Press Release

Media Contact: Tania Clow, 407-273-2300, ext. 131

Current WMFE CEO Challenged Former WMFE CEO to “Bring Back a Story!”
A surprise retirement gift evolves into public radio feature and documentary

What do you give a WMFE executive who was retiring after serving the stations for 40 consecutive years? A colleague who didn’t want a roast or a gold watch? Or, one who had been in the business long enough to have received many a thoughtful recognition from his peers along the way? An executive who, by station research, held the record for having the most consecutive tenure as a CEO in one single electronic media company in Orlando and in electronic public media nationally?

According to WMFE President & CEO José A. Fajardo, “those were the sensitive questions the WMFE Board of Trustees and I addressed as we contemplated a fitting gift for our soon-to-be-retired CEO, Stephen McKenney Steck.” Steck, age 64, had announced his retirement after serving 40 years on the WMFE staff – five years in programming and production, leading up to the last 35 years as president and CEO.

The answer Fajardo says was “an adventuresome trip and a challenge. And we surprised him, too.” The gift was a trip to Athens, Greece to run in the Athens Marathon (a 26.2-mile foot race). The challenge was to bring back a story suitable for broadcast on WMFE.

Steve’s Story, the programmatic result of the trip and challenge, will be broadcast on 90.7 WMFE-FM in three, five-minute features on Wednesday, Aug. 13 through Friday, Aug. 15 at 12:06 p.m. A 60-minute documentary titled Instead of a Gold Watch: The Spirit of Athens will be available on WMFE’s Web site at wmfe.org/athens beginning Friday, August 15 in the afternoon. The dates were chosen to coincide with the Beijing Olympic marathons scheduled for Sunday, Aug.17 (women’s) and Aug. 24 (men’s).

Fajardo introduces and closes each broadcast of Steve’s Story, setting the stage for each segment. Steck is heard in actual on-the-run narratives as well as interviewing runners and those closely connected with running both locally and nationally.

“As it turns out” Fajardo states, “Steve’s Story is considerably less about Steve than it is about the sport and the personal challenges overcome by those runners who Steve met during the trip.” The story is further enhanced by interviews with Olympian Deena Kastor (USA) who, in the 2004 Olympics in Greece, won the bronze medal for her finish on the same historic course on which Steck ran.

The documentary carries more absorbing material and interviews than time allowed within the three short features. The Web site also contains additional content such as extended interviews, pictures of the event and links to other useful Web sites.

Fajardo said there were also “a few traditional gifts” which he and the board presented to Steck in order to recognize Steck’s loyalty, steadfastness and leadership. “We elected him president emeritus and we named our executive conference center after him because it was the room in which the board and Steve held meetings for so many years.”

Yet, Fajardo – who served with Steck at WMFE for 11 years, most recently as executive vice-president – felt there might be a bit more to give, or as he says, “something a bit more unique and personal, something that would match Steve’s proclivity for accomplishing goals.”

At WMFE’s annual holiday party – Steck’s last – Fajardo surprised him with the gift and the challenge. “I felt secure” Fajardo says “knowing the gift would overcome any of Steve’s protestations. It would also meet the personal and unique goals Steve had achieved in the past and those that I knew he was looking to advance in his pending retirement.”

“The history to all this,” Fajardo noted was that “my tenure with WMFE and my relationship with Steve began in 1997 – the same year Steve – a decidedly non-runner – decided to run a marathon in every state and on every continent before he retired from WMFE.”

Steck accomplished that 10-year goal the year he retired. But Fajardo found out that Steck “had not run nor had ever thought of running in the ‘classic’ Athens marathon, the birthplace of the event, known by marathoners world-wide as the ‘Mecca’ of such endurance sports.”

In addition to Fajardo’s awareness of Steck’s marathoning, he also knew what few others knew at the time about Steck, “that he was intending to establish a non-profit public media programming enterprise of his own in the year after his retirement and, in time, perhaps, even collaborate with WMFE in the development and production of additional local programming.”

Fajardo loaned Steck an audio recorder and a microphone to record Athens experiences, saying to Steck that “if you have any future as a public media programming producer, it needed to start yet again at WMFE!” If his reports “had legs”, Fajardo winked, “WMFE would air the results in a multi- part feature, maybe, even a full-length documentary. Of course, we told Steve he would have to produce it all pro bono!” Fajardo kidded Steck along the way by saying “by the time this is over, you’ll wish we had given you a gold watch instead!”

In the months to come, because no one could conjure up a title for the project, it informally came to be known simply as “Steve’s Story,” in keeping with Fajardo’s challenge to “bring back a story.” The title stuck. And so did the “gold watch” joke.

Fajardo served as executive producer. Desta L. Horner (Steck’s wife and a non-runner) served as on-location co-producer. Steck wrote, co-produced, edited and narrates the features and the documentary.

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The stations of WMFE are the non-profit, member-supported, community-based public broadcasting stations of Central Florida, serving Orlando, Daytona Beach and Melbourne. In addition to WMFE-TV Analog Channel 24, 90.7 WMFE-FM, WMFE Audio Reading Service and wmfe.org, WMFE provides digital public television services through WMFE-DT Digital Channel 24, including WMFE-HD, V-me un servicio de WMFE, WMFE CFAN, WMFE Encore! and WMFE-ED. WMFE also supports PBS KIDS Sprout, the new 24x7-preschool digital-cable network.