Shadoe Stevens started off in radio at 11-years-old in his hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota. Urban Legend has it that LIFE Magazine picked up the story that he was on the air as “The World’s Youngest Disc Jockey.” He graduated from high school, then for three years majored in Art at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, before switching to Drama and Journalism at the University of Arizona for another two years, all the while working full time in radio to help put himself through school.
It was then that he was given the chance to move to Boston to become a DJ at WRKO. On his way to Boston, his name was changed to Shadoe in a phone call from Alamogordo, New Mexico. In one year, his huge number one success at WRKO in Boston led him to Los Angeles.
With his resonant voice and command on the airwaves, Stevens became one of the City’s most popular radio personalities. He then began his first major television career move as the sidekick/announcer for “The Steve Allen Show.” Back in radio a short time later, he would become a legendary Program Director, creating and launching “World Famous KROQ-FM.
Leaving radio after creating three number one L.A. stations – KRLA, KROQ-FM, and KMET-FM – Shadoe went into advertising. He created the Branding, Advertising and Marketing campaign for a West Coast home electronics company called The Federated Group. The campaign increased sales 500%. In four years, the Federated Group grew from 14 local stores to 78 superstores in 5 states. It was one of the most successful regional advertising campaigns in U.S. history and the first regional ad campaign ever to have received a 2-page spread in Time Magazine. His Awards in advertising include Clio Awards and the Big Apple Award. In radio, he received the Billboard Magazine Personality of the Year Award.
Shadoe’s more than 1,100 different television commercials for Federated led first to a 3-picture deal with Dino DeLaurentis Entertainment and the cult movie “TRAXX,” to the number one TV series “Hollywood Squares,” then to the Fred Silverman produced one hour CBS series “Max Monroe: Loose Cannon,” followed by the hit CBS sitcom “Dave’s World.”
Along the way, Shadoe replaced Casey Kasem as the host of “American Top 40.” This became the biggest radio show in the world with one billion listeners a week in 110 countries. During this time, Shadoe was a guest star on more than a dozen television series including “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Baywatch,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Caroline in the City,” “Clueless,” “Fast Track,” and “Burke’s Law.”
In motion pictures, Shadoe played the title role in “Traxx,” Fred in “Mr. Saturday Night,” Maxwell in “Bucket of Blood,” and Djony Dakota in “Shadoevision” for HBO.
Shadoe was the Founder, Chairman, and President of RhythmRadio – “The Sound of the World in a Good Mood,” that was the first world-wide music network and delivered programming on the radio in 30 countries and programming on the Internet delivered in 7 languages.
Shadoe created “Cabo Wabo Radio” for rock star Sammy Hagar, designing an “all up-all the time” rock music format with studios in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and Bel Air, California. It became the number one Alternative Music format online in the world.
Shadoe then created “Mental Radio,” – mentalradio.net – a talk/entertainment radio show described as “Coast to Coast” as if done by Monty Python.” It’s a show about the extraordinary and those who laugh in the face of fear. Visit www.mentalradio.net.
Shadoe was the voice of “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” from 2005 to 2015, and has continued to be the voice of countless commercials and television shows including The Grammys, The Emmys, and Comic Relief.
Shadoe has been “enthusiastically married” since 1986 to his third wife, Beverly. His daughter, Amber Stevens, is a successful actress, having starred in the ABC Family series “Greek” for four years, and the movie “22 Jump Street” in 2014. Shadoe’s daughter Chynarose is an artist and works in the beauty industry in a Beverly Hills Salon while going to school. His son Brad, from his first marriage, lives with his family in Seattle and works at Boeing.
Stevens continues to work in multi-media art, painting, writing, production, radio, and has written 5 children’s books.
