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Steve Price first got behind the microphone in 1969 when he was still at school. His Year10 project was to find a way of entertaining the school during the lunch break so he and his school mates came up with the idea of creating a radio station. And it worked! In fact it worked too well as the school staff were soon complaining that "loud" music was being played everywhere!!

Music has always been part of Steve's life and few know he is a trained Trumpet player (having won several awards) and also a Saxophonist. At 16, Steve auditioned for the band Plato, a 5 piece Rock/Jazz Rock outfit, and was given the gig as their new Sax player for the good but short period the band existed. Plato did well...playing all over the UK and even supporting Fleetwood Mac on some UK dates. Unfortunately, the band split in 1972 after the bass player decided to venture to pastures new and Steve decided he was too disillusioned with the music business to seek a new band.

Having gone away from music completely, it was in April 1974 that his interest was reawakend.... whilst decorating his new (marital home) Steve turned on the radio and heard the magical sounds of Deep Purple's BURN!

"I do have Radio Caroline to thank for that. The combination of David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes's voices...WOW"

Radio Caroline also announced after playing the track that tickets for a UK tour were to go on sale the following day so Steve dashed off to Hammersmith Odeon and managed to get a pair of front row seats. "If I thought the track was great.....the live performance was out of this world"

His love of Rock continued from that point on, amassing some 5000 LPs over the next few years and he became a huge fan of Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show. "That show was so good...it cost me a small fortune. My local record store used to be waiting for me on a Saturday morning!"

1983 was the next major change in Steve's life. He was driving through the Surrey countryside and looking for some decent music to listen to on the car radio when he happened upon a station playing AC/DC. After a short while it became obvious it was a pirate station but Steve was hooked. A few weeks later Steve heard they were looking for helpers....so he volunteered his services as "tea boy" and was quickly added to the team. He still thinks his record collection played a big part in him being taken on.

A couple of weeks later, Steve suddenly found himself elevated to presenter. Another presenter on the station had a female guest in the studio and asked her a very personal question which resulted in her storming out of the studio. The presenter was fired on the spot and Steve was told to step in. He describes his debut show as "f******* awful!"

"The station had a desk I had never used (ironically made by Chilton), and had only fleeting glimpses of other people using it. I had no idea whatsoever but somehow got through that hour....probably the longest hour of my life"

However, the radio bug was probably back in his life....he started in the 1am slot (commonly called the graveyard shift) but soon found himself elevated to the primetime Saturday show. For the next 9 years Steve continued to host shows across the rock spectrum..including a couple of spells on some of the commercial FM stations in the UK and doing a stint on KICT in Wichita KS.

In 1985 and 1986 Steve featured in the Kerrang! Readers Poll in the "Best Radio Show" coming behind his heroes Tommy Vance and Alan Freeman. "Tommy was, without doubt, my hero. In fact at one point I considered giving up but met Tommy in Wardour Street and in 15 minutes he had convinced me to carry on"

Between '84 and '88 Steve, along with fellow presenter Colin Noble took the Alice's Roadshow to various venues across London and from 1990 Steve partnered Barrie Morgan as resident DJ's at the infamous Ruskin Arms.

In 1991 Steve formed American Dream Promotions with Mike Shannon (Shades) and they brought many bands over from the USA to perform at the infamous London Astoria including Danger Danger, Shadow King, Bang Tango, Badlands, Tuff, XYZ to name a few.

In 1994, on his 40th birthday Steve retired. "The music had changed, the rock I loved was so out of fashion, I'd had enough so decided to hang up the headphones".

Steve maintained an interest in the music business, being employed initially as a consultant to a record company, then being taken on full time in 1997. "I was enjoying myself being on the fringes...until that phone call in 2003"

The phone call came from a Programme Controller of one of the stations on the Sky network. They (CMRPulse) were looking for a rock show and DJ and the controller remembered Steve from the 80's. Did he fancy the job? "No, definitely not"

"I had no interest in getting back into radio, but after a lengthy conversation I somehow agreed to do a demo for them"

A trip to the London studios was made to do the demo and to chat to the station owner. "Once I stepped into the studio I knew it would be hard to leave. There was a brand new Chilton desk and I literally felt my name was on it"

Steve started hosting the Rock shows on a Saturday and Sunday between 6pm and 9pm.

Regrettably, CMRPulse went into liquidation in 2004.

The problem was Steve had the bug again and this bug was soon satisfied when the owner of Chilton Broadcast, Tom Reps, (the manufacturers of the studio desks) called Steve and asked if he wanted to run a 24/7/365 rock station. "It took me 1 second to think about it and say 'yes'. Little did I know the effect it would have!"

ARfm was born and commenced broadcasting in November 2004 from the NEC in Birmingham UK.

"The best bit of this job? Meeting the fans who have the same love and passion for music as I do. Music has been a very important part of my life and long may it continue to be so. It's also great that I have been lucky enough to interview most of my heroes...the vast majority have been wonderful people, and to work with some great people in the music business. Many of those are never in the limelight and deserve a lot more credit than they get"

The passion for the music continues....

 

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