Steve Cannon
By Mitch Berg
When I was first in the Twin Cities, producing for Don Vogel, we’d occasionally joke about where and how far we wanted the show to go.
Someone’d occasionally chime in “…and someday, we wanna beat Steve Cannon”.
Then everyone would get a good laugh. Beating Steve Cannon – who’d been doing afternoon driver forever on WCCO even then – was pure fantasy. Cannon – a throwback to an age in radio that seems completely foreign to the casual listener today – dominated afternoons in the Twin Cities for a generation.
Anyway, Cannon passed away yesterday at age 81.
the 1970s and ’80s, when WCCO dominated the airwaves, Cannon held court as the gruffest, most gregarious of the “Good Neighbors,” making his voice as recognizable to many Midwesterners as everyone’s cantankerous but lovable uncle who never skips the cocktail hour.”It’s awfully tough comparing the 125 people in our hall of fame, but in terms of sheer talent, does anyone stand out above Cannon?” said Steve Raymer, managing director of the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park, which honored the legend in 2002.
Cannon was famous for doing his show with three “co-hosts” – all of them characters he voiced himself, live and on the fly.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Steve Cannon had a quick wit and a marvelous voice. He will be greatly missed. I was perhaps a bit of an oddity, but I usually listened more to WCCO than KDWB when I was young, and Cannon was one of the main reasons. He was unapologetically Minnesotan, and a stable part of a chaotic world.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:19 am
As a kid, my sister and I would gripe while our dad drove us all to some family gathering with aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on… mostly because we didn’t want to listen to “his” radio.
Our parents, like so many in the state, listened to Cannon. It would be on for maybe a single segment, and when the commercials hit my sister and I would be impatient for Cannon to return.
Without fail. This was before we were exposed to Saturday Night Live (which we often watched, long before we should have started watching)… and, as much as we loved SNL, I think it is safe to say that Cannon had ’em all beat.
Especially Chevy Chase.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I was and remain a big Cannon fan. Still miss his show. When I was a kid still in NoDak, the couple of times I came down here to the Big City for the first time, he was the voice I heard, the voice of the Big City.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
For very long time I was a huge Cannon fan, I loved his shows and charecter skits. Later I left his show to listen to Don Vogel. He was fresh and new and very-very funny. It wasn’t that Steve got old, just that ‘CCO did. God knows I will forever deeply miss them both. It’s doubtful either will ever be replaced. RIP Steve, and Don.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I come out of the corner only briefly to acknowledge the passing of a master. Snippets and clips can be heard at:
http://www.museumofbroadcasting.org/Cannon.htm
Now, back to my stool in the corner, I think I have 8 weeks left, I’ll have to check.
Flash