Behind the Scenes

Born in Chicago, raised in Naperville, a young Ed Silha grew up listening to Steve Dahl. In 1996, when an employment opportunity arose to utilize his talents AND work with Steve, he was more than happy to join the crew. In addition to maintaining the IT infrastructure of Steve Dahl & Company, Edzila also serves as the webmaster of dahl.com and oversees a variety of special projects for Steve. Ed has become very accustomed to hearing Steve’s spot-on impersonation of him on the air (although he believes his voice is not quite as high-pitched).

When not helping out Steve or the show, Ed runs Forward Technologies, a Chicago I.T. Consulting firm, which he founded in the early 1990’s. He can also be found following Chicago sports teams around America (you may have spotted him at Cubs games across the nation). A connoisseur of wine, scotch, bourbon and rye, he can be found at high-end Chicago bars talking of his expertise to anyone who will listen. Ed is single, and monumentally picky. He is known to frequent Trader Vic's to scour for women that he “may have dated.” Ed resides in downtown Chicago, dangerously close to the Viagra Triangle.

My career with the Steve Dahl Show began in 1996 and I am proud to be a part of the DahlCast in 2009 and beyond. As a young boy, I was deathly afraid of tornadoes and spent a large portion of the summer seeking appropriate shelter which, thankfully, has left me particularly prepared for working in a basement. In the many years I have been employed by Steve, my proudest accomplishment is that I have never missed a single day of work due to illness or injury. And while on the surface that doesn’t seem to be exemplary, when you take into consideration that I live in Rogers Park, a neighborhood where statistics show that someone gets stabbed every 4.5 seconds, showing up is actually quite the feat.

I spend way too much of my income purchasing music in forms that have long since been considered obsolete while the majority of my friends are busy doing grown up things like spending time with their wives and families. I am principally fond of music that is performed by unsuccessful bands and I listen to it while wasting time on blogs debating things like, “Where does Yo La Tengo rank in the pantheon of indie rock?” And I’m doing it all while wearing a t-shirt that is at least one size too small and has a logo of either a defunct record label or a bar that no longer exists (still miss you, Lounge Ax).

Despite endless persecution, which admittedly, is just, I love watching Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ugly Betty. I have an unhealthy obsession for the Christmas season, which, for me, officially starts on November 1st. So, for two months out of every year, you can find me on the couch enjoying a Christmas themed television show (How great is The West Wing’s “In Excelsis Deo” episode?), sipping hot chocolate two-handed (Aniston Style), or, like Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life, sipping “Mulled Wine. Heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves.” When I’m feeling especially decadent, I’ll walk over to the gas station and pick up their finest carton of egg nog.

I’m a self-described foodie so I like sampling exotic dishes called Lean Cuisines, yogurt that has been frozen (different from the much tastier frozen yogurt), and I wash it all down with freshly percolated coffee. On the weekends I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to decide if I should order a pizza only to make a PB&J sandwich because I feel guilty that my regular delivery guy is an old man. The weekends are also the time when I drink copious amounts of microbrews until I find something that I can hug.

In my spare time, I join Facebook groups where I never have to attend any meetings, silently protest the raising of CTA fares, and look longingly at broken VCR’s.

I began my radio career in March of 1985 when I formed WKMS (Katy Mary Sandberg) radio with my sister, Katy. I was the station’s only DJ and Katy performed dance routines to the records I was spinning on our Zenith cassette player that was purchased at ACE Hardware.

WKMS had a limited library, 3 cassette tapes to be exact; Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Flashdance Soundtrack and a 2nd hand recording of ‘Who Can It Be Now?’ by Men at Work, which was in heavy rotation because Katy was performing a solo act in the St. Joe’s talent show to that song.

After WKMS went under I left radio all together until 1999 when I had the opportunity to intern for Kevin Matthews and the great Jim Shorts. It was my first foray in the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of radio. It was also at this time that I learned the significance of a strong radio station presence at various events, such as concerts and street festivals in the Chicago area.

I often say, ‘Everything I know about radio, I learned from Jim Shorts.’

In March of 2004 Steve Dahl announced on air that he needed a new assistant. My dad talked me into applying and I got the ‘dream job’ of getting Steve sandwiches without mayo and making sure he had a sweet parking spot. Not long after I joined the Dahl Show team I was promoted to producer; my only qualification was ‘being in the right place at the right time’. My first big test under the new position was the last minute coordination of a Hawaii remote broadcast. Steve told Pete and me that he had complete confidence that we would pull it off. Pete then told me privately that he felt we would fail miserably. Thankfully, we didn’t and so here I am today.

Thanks to Steve’s belief in me, I can say that I ran his once #1 rated radio show off the air, into the ground, and actually underground, into his basement.

While not podcasting I LOVE to workout. I am a huge Bob Newhart fan. I adore hanging out on the couch and watching sports. I love all things ESPN and college football and golf are my favorite sports. I am still an avid AM talk radio listener. If I could, I would spend every day on a beach in a bathing suit. My favorite scent is suntan lotion. My favorite book is Always By My Side by Jim Nantz. I could eat Mexican food 365 days a year and I am happiest on Friday afternoon just after work ends and I like to celebrate with an ‘It’s Friday!’ cheer. I live in the North suburbs with my cat Digger and husband Brian.

I’ve been working for the Steve Dahl Show since January of 2000. My love of broadcasting began as a child when I heard Steve, interrupting a newscast, to comment on all the funny names of towns near where I lived. There is no mount in Mount Prospect he pointed out. There are no heights in Prospect Heights he added. I was hooked from that moment. I attended DePaul University and received a Communications degree in Media Studies, where I often wrote papers about Seinfeld, The Simpsons and my other favorite TV shows. I also took a class about The Beatles. Seriously. I worked at DePaul’s WRDP radio station first as a co-host on the “Jim and Tim Show” and then as program director, because everyone knows that the real money in college radio is in management. The station did not have an FCC license and was only broadcast in the cafeteria. I started off as an intern then worked my way up to assistant technical producer, or at least that’s what my previous Dahl.com bio listed as my title. In my time working for Steve I’ve witnessed a sweet fight between his one-time newsman and a producer, I’ve put on the Big Steve costume, I’ve been in the vicinity of an on-air prostate exam, I’ve had a pastry thrown at me by another newsman and I’ve received a radio nickname that wasn't a reference to Caddyshack or Animal House, which is a plus. I'm married, have two dogs and am living the dream in a neighborhood very close to both Pete and "The Catman".

Beginning his career as an intern for The Steve Dahl Show, Greeley worked his way up into production and on-air work as a contributor to The Steve Dahl Show and co-host of The Matt Dahl Show on WCKG. I addition to his work on Steve's show, Greeley continues to work with Matt on the Matt Dahl Show Podcast as well with fellow Dahlcast contributor Pete Zimmerman on the Brendan & Pete Show Podcast.