IF anyone says Bill Stephens is retiring, tell ‘em they’re dreaming.

For the long-time reviewer, broadcaster, theatrical entrepreneur and oral historian is, with the announcement of his retirement from Artsound FM radio, merely (as they say in showbiz), doing so “to pursue other interests”.

“CityNews” readers can still expect to see Stephens’ name attached to his many reviews of musicals, cabaret and dance, but now he will be able to spend more time writing up the verbal summaries required of every oral history interview he’s done for the National Library of Australia with leading arts figures, now numbering around 250. 

His directing days are long past, but he hasn’t let that stand in his way, as he told guests at a farewell gathering at Artsound on January 10.

His connections run as far back as 1987, when Phillip O’Brien approached him for permission to record shows at his legendary School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan. By 1992, the Artsound teams were experienced enough to produce a CD series of cabaret legends.

Stephens’ active association with what is now Artsound FM began in its formative days as Canberra Stereo Public Radio in its Curtin studios, where he appeared as a guest in the “Conversations” program. He was both the first and the last guest of another radio veteran, Bill Oakes, and he also appeared talking about the arts on Phil Mackenzie’s “Flea in Your Ear” programs.

At the time, he had just retired from running the School of Arts Cafe in Queanbeyan, the venture for which he is best known, but he already had a career behind him as a personnel officer at Calvary Hospital and as a director with Canberra Philharmonic Society.

After 15 years of directing at the café, he got involved with cabaret venues at the Hyatt and the National Press Club, but there was now time to venture into a new field – broadcasting.

When he joined the weekly program “Dress Circle” team as a presenter in 2003 with Clinton White, Tony Magee and later Len Power as co-presenters, it was sheer excitement.

Artsound, he found, was one of the very few stations in Australia doing in-depth interviews about the processes in performance, which had always interested him. 

Stephens presented the program continuously until 2015, by which time it had evolved into 90 minutes of music, news and reviews about the performing arts in Canberra and beyond.

From 2015, Power continued a slightly modified program called “On Stage” while Stephens contributed weekly interviews under the title “Backstage”. Later, when Power stepped back, he became its sole presenter of the program, now retitled “In The Foyer”.

All the while, Artsound was running a separate program called “Red Velvet and Wild Boronia”, recordings of performances at the Queanbeyan café, which were to fill a gap through the 2020 covid lockdown.

In late 2020, Stephens also co-founded, with Bart Meehan, the weekly series “Art Sound Radio Theatre”, aimed at reinvigorating the art of playwriting.

Under the tutelage of Power, Stephens had also learnt about the technicalities and began to see his shows as “like little productions, where everything has to fit, fit together, including the music”. 

During covid he even learnt how to produce shows in his home office.

Radio satisfied the creative urges still lurking after a 15-year directing stint at the café, but Stephens was always something of a stage-door Johnny and his first love was always interviewing personalities.

Over the years, he got to interview not just home-grown stars but everybody from Chita Rivera, the original Anita in “West Side Story” and Michael Ball, the original London Marius in “Les Misérables”. When he was on the board of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, he would take his mic with him and interview all of the stars.

So, what of the future?

There are still those shows to review, all those interviews to write up and more to come.

Wife Pat was initially enthusiastic about his “retirement” until she realised that it would make very little difference whatsoever – he’s likely to be just as busy as ever. As they also say in show business, as one door closes, another one opens.