Randy Stewart, the voice of KSMU public radio, died Monday, July 1, of cancer. He was 67. His death was announced today, July 3, on the KSMU Facebook page.
“It is with a heavy heart to announce that our friend and colleague at KSMU and a familiar voice to many, Randy Stewart, passed away late Monday night ... he will be dearly missed,” the KSMU post said.
Stewart was profiled by Hauxeda columnist Steve Pokin in a March 19 piece. This story draws heavily from the earlier profile. He was interviewed in the KSMU offices in Strong Hall on the campus of Missouri State University.
Stewart, who lives in Battlefield, has the longest tenure of any radio announcer in Springfield.
KSMU was created in 1974. Stewart started working there as a student in 1976. He was hired full-time in 1978 and soon, at 21, became the station’s music director.
Randy Stewart never worked anywhere else
In his entire life, Stewart said in March, he filled out only one job application. The one at KSMU.
“I have never worked anywhere else,” Stewart said in that profile. “This is it.”
He never seriously considered leaving KSMU. He was happy at KSMU.
“This is one of those jobs where the people are unfailingly good to work with,” Stewart said. “It’s always been that way. They appreciate me. They appreciate the job that I do. They appreciate the fact that I’ve got interests and knowledge about certain things that none of them have — and don’t want to have.”
Stewart is survived by his wife of 40 years, Tammy. They have no children.
Known for his knowledge of classical music
Stewart was renowned for his knowledge of classical music and, to a lesser degree, opera.
He also was known for his Friday readings of the KSMU arts calendar, which he compiled from the many press releases sent him from arts organization. He rewrote them and often had a guest with a weekend event to promote in the studio with him.
“It grew to the point where many weeks of the year, many Fridays, it takes up a whole hour of me reading press releases that I’ve rewritten in my voice,” Stewart said.
His bosses over the years have attended broadcast meetings around the nation where other executives question how the arts calendar show possibly could attract an audience, Stewart said.
They say, “‘Nobody’s gonna sit and listen to him read that stuff.’ I’ve got news for you folks,” Stewart said. “They do. And they have for 30 some years now.”
Steve Tharp and Stewart met while students at Glendale High School. Stewart was a 1975 graduate of Glendale.
“Randy has changed remarkably little,” Tharp said in that March profile. “He still has the same interests. He’s still an incredibly kind person, an incredibly considerate person. Randy’s always been the kind of person you wanted to have around if two people were having a friendly argument. He would be the go-between. He’d be the one who tried to square the circle or be a moderator between two points of view.”
Tharp is now an associate professor of voice at the University of Missouri. He is a tenor who has performed internationally.
Recognized in 2006 with an Ozzie award
Stewart won the Ozzie Award in 2006. The Springfield Regional Arts Council each year selects a handful of creative individuals, groups and organizations to receive Ozzie awards for their work in supporting the arts in the Ozarks.
Mike Smith, one of Stewart's long-time co-workers at KSMU, was one of several people who nominated Stewart.
“He has an unbelievable knowledge of classical music and the history of broadcasting,” Smith said in the March profile. “He is an interesting, talented and dedicated broadcaster who has done a lot for the area.”
Arlen Diamond, a former KSMU general manager, was hired in 1978 as a faculty member at then-Southwest Missouri State University in broadcast programming and broadcast management.
In the March profile, Diamond told a story about young Randy Stewart’s expansive knowledge of classical music and opera.
“I can never remember this woman’s name,” Diamond said. “But she was an opera singer. Dame Somebody. Randy interviewed her up in the production studio in the old building.”
The old KSMU office and studio was in a dilapidated former house at the southwest corner of Grand and National. MSU also owned a brick building next to it, also used by KSMU. Both buildings were razed years ago.
“And when she came down after being interviewed by Randy,” Diamond said, “she told me: ‘That young man knows more about opera than anybody who has ever interviewed me.'”
Nope, he never had a Plan B
In the profile, Stewart was asked what he would have done in life if he had not been a broadcaster. Was there ever a Plan B?
“I never had one. I really didn’t. I thought this is a cool thing to get into. I might be considered kind of unimaginative in that way, but I just came upon this and said, ‘OK, this is what I want to do.’ And I didn’t really think about anything else.”
Stewart retired from full-time work March 31. He originally planned to work until age 70, but that was torpedoed by a bout with cancer in 2021.
“My wife and I did not know how sick I actually was,” he said in March.
He was treated with chemotherapy, radiation and then immunotherapy. He lost half the pulmonary function in one lung.
The KSMU Facebook post said funeral services are pending, and KSMU will host a memorial remembrance for Stewart in the near future.
