Cowboy Steve Taylor, in front of his radio station. Picture was taken by Guy Mendes, who interviewed him in 1971.
Photograph by Guy Mendes (guymendes.com), from 40/40: Forty Years Forty Portraits (Institute 193)
Radio is a vital medium with a long history in the United States -- its entry into the American consciousness goes back to the 1920's, which is 100 years of radio being used to entertain and inform Americans (and other peoples all over the world) using the magic of the airwaves.
Periodically on the radio internet forums the 'greats' are mentioned by radio enthusiasts -- people like Paul Harvey, Arthur Godfrey, Alan Freed, Larry King, and Art Bell come to mind. During the Top-40 AM Radio era of the 1950s and 1960s a lot of the famous DJs, from the East Coast's Cousin Brucie to the West Coast's Real Don Steele -- also are frequently mentioned as radio icons.
These are personalities that so dominated the radio medium in their time that they are properly mentioned as Radio Legends.
But there are other radio greats, who perhaps aren't as well publicized, who are mostly unknown except maybe to a few people, but their dedication and contribution to the radio field deserves to be recognized. One of them is a man who was on the air for over a decade in Lexington, Kentucky. He wasn't heard by many people, but it doesn't make him any less of a radio legend -- an amazing, mostly unknown character named Cowboy Steve Taylor.
I first heard of Cowboy Steve when a guy at the HF Underground radio forum posted a link to an article about him. The article turned out to be a fascinating look at one man's love for music and radio -- his dedication to both was so great that every night at six o'clock he would fire up his 3-watt AM radio station (that he built himself) and play Country and Western classics and tell a lot about each performer between spinning the records.
Cowboy Steve was unique in that he was an African American aficionado of Country and Western music, which in the mid-20th Century wasn't too common. Born and raised in Madison County, Kentucky, Cowboy Steve later moved to Lexington, and that's where he built his 3-watt, Part 15 AM station, WSEV (not to be confused with a licensed AM station, WSEV in Sevierville, TN) which he ran out of his apartment.
It is said that one of the only ways to hear Cowboy Steve's station WSEV was to park your car out on the street in front of the building where the station was located. WSEV was only on the air for an hour every night, but Cowboy Steve made sure that he had the records cued up at the stroke of 6 p.m..
The fact that his radio station's signal didn't get out well did not deter Cowboy Steve in the slightest. According to those who met him and interviewed him, he treated his radio station seriously, making sure to never miss a scheduled broadcast.
The fact that almost no one aside from possibly a couple neighbors could hear Cowboy Steve's radio show never deterred him. Every article I've read about him portrays an easy going, positive natured music and radio fan who was dedicated to his art.
Cowboy Steve also was a musician, and apparently had songs recorded at least twice by artists on small, regional record labels. He was self taught on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin.
His love for Country and Western music dated back to his youth, when he would listen to the Grand Ole Opry show on famous radio station WSM at night. He wanted to be a country singer, but for most of the 20th Century the country music industry sadly wasn't open for African Americans, with Charley Pride being one of the only prominent exceptions.
So Cowboy Steve did it another way: he built his own radio station, and played records, and sometimes played and sang country music over the microphone.
In a way, it seems almost futile -- to build a tiny, 3-watt station and run a radio show that next to no one is listening to. Many of us probably feel the same way. I'm a musician, and in karaoke and other places I've met more than my share of fellow musicians and songwriters -- people who had talent but never hit it in the local park, much less made it to the big time. On author's forums you can interact with authors whose books maybe sell two or three copies -- if that. Their attempts to be heard or read becomes quickly forgotten.
It's more common than people may think -- you may have some talent, you make a go of it, and are quickly lost in the static.
Cowboy Steve passed away in 1993, but his legacy reminds us of the power of music, and the power of radio. In my mind, Cowboy Steve ranks right up there with the rest of the greats. It's obvious he loved music, and truly loved radio as a medium.
If only all of us had his positivity and dedication -- the world would be a much better place to live in.
SOME ARTICLES ON COWBOY STEVE
Here is the article I first read about Cowboy Steve, by a man who interviewed him (Guy Mendes), and it's an excellent, in-depth article on Cowboy Steve, originally written in 1971.:
Here is Mr. Mendes' own website:
Here is a short article on Cowboy Steve from 2017. It has a really good picture of Cowboy Steve (standing in his radio station studio), a photo taken by Mr. Mendes who wrote the first linked article.:
Here are some other articles on Cowboy Steve, most of them from Kentucky and Lexington area, online newspapers and periodicals.:
This article is about a more recent low-power radio station that also mentions the memory of Cowboy Steve. It includes a photo of Cowboy Steve.:
Here is a short article on Cowboy Steve from 2017.:
Here also is a link to the website and forum HF Underground, a forum dedicated to all sorts of interesting radio-related hobbies, from SW listening to MW and LW DXing to ham radio monitoring to SW and FM/AM Pirate Radio broadcasting and listening, along with other radio topics. I first heard about Cowboy Steve here.:
This pic is of my 1967 Penncrest multiband radio, one of my first SW radios. The AM section worked (and still works) well enough to hear WSM (650 Khz, Nashville) -- which was the station that always played the Grand Ole Opry -- and WWL (870 Khz, New Orleans) during good MW conditions, back before those frequencies were crowded with regional stations in the mid- to late- 1980's.This was also back before I knew what an external MW loop antenna was. Even though the radio wasn't a TRF, high performance model, the loopstick inside is pretty robust, and it got the job done!
I still fire that radio up once a month or so. Sounds really great through headphones. I suppose it would have been at least one of the types of radios that could have picked up Cowboy Steve back during the era he broadcasted.... who knows?
I am working on several blog articles, along with a SW/MW loggings list, that I hope to post near the end of this month.
Right now, the weather is pretty good. Sunny and in the low 80's F (high 20s C). Good biking weather. :-)
Hope all are having a happy July!
Peace.
C.C., July 10th, 2022.
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