When I launched Steve Orr Media I had one goal in mind. Share everything I’ve loved and learned over my decades in broadcasting to help others grow their careers by becoming stellar speakers or engaging podcasters.

It’s been a fun and rewarding journey—a journey that began when I received a clock radio as a gift when I was 13 years old and growing up in the New York City suburbs. Yes, I really owe my award-winning broadcasting career to a clock radio!

Listening to the radio ignited a lifelong passion for audio, and both the written and spoken word. CBS Radio’s Mystery Theater hosted by E.G. Marshall stoked my imagination. Newscasts sparked my curiosity of the world around me. And the broadcasts of my favorite New York sports teams fueled my desire to become a play-by-play announcer.

That passion led to a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin. Several radio and TV jobs in New York and Connecticut followed, before I moved to Washington, DC to join the startup USA Today Sky Radio, the first all-news satellite radio for airlines.

I landed a few more local and network broadcasting jobs in DC over the next few years. Ultimately, I joined the brand new MarketWatch Radio Network as a business news anchor and feature reporter. I was heard regularly for more than 15 years on some of the country’s biggest news stations, including 1010 WINS in New York, WBBM in Chicago and WTOP in Washington, DC.

At MarketWatch, I honed my skills at finding stories and making them interesting for casual investors. I established feature beats for sports business and business book authors.

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over the years, including CEOs, celebrities, athletes and public officials. I once followed Mickey Mantle to the bathroom to make sure the baseball Hall of Famer stuck around for a quick interview. One of my most memorable interviews as a young reporter was with then-Israeli U.N. Ambassador Benjamin Netanyahu in a Connecticut mansion. My backstage interview with Ella Fitzgerald was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The jazz legend snapped at me after what I still consider a rather innocuous question.

I’m the co-author the book Podcasting for Small Business. I’ve written articles for PR News and MarketWatch.com and have been quoted as a media expert in Self-Promotion for Introverts by Nancy Ancowitz. I’ve also been a guest lecturer at the University of Central Florida and the City University of New York/Baruch College, teaching students about radio and TV journalism.

In my free time, I write screenplays and repeatedly try to mentor my cat Deuce. I’ve also studied screenwriting, play writing, fiction writing and comedy improv. My wife, Carol, and I love to travel, bike and hike.