In 1967, San Francisco was bracing itself for the “Summer of Love,” an event that would see hundreds of thousands of people flock to the city for the gathering. That same year, current Los Angeles Dodgers radio broadcaster Charley Steiner began a journey of his own, one that saw him leave his hometown of Brooklyn, New York and make his way to Peoria.
Now, in light of the announcement over winter break detailing the new Charley Steiner School of Sports Communication at Bradley, the Scout talked with Steiner about his Bradley experience and
his career.
“About an hour after I got into my dorm room, I went across the street to the student center,” Steiner said. “On the second floor was the radio station, which was one room divided by a piece of glass, a table on one side of the glass and a control board and a couple of turntables on the other side, and that would turn out to be my home for the next four-and-a-half years.”
While at Bradley, Steiner started his career as a newscaster for WIRL in 1969. Two years later, he moved to Davenport, Iowa to host a sports show on KSTT before leaving after one year for Connecticut.
After stops in Cleveland and New York, Steiner joined ESPN in 1988. The path to get to that point in his career was not exactly a short one.
“I was not exactly an overnight success, I had already been in the business about 20 years,” Steiner said. “They started putting me on television everyday, and as I was beginning to get better at the X’s and O’s of television, ESPN started to get really popular.”
Steiner stayed with the worldwide leader until 2002, when he joined the New York Yankees’ radio booth. While with the Yankees, Steiner called Aaron Boone’s Game 7 home run that sent New York to the World Series.
Almost exactly one year later, Steiner left New York to realize a childhood dream: calling Los Angeles Dodgers games.
“All I ever wanted to be when I was a kid, when I was seven years old, I wanted to be the announcer for the Dodgers,” Steiner said. “That was always the goal that I had. The Dodgers unfortunately moved away from Brooklyn when I was eight, so my career path was stymied for a little bit.”
Looking back on that career, Steiner’s favorite moment had little to do with sports and a lot to do with the relationships he made along the way.
“My favorite moment at ESPN had nothing to do with being on the air,” Steiner said. “We had a director named Dennis Sedory who passed away entirely too young in the early ‘90s. We had been friends prior to me going to ESPN, and I was asked by the family to do the eulogy…It’s probably the moment I’m most proud of in my ESPN experience.”
Even though he is no longer on ESPN, Steiner has remained close to the broadcasting industry and has seen the profession undergo changes over time.
“It seems to me when I watch TV now…most of them seem to major in pretty as opposed to having any kind of experience,” Steiner said. “So as I watch stories evolve live, when [they’re] on the air without a script that’s when you know if the broadcaster has any sort of gravitas or experience.”
Steiner’s experience in the field allowed him to share some advice for current students who could be looking to follow in his footsteps.
“What any young aspiring writer/broadcaster must be prepared to do is to sacrifice a ton of energy to be the best you can,” Steiner said. “It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it is. The advice that I give is ‘Come on in, the water is fine, but be prepared to pay your dues.’”
Once you are in the field, Steiner said he believes it is important not to let yourself get in the way of the message you are trying to communicate.
“At the end of the day, we are storytellers, we are not the story,” he said. “We are the messengers, we are not the message. The story is all important. Speaking the truth as best as you see it is all important.”
