Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg at WDIA in 1954. (Courtesy photos from the collection of Diane Steinberg-Lewis)

Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg was once a household name in Memphis. Today, not many people here would remember her unless they worked with her or are familiar with the evolution of WDIA-AM 1070 Radio.

Before WDIA switched to an all-black format in the late 1940s, black radio was untried and untested. So were the station’s early African-American disc jockeys, pioneers who would forge new paths in the industry.

They and their names – Nat D. Williams, Riley “B.B.” King, A.C. “Moohah” Williams, Rufus Thomas, Maurice “Hot Rod” Hulbert, Theo “Bless My Bones” Wade, Ford Nelson, Robert “Honey Boy” Thomas, Rev. Dwight “Gatemouth” Moore, Robert “Honeymoon” Garner, Willa Monroe, and Mark Stansbury – are legendary.         

“The Queen” also made her mark at the station after she was hired as the second female disc jockey in 1954. Steinberg had placed second in a competition for the position, but didn’t win. She got the job anyway.

After making an impact in Memphis, the “gutsy” disc jockey left WDIA in 1963 and captured hearts in the Detroit market on stations WCHB, WJLB and WQBH AM 1400 (an acronym for Welcome Queen Back Home), which she purchased in 1997.

Though Steinberg’s early skills as a disc jockey were raw at best, she quickly mastered the medium and acquired her nickname. The Smithsonian Institution and the broadcasting industry in general recognize her contributions to radio.

In 1993, she was inducted into the Black Radio Hall of Fame.  Named 1996 Michigander of the Year, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame for journalism and into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Steinberg 1930-2000

Steinberg-Lewis

Steinberg’s contributions to radio are recognized more in Detroit than in Memphis, said her eldest daughter, Diane Steinberg-Lewis of San Luis Obispo, Calif.

“They say you’re never a hero in your own backyard,” said Steinberg-Lewis, noting that her mother died in 2000.

“Mama has been a first in many areas,” said Steinberg-Lewis, a musician, singer and songwriter. “She told me that she would be creative on the air and then she would hear it somewhere else. They would steal her ideas.”

What Steinberg-Lewis and her sisters, Sandra Kay and Trienere, want most for their mother is a place in Memphis history. A brass note on Beale Street’s Walk of Fame would be a start, she said.

“When I saw the brass notes on Beale Street, I said, ‘Oh, my God, where is mama.’”

There are more than 80 brass notes on Beale Street of musicians and people who made contributions to the street. For Steinberg to receive a brass note, she would have to be nominated, said Donna Williams, an employee with Performa Entertainment, Beale Street’s landlord.

A committee decides who gets a brass note, Williams said. “That person would have to be nominated and then the committee will determine if that person is worthy of the honor.”

Some of WDIA’s early African-American pioneers such as B.B. King and Rufus Thomas have a brass note and other historic markers on the street.

Their contributions are historic indeed, and Steinberg-Lewis doesn’t begrudge them. Instead, she sees their work and her mother’s work as an integral part of the station’s history.

Still, Steinberg’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. An Internet search reveals a wealth of information about her career in broadcasting and her penchant for community service.

Memphis has not forgotten Steinberg

Black radio didn’t take flight until WDIA decided to try something different. With 50,000 watts of rhythm n’ blues, gospel and community activism echoing across five states, Steinberg felt at home.

The station had been all-white with white programming before the voices of African-American disc jockeys could be heard through the airwaves, said Christine Spindel, WDIA’s first female program director.

Blues legend B.B. King and the young Steinberg girls. From left, Trienere, Sandra Kay and Diane.

“I put Nat D. Williams and B.B. King on the air in 1948,” said Spindel, noting that it was a gamble to give African Americans a voice on radio while race relations were tattered. “My manager, Bert Ferguson had talked to me about it. And I said all systems were ‘go.’”  

Spindel stayed at WDIA seven years. When Steinberg came to the station, Spindel was surprised that the “self-confident” personality that made Steinberg unique would become a winning formula for WDIA.

“They told me that nobody would listen to a woman,” said Spindel, also pointing to Willa Monroe’s accomplishments as the station’s first female hire. “But she (Steinberg) surprised me. She knew the business and was a great success from the beginning.”

So who was Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg? And has her role in black radio largely gone unnoticed in Memphis?

Not at all. Memphis has not forgotten Steinberg. She is featured in “Wheelin’ on Beale (How WDIA-Memphis became the nation’s first all-black radio station and created the sound that changed America),” a book published by Louis Cantor in 1992.

“She certainly deserves recognition for being one of the many stars on WDIA,” said Cantor on Steinberg-Lewis’ effort to bring her mother out of relative obscurity.

“Martha Jean was one of the biggest stars. But Nat D. Williams was the granddaddy of them all,” he said. “But I would go along with her daughter’s sentiments that she deserves the recognition.”

Steinberg was one of WDIA’s top on-air personalities.

Cantor, who operated the control board at WDIA, said Steinberg left the station (in 1963) to pursue an offer in Detroit. “She became a real star in her own right at WDIA. But her greatest popularity and fame is in Detroit.”

Steinberg also is featured in Miriam DeCosta-Willis’ newly published book, “Notable Black Memphians.” Her biographical sketch is among profiles of 223 men and women and brief notes on 122 others, who made significant contributions in Memphis between 1795 and 1972.

Other books, periodicals and mentions place Steinberg at the top heap of black radio. Spindel said she was “glad that I was there (WDIA) at that moment.” An author and poet, the former program director is planning to write a narrative on WDIA.

‘She was an icon among women.’

Steinberg reportedly said it was hard being a black radio pioneer and a woman. “To be a woman in radio, you have to think like a man, act like a lady and work like a dog.”

Some of her friends and colleagues can attest to the work ethic that propelled Steinberg as a disc jockey, businesswoman, philanthropist, and evangelist.

“She was very assertive and she believed in herself,” said Ford Nelson, one of the last pioneering disc jockeys who worked with Steinberg at WDIA. He still works at the station on weekends.

“She had a tendency for flair, things sensational,” said Nelson. “But she was warm and had a strong personality. She didn’t mind the spotlight and didn’t allow it to go to her head.”

Nelson’s personality is just the opposite of Steinberg’s. “I had this timid side and she would get after me,” he said. “She would say, ‘You need to take charge.’”

Mark Stansbury used to run the control board for Steinberg. Before WDIA changed its format, white engineers would control the board, he said.  

Nelson

Stansbury

“I would run the board and she would give me a lift home, because I was young and poor,” said Stansbury, assistant to the president of the University of Memphis. After 49 years in radio, he’s still on the air on weekends with Nelson.

“We were friends. I loved Martha Jean,” said Stansbury. “She was loved in Memphis, but was bigger than life in Detroit.”

Irene Johnson Ware met Steinberg in 1965, formed a friendship and remained inseparable until Steinberg’s death. They met at a convention for the National Association for Television and Radio Announcers (NATRA).  

“We were the best of friends,” said Ware, a resident of Mobile, Ala., who retired six years ago from radio station WGOK, the sister station to WLOK 1340 AM in Memphis.

Ware became convinced that Steinberg was a natural born leader after she spoke up in defense of women broadcasters at NATRA, a convention of predominantly black males.

“She was an icon among women. Everybody is somebody in their own town, but Queen became universal,” said Ware, who believes that additional recognition for her friend is never enough.   

‘The Queen’ at home…

Steinberg was “The Queen” at home and on the radio, her daughter said. “She was a disciplinarian with us. She raised her girls well and was very protective,” said Steinberg-Lewis. “My mother would take a nickel and make her house look like a million nickels.”

Although Steinberg (born Martha Jean Jones) first pursued a career in nursing, she held her three daughters together after divorcing their father, Luther Steinberg, a jazz musician and composer.

“She had to be strong,” said Steinberg-Lewis. “She was the ultimate strong woman because, at one point, my father had left. So she had to pull all the weight. She took care of her family and was my greatest advocate.

“Mama was like a one-woman machine. She had millions of people listening to her on the radio. And there was no second-guessing to what she thought. They were her family.”

The Queen also had a deep sense of spirituality. She was ordained in 1972 and founded a church called the Home of Love and the nondenominational Order of the Fisherman Ministry.

She would speak frequently about God, moral issues and civic responsibility on her radio program, Steinberg-Lewis said. “My mother may not have been known for the Home of Love or the Order of the Fisherman, but she was known all over the world as a pioneer in radio.”

Steinberg had personality galore and business acumen, her friends said. “There will only be one Queen,” added Steinberg-Lewis.

“Her spirit is alive in Detroit, but was born in Memphis.”