Steve “Zeus” Stewart, the Voice Behind FOX Promos and Rock Station IDs, Dies at 59. Most Listeners Never Knew His Name

Steve “Zeus” Stewart imaged rock stations from Calgary to the Hudson Valley and lent his voice to FOX, TNT and The Weather Channel. The South Carolina voice talent died on 26 October, aged 59.

Steve “Zeus” Stewart, a voiceover talent whose deep, booming read carried station IDs, network promos and sports spots for more than two decades, died on 26 October at the age of 59. He lived in Little River, South Carolina. His family’s obituary doesn’t give a cause of death, and nor has anyone else.

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The classic rock station 101.5 WPDH in New York’s Hudson Valley, where his voice sat between the songs for years, put it simply: “For years, one of the most recognizable voices on Hudson Valley radio belonged to a man most listeners never knew by name.” That’s the job, really. The imaging voice is the one you hear every hour and never think to look up.

Here’s what millions of people heard without knowing who it was. The reel below is his network promo demo, kept on his own website. It opens with a bowl game spot for FOX (“The Tigers are looking to prove they belong at the top. But the Cornhuskers are out to restore their legacy”) before running through promos for FOX’s K-Ville, Court TV, the Discovery Channel and NASCAR on SPEED.

Hear the voice: Zeus Stewart’s network promo demo, from his own website, zeusthevoice.com, preserved by the Internet Archive

That first spot signs off with “The AT&T Cotton Bowl. New Year’s Day, only on FOX.” His obituary remembers it too: “Auburn and Nebraska fans enjoyed his voice on a Cotton Bowl promo.”

From impressions at home to a DJ booth in Cheraw

He was born Steven Curran Stewart in Greensboro, North Carolina, on 30 November 1966, the son of a minister, and moved to Raleigh when he was 11. “Even as a child he entertained family and friends with imitations, making people laugh,” his obituary says.

He graduated from the N.C. School of Broadcasting and went into radio as a DJ, including a stop in Cheraw, South Carolina. That’s where he met Peggy Hamden, his wife of 31 years. From there he built a voiceover business under the name his website carried for more than two decades: Zeus The Voice.

By December 2002 that site was already pitching him for movie trailers, network promos, “Imaging for TV and Radio” and commercials and narratives, with a client list that ran from ABC and CBS to Harley Davidson and big radio groups. It ended with a line that tells you a lot about the man: “We could bore your eyes with more propaganda, but we feel the demos speak for themselves.”

Image: zeusthevoice.com, 17 December 2002, via the Internet Archive

What radio imaging is, and why nobody knows the name

Imaging is the sound of a station between the songs: the station IDs, the “more music” sweepers, the contest promos, the show intros. Stations often keep the same imaging voice for years, so that voice becomes part of the station’s personality. WPDH said his work meant “providing the powerful station IDs, contest announcements, and other imaging that have helped give WPDH its signature sound.”

Image: Radio Online, 3 November 2026. Screenshot taken 5 November 2026

His radio demo shows how far that went. Within its first minute you hear him as CJ92 in Calgary, “Calgary’s most listened to radio station,” and as KNBR in San Francisco, plus a handful of rock and country stations, each in a slightly different gear: gritty for rock, warm for country, quick and punchy for sports talk.

It’s work built on short scripts and lots of them. Radio people call the little lines “liners,” and that’s the word his friend John Runyan reached for. “You were always available not just for some liners but just to talk! You will be missed!” Runyan wrote on Stewart’s Facebook page, as quoted by Radio Online.

Sammy Lee, who worked with him on station imaging at Z95.3, remembered the sessions as much as the voice. “He was always fun to work with,” Lee wrote, Radio Online reported. “I saved a lot of the banter he would send me while doing the voice work. Always made me laugh.”

Networks, teams and a porch in Little River

The client list grew with him. By 2016 his homepage named FOX, FOX Sports, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, MLB Network, AXS TV, TNT, SPEED, Smithsonian, the Discovery Channel, the Indianapolis Colts and the Colorado State University Rams. He was a SAG-AFTRA member. The same page offered something radio people will recognise: a red starburst reading “Now available: barter for radio,” a deal where a station pays in airtime rather than cash.

Through all of it, his website gave a South Carolina phone number next to representation in New York and Los Angeles. The work came from national networks and teams. The number stayed on the Carolina coast.

By 2013 his audio page split the voice into six reels: trailers, network promos, TV affiliates, radio imaging, commercials and animation. That’s a useful thing for any working voice actor to notice. He wasn’t one sound. He was one voice with a lot of gears, and he kept a reel ready for each kind of buyer.

What his career says about the working voice

Most voice actors will never be famous, and most of the voices people hear every day belong to people like him. The obituary’s best line came from his sister, who used to tell people: “you’ve heard him on TV, the radio or somewhere and you just didn’t know it.”

There’s a lesson in how he’s remembered, too. The tributes from radio colleagues don’t talk about range or tone first. They talk about the banter he sent along with the voice work, and the way he was always around just to talk. In a business built on repeat clients, being easy to work with is half the job, and he seems to have been very good at that half.

He also never stopped using the voice for fun. He sang, wrote songs, played guitar and narrated church programs. “Thanks be to God for the gift of his voice and music,” his family wrote.

Family

Peggy died in 2024. The obituary says he “grieved her loss deeply for the rest of his life.” He loved animals, especially his cat Zoe, and his favourite view was from his porch in Little River, watching the boats go by. He was the “fun” uncle to his nieces and nephews.

Image: Lee Funeral Home on Dignity Memorial. Screenshot taken 5 November 2026

He is survived by his sister, Kerri Stewart Hurley, his nieces and nephew, his stepchildren Mac Estridge, Ashton Estridge and Donna Green, and their families. His parents, Robert and Jo Ellen Stewart, died before him. A private family celebration of his life will be held later. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society, the Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach, or a charity of your choice, as the obituary on Dignity Memorial sets out.

His sister had it right. Most people heard Zeus without ever knowing it was him. Now a few more know his name.

Sources: Steven Curran Stewart obituary, Lee Funeral Home on Dignity Memorial; Radio Online, 3 November 2026; 101.5 WPDH; zeusthevoice.com as archived by the Internet Archive (home pages from December 2002, 2010 and April 2016, the 2013 audio page and his demo reels). Main image: zeusthevoice.com home page, April 2016, via the Internet Archive.

Lee este artículo en español: Muere Steve "Zeus" Stewart, la voz de promociones de FOX y de emisoras de rock, a los 59 años. Casi nadie conocía su nombre

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