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10 Questions with ... Steve Sunshine & Amy Byrd
September 28, 2020
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Steve and Amy were first paired at WMHK/Columbia for mornings in 2005 before joining KFMK/Austin (Spirit 105.9) in 2010. Steve and Amy also did mornings on CRISTA’s KCMS/Seattle (Spirit 105.3) from 2012-2017. KFMK was recently sold to K-LOVE and it was announced that their last show there will be October 31, 2020.
1. How are you doing?
Fine. How are you? But seriously folks, We’ve put 10 years into Spirit 105.9 and it is sad to have something you put that much time and heart in to shut down. We’re also mourning the loss of relationships with our listener family. On the other hand we’re excited to see what God does next.
2. How are your families handling the sudden news?
Amy: My 4th grader, Maggie cried, and wondered what was going to happen to our staff. Honestly, it hurts. For all of us.
Steve: Stunned. Concerned. But trusting God.
3. What are you doing to stay positive and motivated?
Gallows humor! We know that there is still ministry to do in the city of Austin and that has helped us to stay focused.
4. Do you plan on sticking with radio?
With this limited skillset?? You BET!!
5. What is the next job you’d like to obtain?
Mornings on YOUR station! We would love to keep our 15 year Morning Show together. We would love a station that has a vision to connect with people and that understands that great radio stations are more than music services.
6. Will you share the career path you two have taken together that's brought you to where you are now?
Amy: Steve was doing Mornings at WMHK in Columbia, SC when his co-host went on maternity leave. I joined Steve temporarily until his co-host thought staying at home with the kids was a better option than working with Steve. So, I was stuck with him.
7. What are the personality dynamics that have kept you successful as a team for so long?
Low self-esteem. We have enough in common to get along. But also a healthy contrast in our personalities. We’ve learned to develop roles that are nuanced and complex rather than the obvious His and Her’s roles.
8. Steve, what impresses you most about Amy as an on-air personality?
Steve: Let me have the computer. Amy has a really good sense of what the listener thinks and feels. I’m not talking about the traditional “Becky” as much as the real person who is not hyper-spiritual or totally immersed in the evangelical subculture. Amy also is great at sharing personal stories in a way that the listeners can identify with, the winsome and self-effacing. She can be simultaneously sweet and up to trouble.
Amy: Wow, What can I say. . .
9. Amy, what is something you have to constantly remember about Steve when relating to him on-air?
Steve is really smart and funny. He’s not just smart, but intellectual. Steve has the unique ability to be hysterically funny and go really deep spiritually too. Something I have to remember is that he’s quick and a first out to be taken with a break can come unsuspectingly!
10. In order to work together so well for so long, communication is obviously key. What was one of your greatest communication breakthroughs with each other as it pertained to doing your job the best?
Amy: I remember John Frost said to us once that our job is to make the other person look and sound their best. That made me look at every break differently from that point forward.
Steve: We’ve learned to get better at listening to each other and to hear each other out when we have a difference of opinion.
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