After more than 20 years as a fixture on Memphis’ hip-hop radio airwaves, pivotal local DJ Devin Steel announced July 20 that he’d been let go from iHeartMedia.

Steel started at the company, formerly known as Clear Channel, in 2001, and rose from mix show DJ and music director to regional management. By 2016, his programming duties included overseeing the entire region, with influence across formats from country to news talk, and across state lines, as far as Louisiana.

In a recent restructuring of the company, his oversight was pared back to the company’s Memphis cluster of stations, including V101.1, Kiss FM, Rock 103, WDIA and K97 FM, where Steel has maintained an afternoon drive mix since 2002.

Losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic, when he can’t fall back on public events, has given the 46-year-old Steel something he hasn’t had in two decades – a clean slate.

“I’ve always had a natural gift of taking opportunities and trying to mold them and make them into something else,” Steel said.

As a teenager, Devin Butler already had a diverse resume.

He played football at Central High School and played in his school jazz band with Memphis musicians Steve Selvidge and Paul Taylor. He picked up DJing and collecting records from his older brother, Colin.

“It blew my mind that he stuck with it,” said Colin Butler, who formerly toured as DJ for rap-funk fusion band Big Ass Truck.

“I’m quick to point out to people that, yeah, I taught him how to do that. But he took it to another level.”

Going off to college at University of Tennessee at Martin to play ball, Steel would sometimes sneak out after curfew before game days to DJ parties in town, and he adopted the stage name Devin Steel. His side hustle earned him a popular college radio mix show on Thursday nights.

“I was one of these guys who was All-World in high school. When you get to college, everybody is All-World. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t going to be the same guy in college that I was in high school,” Steel said of his sports status.

“I think I figured, ‘Man, I have to find a way to make a living doing this some way. I don’t know how, but I’m going to figure how to do something.’”

He found his way shortly after college, when radiologist, politician and radio entrepreneur George Flinn brought hip-hop to KXHT, branding the former blues station as Hot 107.1 FM, in 1997. With his midday mix, Steel was one of the station’s more popular voices, along with figures such as RJ “Groove” Johnson, Diedre “D Rock” Williams, Michael “Boogaloo” Boyer and Chris “DJ Superman” McNeil.

“He hired me at Hot 107, 20 years ago,” McNeil, who is still at the station, said of Steel.

“And he’s saved me from going into some situations in radio that probably would’ve halted my career.”

Off-air, Steel continued his ventures as a nightclub performer, eventually becoming a mainstay at Parkway Village nightclub Denim & Diamonds. Steel also moonlighted as a tastemaker, integral to the careers of several factions of Memphis rappers, as well as outside artists with interests in reaching Mid-South audiences.

Memphis hip-hop legend 8Ball said his memories of Steel reach as far back as the days prior to his debut album alongside rap partner MJG.

“(He) and a couple of his buddies used to come pick me up in this Chevy Blazer. It had this massive sound system and we would ride around Memphis (listening to music) that me and MJ had been recording,” Ball said.

“He always kept it 100 with us, since then until today.”

Superstar rapper Ludacris, who leveraged his career in Atlanta radio to launch his hit recording career, mentioned Steel in the liner notes of his 2001 sophomore album “Word of Mouf,” among the names of industry insiders and friends from whom he received treasured advice.

In 2000, Steel made a decision to leave Hot 107 for rival Clear Channel station K97, along with the opportunity to serve as music director. Steel lost a legal battle to Flinn Broadcasting over the non-compete terms of his contract, delaying his K97 debut until 2001.

The move from the independent broadcast company to the larger national radio conglomerate also began Steel’s ascent to the upper reaches of corporate management. He attributes his commitment to understanding data and trends as a major catalyst to his career.

While maintaining his afternoon drive radio show, he became director of urban programming in 2005 and vice president of programming in 2011. In the role, Steel made regular trips to other markets to advise programming directors about formats outside of hip-hop.

“The interesting thing is walking in to a station in Mississippi to talk to them about their classic rock station, and they look at you like you’re the ‘urban guy,’” Steel said.

“Once you understand the systems and why certain companies do certain things, it doesn’t matter the format of the radio station.

“It’s basically systems and data and research, that’s what it boils down to. If you have the right people in places, if you’re staffed right, you can do it from afar, these days.”

Through recent programs, such as his DJ skills camp for kids, annual high school prom giveaways, and a voter registration drive held just days before his release from iHeartMedia, Steel’s community involvement has reached as far as his broadcasts.

His wife is Black, and the couple is raising their four children to treasure their Black heritage, Steel says. His work is a way of paying tribute to one of the world’s most revered Black music cities.

“I’ve made an awesome career off of Black culture and Black music,” Steel said.

“I’ve always felt like I need to do more, do my part. It’s my way of saying, ‘Thank you for embracing who I am.’”

Colin Butler said his younger brother has the same level of consideration in his home.

“He’s never once put his family second. They are first, regardless of how hard he works. If he’s at the club at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, he’s still up making breakfast,” Butler said.

Steel admits the weight of the pandemic, along with layoffs within his cluster made for some personal and professional strife.

“This is the first year I’ve ever really had any kind of anxiety. It could’ve been depression with the people I love trying to maintain their jobs, keep their careers, balancing a lot of different things,” Steel said.

“With some of the messaging of the music, along with all of that, you start to question, ‘Am I doing what I really want to do to be happy?’

“There were several days where I would question myself, like, ‘I just don’t know if this is the end-all, be-all.’”

So, what’s next for Steel, now that he’s a free agent?

“I still feel like I have a lot of radio in me,” he says, adding that he’s also interested in marketing and event coordination.

“He has so much room to do whatever the hell he wants to do,” McNeil said of his longtime friend and collaborator.

“He can do what he wanna damn do. It ain’t over. It’s never over. I just know he’s not going to go backwards.”