Steinway Stories

Synergies between CSM’s music and broadcasting departments yielded one of KCSM-FM manager Dan Odum’s favorite moments: a 1966 radio interview with John H. Steinway of the piano-making clan.

As Odum recalled it in a 2018 interview, someone heard that Steinway was visiting Sherman Clay & Co., a Steinway & Sons dealer in San Francisco. Odum, a former classical DJ in San Diego, loved piano music. “We said, ‘We’ll put him on the air and talk about Steinway pianos!’”

KCSM’s studio grand was a Mason & Hamlin, but the music department had a Steinway.  “Fred Roehr, chairman of the music department, was very excited,” Odum said. At Roehr’s invitation, Odum said, KCSM taped the program remotely from the music department stage.

John Steinway, a great-grandson of the company’s founder, was custodian of the firm’s historical material and was just then collaborating with the National Museum of American History on an exhibition about American music. He spent the afternoon at CSM reminiscing about great artists who had performed on Steinway pianos. The show aired Oct. 5, 1966.