Radio gold

The year was 1962.

Steve Montgomery was the student body president at Eisenhower High School in Yakima, working part time washing his dad’s trucks on Saturdays.

This young man, with a deep, velvety voice, would not find himself scrubbing cars for long.

“I liked radio better,” Montgomery said Friday.

The assistant principal one day called Montgomery into the office to tell him the local radio station was going to have a new “Student Report” feature.

“‘A student from each school needs to go out on a given night of the week and do a report. Our night is Monday, and you’re the guy: Go do it,’” Montgomery said. “So I went and did a couple of them. I did three or four and got done with it, and the DJ said, ‘Hey there’s a phone call for you, it’s the program director.’”

Montgomery was anxious as he answered the director's call.

“He said, ‘Hi Steve, have you done some radio?’ I said, ‘No, sir,’” Montgomery said. “He said, ‘Would you like to?’ I said, ‘Well, sure.’ So that Saturday morning they started training me to run the radio station and I was the weekend DJ.”

He filled in for everyone at the station during the summer and continued in radio as he went to junior college in Yakima. He then went to Washington State University for two years, where he stayed active in the campus radio scene and was introduced to work as a booth announcer in Spokane upon graduation as his first job out of college.

“Every half hour, I opened a microphone and said, ‘TV 2, Spokane,'” Montgomery said. “My mom could hear me, because she lived in Spokane. That was kind of exciting for her."

Fast forward a few decades, and the now-seasoned radio jockey continues to contribute his voice and humor to the airwaves.

Montgomery is a host for internet radio station PureGold Oldies, where he goes by the name Craig Stevens and entertains the masses from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

He now broadcasts from his home studio in the Coeur d'Alene area, where he and his wife of 21 years, Debbie Montgomery, bought a brand new house last fall.

"We are loving it here," Steve said.

The Montgomerys are no strangers to the Inland Northwest. Steve is a WSU grad and attended Shadle Park High School in Spokane for a spell. Of course, he skipped over to Coeur d’Alene on many occasions, even sleeping in Coeur d’Alene City Park to reserve a space during the hydroplane races in the 1950s.

“My dad brought a friend and I over and we slept in the park and spread out a blanket so the family could come over and sit on the blanket and watch the race,” Steve said. "The race course used to come right down to the park, then turn and go back up. Norm Evans got thrown out of the Miss Spokane right in front of us."

Aside from radio and communications and his lovely bride, those hydroplane races have been a love in Steve’s life.

“To junior high kids, they were really fun and exciting,” he said. "I was a kid in Seattle at the Seafair Race with my nose poked through the fence, thinking someday maybe I’d have a pit pass. Now I’ve got a collection."

Steve has given his voice to many a jet boat and hydroplane race through the decades, including 10 years with ESPN.

When the Diamond Cup and H1 Unlimited Hydroplane racing returned to Lake Coeur d'Alene in 2013, Steve was the event PA announcer and anchored the streaming coverage.

He has also worked in marketing and sales management for several years, when he wasn't on air, but returned to the mic in 2015.

Through PureGold Oldies, that voice reaches people around the world, in places as far away as Macedonia, Indonesia, Bosnia and Qatar. He said America is usually where most of the listeners are found, followed by Canada, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Known in the race scene by his real name, Steve said he chose Craig Stevens as a pseudonym because it's a play on his first and middle names and because "Montgomery is a mouthful," he said.

Listeners can hear the playful and comforting voice of Steve "Craig Stevens" Montgomery on puregoldoldies.com between Billboard Top 40 songs of yesteryear, from Melissa Manchester and Tom Jones to the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and other beloved sounds of the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s.

"I kind of feel like I've never had to have a job," Steve said with a smile.