Phlash Phelps

Phlash Phelps

Phlash with his late dog Clyde in Montauk, New York
Born Steve Phelps
(1966-04-11)April 11, 1966
Baltimore area
Residence Maryland
Occupation Disk jockey, radio personality
Years active 1984-present

Steve "Phlash" Phelps[1] (born April 11, 1966)[2] is a radio personality and disc jockey on Sirius-XM Radio, broadcasting from Washington, D.C.. He hosts the weekday morning drive time Phlash Phelps Phunny Pharm on the '60s on 6 channel, which plays music hits from the 1960s. He has been with SiriusXM, and before that XM Satellite Radio, since before it began in 2001. Prior to that, Phelps held 17 different radio jobs in 17 years, moving around the country to work in a series of secondary and tertiary markets, often getting fired from his job in the process. He is known for his fast-talking, retro style of broadcasting and for making American geography a focal point of his show.

Early life and first exposure to radio

Phelps grew up in Baltimore[3] - or, in some accounts, Towson[1] - in Maryland. He has at least one sibling, an older sister.[4]

As a youngster he listened to Casey Kasem and his American Top 40 countdown show and became very knowledgable about what the current hits were.[4] After winning a station contest he received a tour of the studios of Baltimore's WBSB (B-104); at age 15 he then knew that being a deejay is what he wanted for a career.[4]

The deejays that influenced Phelps included Baltimore's Johnny Walker on WFBR (AM), with his sound effects and personality-driven style, as well as some of the jocks on B-104.[5] In addition, he listened to Rick Dees and the nationally syndicated Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 countdown show, which included plenty of sound effects and humor.[5] A final influence was the fast-talking Terry "Motormouth" Young, whom he heard on WCAU (98.1) in nearby Philadelphia during its early-mid-1980s Hot Hits phase.[5]

17 jobs in 17 years

Phlash Phelps radio jobs
Station Place Start End Reason
WQSR (Q105) Baltimore, MD Oct 1983 Sep 1984 intern
WLAS-AM (AM Stereo 910) Jacksonville, NC Sep 1984 Jan 1985 fired
WOKI (Hits 100) Knoxville, TN Jun 1985 Jun 1985 one day?
KOJM (610) Havre, MT Feb 1986 Apr 1987
WKYN (97 KYN) St. Marys, PA Aug 1987 Dec 1987
WKHI (100 KHI) Ocean City, MD Jan 1988 Dec 1988 fired
WTHZ (Z103) Tallahassee, FL Feb 1989 Sep 1989
WKMZ (Power 97–5) Martinsburg, WV Dec 1989 Sep 1990
WBBE/WDJB (B106) Fort Wayne, IN Sep 1990 ? fired
WDJB (B106) Fort Wayne, IN ? Sep 1995 re-fired
WSSX-FM (95SX) Charleston, SC Sep 1995 Jan 1996 fired
WPXY-FM (98PXY) Rochester, NY Feb 1996 Jun 1996
WTCF (100.5 The Fox) Saginaw, MI Jun 1996 Nov 1996
WJKC (Isle 95) Christiansted, USVI Nov 1996 Sep 1999 quit/fired
KITI-FM (Live 95) Centralia, WA Oct 1999 Oct 1999 fired
KRXY (94-5 Roxy) Olympia, WA Oct 1999 Jul 2000 quit
WCKZ (Z102) Fort Wayne, IN Jul 2000 Aug 2000
XM Radio/Sirius XM Washington, DC Aug 2000 present

Sources:[6][7]

After a potential internship at B-104 fell through, through more contest entries Phelps parlayed his knowledge of current music to the program director at local rival WQSR (Q105) instead, garnering an internship there when he was 17 and still in high school.[4]

His first on-air job was at WLAS-AM (AM Stereo 910) in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he started on September 10, 1984, and stayed until January 1985.[6][7]

In the common industry practice he then attempted to work his way up the ladder, holding a series of on-air jobs in secondary and tertiary markets.[2] For instance, in 1995 after his departure from WDJB (B-106 FM) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he joined WSSX (95SX) in Charleston, South Carolina as its morning drive personality.[8]

His median length of stay at these stations was 6 months. His longest stint was at WDJB (B-106 FM) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he spent five years, although that did include being fired and re-hired (and eventually re-fired).

Phelps is known for his never-ending travels around the United States. By one telling, by the time he was 29 years old, he had visited 47 of the 50 states;[3] by another, by the time he was age 23 he had been to 49 states, with his 50th state added at age 29.[9] A true radio enthusiast, at times in his career he traveled to different radio markets in the country just to tape the broadcasts of different personalities.[3]

Phelps created a show that reflected his desire to capture both the craziness of Rick Dees and the fastness of Terry "Motormouth" Young.[5] As the title of the Phlash Phelps Phunny Pharm indicates, a central conceit is to replace all instances of the letter 'f' with 'ph'. Thus his fan club was called the Phlash Phelps Phunny Pharm Phan Clan[10] (and years later, listeners would call in and recite what number they were in the club). When he talks about the professional American football league, he refers to the "NPHL" rather than the "NFL"; the 27th state to join the union is "Phlorida", not "Florida", and so forth.[6] The fast talking is exemplified by showing how fast he can recite the letters of the alphabet backwards and similar feats.[11]

By 2000 he was back in Fort Wayne, this time doing mornings for WCKZ (Rhythmic/102.3), before leaving in September 2000 for the East Coast and satellite radio.[12]

Phelps would later put together a nearly two-minute-long mock-heroic comic audio montage of aircheck snippets from each of his stops, along with a voice yelling "Fired!" (or, in his show's style, "Phired!") after many of them.[7][13] On-air radio people losing their jobs and moving on is an occupational hazard; as longtime Midwestern radio personality Corey Deitz has said, "Now, I've been fired plenty of times myself during my radio career – though certainly not as many times as Phlash Phelps. Apparently, Phelps has made losing a job almost an art form and for that, I salute him."[13]

'60s on 6

For the fledgling '60s on 6 Channel on XM Satellite Radio, which broadcasts from Washington, D.C.,[3] Phelps served not only as the most visible host but as music director as well.[1] He was hired on August 21, 2000, more than a full year in advance of the service going on the air on September 21, 2001.[2] He was attractive because of his ability to replicate the madcap 1960s style of deejays;[14] as one XM channel executive said, he was hired because "You're our kind of nut."[2]

The channel had deep playlists and lots of personality in the airtime.[10] Under Phelps' direction, they had a "Power to the People" feature wherein listeners could choose songs that would be played and write stories about what they meant to them.[15]

XM Satellite Radio headquarters in Washington, DC, 2006

In September 2003, as part of promoting XM Satellite Radio, Phelps and colleague Kurt Gilchrist, a DJ on the service's companion '70s on 7 channel, embarked on a trip to visit all of the Lower 48 states within 14 days.[1] They broadcast their shows from a customized SUV as the two-year-old service was expecting to soon gain its millionth subscriber.[1]

By the time of the merger of XM with Sirius Satellite Radio in 2008, '60s on 6 was XM's fifth most popular channel.[16] One the merger happened, the channel began to reflect some of the more conservative aspects of the Sirius equivalent channel '60s Vibrations.[10] While Phelps was one of the few DJs to come through with his timeslot intact, some of the personality-driven aspects of his show were toned down and the playlist was restricted more to Top 40 hits, with many songs from the pre-British Invasion era being moved to the '50s on 5 channel.[10] Phelps stated in 2011 that of the sixteen personalities on the air when XM began in August 2001, he was one of only three remaining.[6] By the 2010s, Phelps' show was being broadcast from Monday through Friday from 6 am - 1 pm.[11]

Phelps' role on radio has gotten him additional employment at times, such as in 2008 when he was named the voice of the Dow Louisiana Federal Credit Union.[17]

By the time he was in his forties, he had visited all 50 states at least twice each.[9] His best friend and traveling companion, Clyde the Beagle, died on January 30, 2010. Phlash reported that he and Clyde had visited all the 48 continental state and he will take Clyde's ashes with him when he visits Alaska and Hawaii. His stated interests are closely related to travel and include driving, taking photographs, and riding rollercoasters (by 2011 he had gone on over 600 different ones).[6]

His shows feature a "City of the Day" segment in which he gives indirect clues to some town or city in the United States (or sometimes Canada) and listeners call in with their guesses.[18] The location he picks is usually linked in some fashion with a current event or historical anniversary.[18] Indeed, American geography is a focal point of Phelps' show, which fits in well with satellite radio having a national rather than local audience. Listeners call in from all across the country, with their current or intended location and the roads they are traveling on often being the focus of discussion.[3][19] Phelps is at ease talking with everyone; as one listener said, "He can speak with the president of a music company or a little old priest from [a small town]."[3] As columnist Jeff Maguire of the Metroland Media Group has written, Phelps' show features "his incredible knowledge of geography and places on this continent. ... There doesn't seem to be a single nook or cranny in the U.S. or Canada that he hasn't visited."[19] When he is off and a replacement is on-air, it is usually because he is out driving again.[19]

In 2014, to celebrate his 14 years on satellite radio, frequent listener and former Senator and Governor from Idaho and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne had the American flag flown over the United States Capitol dome in his honor.[14] By the 2010s his on-air manner was considerably calmer than in the past, although he occasionally featured one of his fast-talking bits.

There is also a thoroughbred racehorse called Phlash Phelps, named following an on-air suggestion by Phelps that he would like a horse named after him just like his colleague Cousin Brucie had.[2] The equine Phlash Phelps had a strong season on Maryland racetracks in 2015 as a four-year-old, culminating in a win in the Maryland Million Turf at Pimlico Race Course.[20] He lost his attempt to defend that title in 2016, however.[21]

In April 2016, when Phelps turned 50 years old, he began a plan to visit all 50 states again within the space of a year.[3] The venture gained enough publicity that the Lamar Advertising Company erected a billboard on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania off an exit in Scranton to honor Phelps, who made the state second on his list.[3] By mid-late June he had already been to 30 states; he said, "Usually every weekend I’m gone. I’ve been traveling 1,800 miles a week".[2] By early December he had been to 48, with only Florida and Hawaii remaining.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Folkenflik, David (September 3, 2003). "Radio DJs trying to turn more onto XM". The Baltimore Sun.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "SiriusXM DJ Phlash Phelps Enjoying Ride On Air and Track". Pimlico Race Course. June 24, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mattei, Matt (April 8, 2016). "SiriusXM DJ Phlash Phelps visiting Scranton on national tour, checking out billboard in his honor". The Times Leader. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Phlash Phelps: First Job in Radio (Video interview). Theairplaychannel.com. 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Phlash Phelps: First Influences (Video interview). Theairplaychannel.com. 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "About me/General". PlashPhelps.com. February 8, 2011. Archived from the original on March 6, 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 Phlash Phelps Promo-Resume. SoundCloud. 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Chuck (October 28, 1995). "Vox Jox". Billboard. p. 101.
  9. 1 2 Phlash Phelps: I've Been Everywhere (Video interview). Theairplaychannel.com. 2015. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Austerman, Mike (January 14, 2009). "On the Radio: Sirius XM 60's on 6: Where did our love go?". Michiguide.com.
  11. 1 2 "Show Schedules". SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Indiana RadioWatch: September 23, 2000". Indianaradio.net. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
  13. 1 2 Deitz, Corey. "Giving Steady Employment a Bad Name: Phlash Phelps Gets Phired Ophten". About.com. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Vuolo, Art, Jr. (August 21, 2014). "Vuolo Commentary: Phlash Phelps celebrates 14 years at Satellite Radio". Michiguide.com.
  15. ↑ "Larry Behle '73 Organizes Unusual High School Reunion". DePauw University. June 14, 2004. See also Gelarden, R. Joseph (June 12, 2004). "unknown". The Indianapolis Star. p. 29. Retrieved November 27, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Hinckley, David (May 6, 2008). "Howard Stern rules satellite radio". Daily News. New York.
  17. ↑ "Dow Louisiana Gets Phlashy". Credit Union Journal. New York. September 1, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
  18. 1 2 Maguire, Jeff (May 10, 2016). "Abolitionist Tubman recipient of major honour". Carleton Place/Almonte Canadian-Gazette. Metroland Media Group.
  19. 1 2 3 Maguire, Jeff (February 24, 2016). "Musical memories from 1960s help pass cold days". Carleton Place/Almonte Canadian-Gazette. Metroland Media Group.
  20. ↑ Dunleavy, Jim (November 25, 2015). "Phlash Phelps shows he's a fighter". Daily Racing Form.
  21. ↑ "Digest: Eyeplayeveryday wins upset in $75,000 Find Stakes at Pimlico". The Baltimore Sun. June 26, 2016.

External links

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