Researching Steve King

Born in 1949 in Storm Lake, Iowa, King attended Northwest Missouri State University from 1967 to 1970. He founded a construction company in 1975 and worked in business and environmental study before seeking the Republican nomination for a seat in the Iowa Senate in 1996. He won the primary and the general election, and was reelected in 2000. In 2002 King was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 5th congressional district after the incumbent, Tom Latham, was reassigned to the 4th district after redistricting. He was reelected four times before the 2010 United States Census removed the 5th district and placed King in the 4th, which he represented from 2013.

King is an opponent of immigration and multiculturalism, and has a long history of racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric and white-nationalist affiliations. The Washington Post described King as "the Congressman most openly affiliated with white nationalism." King has been criticized for alleged affiliation with white supremacist ideas, and has made controversial statements against immigrants, and supported European right-wing populist and far-right politicians accused of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

For much of King's congressional tenure, Republican politicians and officials were silent about his rhetoric, and frequently sought his endorsement and campaigned with him because of his popularity with northwest Iowa's conservative voters. Shortly before the 2018 election, the National Republican Congressional Committee withdrew funding for King's reelection campaign and its chairman, Steve Stivers, condemned King's conduct, although Iowa's Republican senators and governor continued to endorse him. King was narrowly reelected, but after a January 2019 interview in which he questioned the negative connotations of the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacy", he was widely condemned by both parties, the media and public figures, and the Republican Steering Committee removed him from all House committee assignments. King ran for reelection but, campaign funding and support having declined, lost the June 2020 Republican primary to Randy Feenstra by 10 points.

After ten years on the road and in recording studios as a rock singer/guitarist, King's broadcast career started in 1966 at WJOB in Hammond, Indiana. After a stint at WLTH in nearby Gary, King spent two years in Indianapolis at WIBC and WNAP-FM, his only foray outside the Chicago market. He returned to the Windy City to work afternoon drive time at WBBM-FM, then moved to WLS in 1973, where he spent five years working the late evening slot. He left that job for the new format of talk radio at WIND-AM in 1978, where he stayed until 1984 (with a brief detour to WDAI). It was at WIND that he met Putman, a fellow show host.

On Christmas Eve, in 1984, King moved to WGN, and on Valentine's Day 1985 Putman followed. Putman's initial work included traffic reporting on WGN's morning show. Steve and Johnnie were paired as a broadcast team initially on weekends and ultimately segued to the overnight show. Their show became the top-rated overnight show in the market. It began as a three-and-a-half-hour show, then became four hours, then five, then six, and then five hours again.

Because of WGN's clear channel signal, their show has been heard throughout most of the United States and Canada, and their show (along with all of WGN's programming, except for Chicago Cubs games) has also been webcast.

As avid fans of the guitar, King and Putman have often featured guests well known for their guitar work, including Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel and Doyle Dykes.

Steve and Johnnie completed their 5,000th show together on August 17–18, 2006. On December 4–5, 2011, they announced that they were leaving WGN following their program of December 8–9, wrapping after 6,207 shows.

After leaving WGN, Steve and Johnnie's first book was published. The book, "A Little More Les," is a personal memoir of their long-time friendship with the legendary Les Paul.

In 2013, Steve and Johnnie returned to WGN radio for a few shows during the Christmas holiday season. Since then, they have continued to maintain their residence as part of the WGN Radio family with, what they call, occasional “drive-by” shows and guest appearances.

King has been diagnosed with celiac sprue, an intolerance to gluten. Since his diagnosis, King has become involved in local and national organizations which fight the disease.

George Stephen King (born June 10, 1951) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. He graduated from Quinton high school in Quinton, Oklahoma in 1969. He then played for The University of Tulsa. He also played nine seasons for the New England Patriots, where he was named to their All-1970's team.

Category:1951 birthsCategory:Living peopleCategory:People from McAlester, OklahomaCategory:American football linebackersCategory:Tulsa Golden Hurricane football playersCategory:New England Patriots players