Roger Steffens

Co-host and creator, Reggae Beat

Ruth Hirschman changed the face of non-commercial radio in Los Angeles by hiring Tom Schnabel in 1978 as Music Director. He took over the “Morning Becomes Eclectic” spot, and began to think about what programs could be added to strengthen the station’s roster. 

My own radio career had begun in 1961 at WVOX in New York, and despite the rising interest in reggae stimulated by the enormous success of Bob Marley, there were no reggae shows on the air in all of Los Angeles. So, with my broadcasting background and Hank Holmes’s world-class collection of more than 8,000 reggae recordings, we tried for over a year to find a radio home for Reggae music, and found it on KCRW.

In 1982, one of Bob Marley’s partners in the Wailers, Peter Tosh, came to be interviewed by Tom and me on the junior high school campus where KCRW was located. School was in session, the playground buzzing with children’s screams, when Tosh entered the room with a cricket-bat sized spliff. He proceeded to smoke it throughout the entire 45-minute interview and with each puff, Tom and I were more and more convinced that we’d both be fired that day. 

As it happened, just before her noon broadcast, reading the day’s New York Times on air with the implacable Mitchell Harding, Ruth walked through the thick smoke, and said, “What’s going on here? This has to stop immediately!!” She walked up to Peter, who stands a commanding presence at 6’ 5” with massive dreadlocks, then made a beeline to her office in the backroom. On air later, she said, “You know whenever there’s a big star here, there’s always a different kind of atmosphere in the studio.” 

She never said another word to Tom or me, much to our relief, and that interview remains highly sought after in reggae collectors’ circles.

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