iowa. Then took the position of morning show co-host on the
News-Talk entity and Operations Manager for the stations, less than a year
later.
Steve is currently the Operations Manager for the four
station Ashland group and morning personality for J-96, WJJH FM.