Remembering Steven Clean
• Another legend lost this week – iconic rock jock Steven “Clean” Segal, best known for his memorable stints at WBCN & WCOZ/Boston, KMET/Los Angeles and many other influential rock stations, died Friday night, Oct. 28 at the age of 76. According to Segal’s son, Alex, his father, who had been dealing with various health issues of late, passed away in his sleep in his Milwaukee area home.
Programmer-turned-executive headhunter Rob Barnett posted the news to Facebook, saying, “Less than 24 hours after Jerry Lee Lewis, the last living architect of Rock & Roll left — we lost one of the creators of FM Rock Radio — Steven Clean, one of the best rock DJs who ever cracked the mic — and one of my best friends. He introduced me to many of the people I love the most. He showed us all what the freedom of speech and the love of music could really do on the airwaves. Steven birthed the careers of countless artists and musicians and media women and men to take the ball and win the game. Bless Steven. Bless his son Alex & everyone who loved him.”
Clean’s extensive resume also included stops at WMMR/Philadelphia, KPPC/Pasadena, KWST/Los Angeles, WLLZ/Detroit, and KZEW/Dallas, and in later years, WQFM, WZTR & WISN/Milwaukee.
RAMP‘s Steve Resnik (right) unearthed this classic photo, circa 1975-ish, when he was a rep for ABC/Dunhill Records and promoting a Hungarian rock band called “Locomotiv GT.” Resnik is shown here during a visit to KMET, and that’s Clean (below) helpfully pointing out the band’s lead singer.
Veteran programmer/consultant Tommy Hadges, Clean’s former boss as PD of WBCN/Boston, told RAMP, “When he arrived at WBCN, Steven inspired me to use songs to tell stories, in addition to just using words. Steven consistently maintained that he alone convinced the WBCN GM to hire me as PD in 1977. Then, later, when I became PD of WCOZ, I hired Steven for PM drive, where he remained (after I left Boston to become PD of KLOS in 1980) & he had great success working for WCOZ PD John Sebastian in the early ’80s.”
Hadges (pictured here, right with Clean during a 2019 visit to Milwaukee), added, “Steven was an incredibly sharp, perceptive, poignant & hilarious communicator for many years in the ’60s, ’70s & ’80s on stations like KMET, WBCN, WCOZ & others. He had great impact on both his listeners & his fellow air personalities. He will be greatly missed.”
[Top Clean photo courtesy of Rob Barnett; middle photo from the collection of Steve Resnik, and bottom Clean/Hadges photo courtesy of Tommy Hadges]
