A man who understands brands in more ways than one.

The senior co-founder of First Fruit Media has worn a lot of hats in his nearly four decades in the media biz : broadcast newsman, radio morning show sidekick, broadcast market manager, and cattle rancher. Yep, you read right, pardnuh: when Steve talks about striking while the iron’s hot, you better cover your rear end.

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OK, in fairness, they use RFID tags or something to keep up with the assets back at the D5 Ranch in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee. But it’s hard to forego an opportunity for a bovine reference in a co-founder’s bio. (That, and the visual of one of them in a Stetson, chasing down a prospect while brandishing a red-hot you-know-what.)

Our point here is this: Steve has a lot of experience managing media, including getting the Titans Radio Network founded, up and running when the Oilers came to Nashville in ’97. There’s the 28 years as VP/GM of Dick Broadcasting/Nashville and 6 in the same role at Citadel/Nashville, plus another year at Cumulus Broadcasting as Market Manager. Then he created D5 Media. It’s named after Steve, his three sons and lovely wife, Gloria, whom he calls “Glow” for short (but you can’t; she’s sassy).

Steve’s longtime experience solving problems for clients – while corraling the crazy creatives that populate the media business – makes him a perfect partner for Pat, who knows about two speeds: go, and go harder. Steve’s masterminded the Tennessee sports marketing plan for Allstate Insurance for three years, keeping them in good hands, and works with clients in Nashville, Atlanta, St Louis, Huntsville, Memphis and Little Rock.

For this bio, we asked Steve what he thought of the well-worn metaphor known as “herding cats” as it applies to creative media solutions for complex clients. He tilted back his brim, raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Herding cats? Bah. Piece of cake. Cows are WAYYY bigger.”

A final testament to Steve’s solidity may be observed in the birthdates of his three sons. They were all born five years apart, “like clockwork,” as he put it. Think your media plan is going to execute? Get along, little doggie. Get along.