Overview
Steve Somers (born April 17, 1947), nicknamed the Schmoozer, is an American talk radio host best known for his work on the New York City sports radio station WFAN (660 AM). He has been with the station since its inception in 1987.
Personal life
Somers is a native of San Francisco, California, and became a fan of the San Francisco Giants upon the team's arrival to the city in 1958. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1969. He currently resides in Manhattan. His nickname is "The Schmoozer." He roots for the New York Mets (or Metropolitans as he refers to them), the New York Knicks (or Knickerbockers) the New York Rangers and New York Jets (sometimes he even calls them the Jetropolitans).
Career
Somers began his career in the Bay Area. Before graduating high school, he worked at KYA radio in San Francisco delivering on air high school sports reports. After college, Somers began hosting a news talk show on KNEW radio in Oakland. To that effect, Time Magazine ran a story naming him the youngest talk show host in the country at that period of time.
At that time, Somers developed some of the quirks that have been hallmarks of his WFAN tenure, dropping catchphrases such as "schmoooooozing S-P-O-R-T-S" (spelling out the word "sports"), giving time checks in minutes and seconds, uniquely reading the end of the station's phone number as "six-six-six-six" rather than the standard "sixty six-sixty six", joking at the expense of engineer Eddie Scozzare ("THE Eddie Scozzare?" "No, Eddie Maple, who do you think we're talking?"), and reading the catalogue numbers of live commercials ("LV-242, for those of you scoring at home, and I know you are..."). He is also known to refer to the New York Mets, by their official name "The New York Metropolitans" drawing out the parts as Metro-Politans, and referring to the Islanders as the Ice-landers. Currently, Somers usually works during the evening on weekdays.
His program can be heard anywhere from 6:30pm to 2am, depending on whether WFAN airs a sporting event that night. He is also sometimes heard on weekends. He is colloquially known as "The Schmoozer." On Sunday, February 25, 2024, Somers returned to WFAN. He also stated he would once again return to the air the following Saturday. In November 2025, Somers released his memoir Me Here, You There: My Three Decades Overnight, Under the Covers, Schmoozing S-P-O-R-T-S as Captain Midnight for WFAN.
Film
Somers appeared in the 1979 film The Visitor.