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Published on Monday, 19 March 2012 10:29
On Friday, Steve Touhy officially exited STARadio, where he had worked for most of the last seven years, including the last four as the morning show host/co-host on WYKT-FM. He also had been heard on sister-stations WKAN-AM and WXNU-FM over this time period and acted as Operations Manager. Today it was announced that he has joined Newsweb's WKIF-FM in a dual executive role, effective immediately.
As one half of the Tomano & Touhy radio team for over 15 years, nearly seven of which was on south-suburban WYKT-FM/The Kat 105.5 and/or WKAN-AM 1320. Steve Touhy took over as solo host of The Kat's morning show after partner & friend Mike Tomano took over as Vice-President for the STARadio Kankakee cluster of stations at the
end of last summer and gave up working the early AM radio shift.
On Friday, Steve Touhy posted the following on his
Facebook page: "After almost 7 years I have parted ways with Staradio. I am very thankful for my time there and all that I accomplished and was a part of." Adding: "Thank you most of all to everyone that listened to the shows that I did and to everyone that sponsored the shows as well."
He now joins the Newsweb Radio Corporation-owned radio station WKIF-FM 92.7, aka "9FM, We Play Anything." Touhy will now take over as the station's new Operations Manager and General Sales Manager.
In a statement from Newsweb this morning, Steve Touhy said: "I'm extremely excited about this opportunity and look forward to great things with 9FM!"
WKIF-FM runs the classic hits "9FM" format, very similar to what Newsweb used to air on three of its suburban frequencies closer to Chicago a few years ago. In addition to WKIF-FM, Newsweb also owns WCPT-AM, WCPT-FM, WCPQ-FM, WCPY-FM, WAIT-AM, WSBC-AM, WNDZ-AM, and WCFJ-AM.
Touhy's radio journey has been a long one with many twists and turns... and firings.
Steve Touhy fell in love with radio after being a regular caller into Danny Bonaduce's radio show on WLUP-AM in the 80s. From there, he went to broadcasting school and began working as a production assistant intern with radio legend John Records Landecker on his WJMK-FM morning show, learning the radio production craft from super-producer Rick Kaempfer. Following that, Touhy teamed up with Wes Malecki for "The Steve & Wes Show" on WEEF-AM, which moved to WJJG-AM, and then WONX-AM before the partnership came to an end. During this time Touhy also produced Joe Gentile's morning radio show on WJJG-AM. Touhy was doing a solo radio radio show when he was contacted by Mike Tomano, a Second City alum who was also working solo in radio, to see if they would work well together as a radio team. Soon after, the Tomano & Touhy Show began on WYKT-FM. Unfortunately, that lasted only about a year before Touhy was let go from the station. After that, he produced the nationally syndicated Dick Staub radio show, did a morning show in Fort Dodge, IA on KKEZ-FM, and did stand up comedy almost exclusively for three years. He even released his own comedy CD, entitled "Fired Again," which poked fun at the many times he had been fired from radio stations, including once while actually on the air. (For a few years, he was even known as Steve "The Fired Guy" Touhy.) From there, he reunited with Tomano on WYKT-FM until a format flip occurred, did an afternoon show on WCMY-AM, a morning show on WRKX-FM, and an afternoon talk show on WKAN-FM, until finally returning to morning radio with Tomano on WYKT-FM in 2008.
In a rarity for him and his radio career, Touhy voluntarily parted company with STARadio on the best of terms, and was not fired this time. He remains friends with everybody there, including his longtime pal, Mike Tomano. Hopefully, there will be no pinks slips in his future at WKIF-FM, either.
