Steve Czaban is one of the most experienced daily sports talk radio hosts in the nation. In his 26 year professional career, Steve has worked for every major syndicated sports talk network (Sporting News, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio, Yahoo Sports Radio, SB Nation Radio), filled in as a guest host for popular national personality Jim Rome, and has worked locally in markets including Santa Barbara, Chicago, Milwaukee, Charlotte and Washington D.C.
Steve (or “Czabe” as his friends and listeners have always called him) is a native of Fairfax County, Virginia. He was born on June 1, 1968 and grew up on what he jokingly calls the “mean streets of McLean”. His father is a retired federal worker, his mother a retired teacher. He has one older brother Jim, who is a DC based food and drug law attorney. And one younger sister, Ann Marie, who works in publications for the DC based “Newseum.”
Steve attended Cooper Middle School and Langley High School, both in McLean, Virginia. He received a BS in Communications and Political Science from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1990. Following graduation, he did play-by-play for UCSB Gaucho football and basketball and hosted a sports show on news-talk KTMS-AM 1260 in Santa Barbara from 1990-1994.
After a summer anchoring Team Tickers at WTEM-AM 570 in Washington, DC, Steve moved to Chicago to host the morning show for the One-On-One Sports Radio Network in 1994-1997. In 1998-1999, he hosted the afternoon show on all-sports WFNZ-AM 610 in Charlotte, North Carolina which was named “Best Radio Show” by the Charlotte Observer. Czabe was hired by ESPN Radio to host weekends nationally in the fall of 1999. Czabe turned down a full time offer, to return home to WTEM in Washington, DC in order to leverage his lifelong passions and knowledge of the Washington Redskins and other local teams.
It proved to be a smart move, as Czabe has become an afternoon fixture in the market. He is in his 16th year of hosting afternoon drive on ESPN 980 in Washington, D.C.
Czabe was co-host with longtime DC radio veteran Andy Pollin on the “The Sports Reporters” from 2000-2013 where they would discuss and dissect everything from the Redskins, Wizards, Nationals, Caps, Maryland basketball and football, local college basketball, golf and more.
In August of 2013, Czabe teamed up with former Redskins TE Chris Cooley for “The Drive: With Cooley and Czabe” – a show that is currently the afternoon drive show on ESPN980 from 4-7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Czabe has enjoyed a simultaneous 14 year run on nationally syndicated radio, beginning in 2002 on Fox Sports Radio where he and sidekick Scott Linn hosted the 7-10 p.m. eastern time slot. In 2005, FSR moved the show to the morning drive time slot of 6-9 a.m. until 2009.
After a short 9 month hiatus from the airwaves, Czabe and his crew were hired by Sporting News Radio in September of 2010, where the show remains a successful cornerstone of the Gow Broadcasting Network based out of Houston. The network “affiliation” changed from Sporting News to Yahoo! in 2012. It became SB Nation Radio in August of 2016.
When Czabe is finished with his morning show on Yahoo, he delivers a 30 minute sports segment via his ISDN home studio for the perennially #1 rated morning show in Milwaukee: “Bob and Brian in the Mornings.” Czabe began with “Bob and Brian” back in 1994 when he lived on the North Shore of Chicago, and has been their dedicated sports “donkey” for 22 years. He now considers himself an “adopted Wisconsonite.”
In total, Steve Czaban delivers 6 1/2 hours of live sports radio daily, making him the most prolific active sports talk host in the entire nation.
While radio is Czabe’s primary career, he does free lance work in local sports television. For two years during Redskins season, Steve teamed with Chick Hernandez and former NFL player Brian Mitchell on Comcast Sports Net in Washington D.C. to breakdown the game and interview guests on “Redskins Post Game Live.” He has been part of NBC4’s “Redskins Showtime” program with Clinton Portis. He has also been an infrequent contributor to Fox News Channel and the late Tony Snow’s Weekend Live program. He also appears as a “talking head” on various shows such as the Today Show (on the Augusta National membership controversy) and ESPN Classic’s “Who’s Number 1” program among others. Steve also writes a weekly column and edits his website, Czabe.com, daily.
In his free time, Czabe is an avid golfer who is convinced that his handicap will never dip below an eight unless he is fired or wins the lottery! He also says that if he were President for a day, he would declare every Monday a national golf holiday. Steve created, in 2000, and directed a Ryder Cup style amateur golf event in the DC area called “The Potomac Cup” that ran until 2010. Czabe has a local radio golf show, called “Sunday Tee Time”
Steve is married with two daughters and lives in Round Hill, VA.