Stevens first came to fame in 1957, when a Life Magazine article about him, entitled "America's Youngest D.J." featured a photo of Stevens broadcasting live over Radio Station KEYJ (now called KQDJ) in his hometown of Jamestown. The accompanying article extolled the fact that he had built his own working transmitter in the attic of his home the year before, using a "souped-up" wireless broadcasting kit with a hundred foot antenna, however it omitted the additional information that the equipment and advice needed to build the transmitter, had both been furnished by the staff engineers at KEYJ, which happened to be owned by his father and uncle. He was later "discovered" in a "man on the street" interview by the station and was soon broadcasting a weekly rock show called "Spin with Terry." During his high school years, he maintained a full-time shift at the station, developing his now-famous "slow 'n low" style of speaking, as a host of the "Mister Midnight" program.
He attended and graduated from the University of Arizona, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He was an Art major and put himself through school working full-time in radio at KIKX in Tucson, where he quickly became the most popular DJ in town, under the on-air persona of "Jefferson K." Following college, he joined the Bill Drake-formatted station WRKO in Boston, during the winter of 1968-69. At WRKO, he worked the early evening (6-9 p.m.) shift during the station's peak in popularity. In the spring of 1970, he moved to Southern California to another Drake outlet, KHJ, as one of the last true "Boss Jocks", where his big baritone and energetic enthusiasm soon gained a following. Before long, he gained significant popularity on radio and became the announcer and sidekick on the nationally syndicated television series The Steve Allen Show.
He went on to be an award winning radio personality and program director in Los Angeles at KRLA. Attaining status as a programmer, he was hired to make a success of KMET-FM and then to create the programming for a new radio format on a new Los Angeles station, World Famous KROQ-FM, where he remained for five years.
During the early 1980s, Stevens gained additional cult following when he created and produced "Fred Rated for Federated," a long-running series of offbeat television commercials for Federated Group, a chain of home electronics retailers in the southwestern United States. It became so popular it was the subject of a two-page spread in Time Magazine and led to a movie deal, television shows, and American Top 40.
He contributed several memorably deadpan readings of absurd material for The Kentucky Fried Movie and then gained national recognition as the announcer for two incarnations of The Hollywood Squares (the 1986–1989 and most of the1998-2004 version) appearing in the middle square of the bottom row on the earlier version, as well as playing Kenny Beckett on the sitcom Dave's World (1993–1997). He appeared as himself on an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.
In 2006, Stevens was hired to be The Late Late Show's announcer, a position he still holds. He is also the author of a series of children's books. The first, released in 2006, called The Big Galoot, received rave quotes from Whoopi Goldberg, Dick Clark, Henry Winkler, and Gene Simmons. Dick Clark said, "In verse reminiscent of Dr. Seuss...it's the perfect combination for kids from four to a hundred and four." It's currently available online and in select bookstores.
Stevens married his first wife in 1967 (divorced, 1978); he then married Cynthia Gaydos in 1980 (divorced, 1984). Finally, he married Beverly Cunningham (an international model) in 1986. Stevens has three children, one son from his first marriage and two daughters from his third marriage, Amber Dawn and Chyna Rose.
His daughter, Amber Stevens is an actress appearing in the ABC Family Channel series Greek. She made an appearance on the The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on July 27, 2007, with her father to promote the show.
