Steve Kates

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Steve Kates
File:Dr Sky ImageDr Sky on TV.jpg File:Dr Sky ImageDr Sky on TV.jpg 2010
Born	Steven Robert Kates (1956-01-30) January 30, 1956 Queens, New York, U.S.
🏫 Education	New Mexico State University
💼 Occupation	Journalist
🌐 Website	drsky.com
🥚 Twitter	Twitter=

label65 = 👍 Facebook

Steve Kates, aka Dr.Sky, is a radio and TV journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona. The East Valley Tribune stated that Kates is a “radio personality and astronomy expert who has worked with CNN.” The Arizona Republic stated that Kates “started in the entertainment industry in the 1960s in New York.”

Kates is a weekly guest on Coast to Coast AM, a syndicated radio program appearing on more than 600 affiliates in North America. (The New York Times stated in an article that Coast to Coast “is by far the most popular overnight radio program in the country.”) For more than a decade, Kates has been offering relevant astronomy updates during Monday night’s news segments. KTAR NEWS stated on their website that he “is a decade-long correspondent on the popular radio show, Coast To Coast AM.” Kates has also been a guest on the show a few times. Fandom states that Kates has been affiliated with Coast to Coast AM since 1999. He occasionally also does live events with Coast to Coast host George Noory. Kates also appears with Noory on Gaia TV, an American alternative media video streaming service and online community that focuses on fringe-science and yoga.

Kates is a regular guest on two different WABC Radio programs, The Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis and The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano. (Kates WABC radio broadcasts are also heard on iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, Player FM and a few other radio streaming platforms.) On September 18, 2022, Catsimatidis stated during a live radio broadcast that he “liked to talk to [Kates] once a week at least, or maybe more often, to find out what’s going on.” Catsimatidis and Kates primarily discuss current topics about outer space. During the September 4, 2022 broadcast, Kates shared many relevant facts regarding the Artemis Mission. He explained why one of the attempts to launch was canceled. Kates stated that “there’s four main rocket motors on the bottom of the main stage...#3 didn’t pass a bleed test.” Other relevant subjects discussed during that broadcast involved the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, Saturn, Jupiter, Harvest moon and the James Webb Space Telescope. (During the day, WABC’s 50,000-watt signal reaches the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. A 1965 market research study stated that an estimated 25,000,000 people were within the range of the signal at the time. The signal can be heard from even greater distances at night...much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada.)

“Dr. Sky” conducting a tour of the night sky at a resort in Sedona, Arizona

Kates was featured in an article by The Arizona Republic. (Media Bias/Fact Check stated that AZ Central is the digital version of The Arizona Republic.) The article stated that Kates “has been interested in astronomy since he was 7 and saw his first meteor shower when he was growing up in New York.” The article also stated that “Kates focuses on the historical and social significance of astronomical events during his” media discussions. He believes science should have relevance to “people’s everyday lives.” Kates “often incorporates photos and star charts into his presentations,” stated The Arizona Republic.

KTAR NEWS stated in an biographical description of Kates that he “is an ‘edutainer’ with expertise in the realms of astronomy, space, aviation and weather.” He hosts his own long-form radio show on KTAR NEWS. Known as The Dr. Sky Show, it airs every Saturday on 92.3 FM in Phoenix. Kates also writes weekly feature articles for KTAR NEWS. In one of the articles Kates wrote, he mentioned that the red supergiant star, Betelgeuse, is being depleted of its hydrogen fuel source and is, therefore, cooling and expanding, subtly signifying that “it will implode and become a supernova” relatively soon. Whenever that catastrophic cosmic occurrence does manifest in the sky, the entire world will witness an amazing astronomical anomaly. Kates stated that “this would be the brightest celestial event of modern times and maybe of all recorded human history!”

Kates has written several space-related articles for North Valley Magazine, a bi-monthly publication of the Times Media Group. The magazine stated that it “reach[es] out to over 130,000 local readers each issue.”

Legendary astronomer Clyde Tombaugh was one of Kates’ professors at New Mexico State University. Here he is seen at his family's farm with his homemade telescope in 1928.

Kates was featured in an East Valley Tribune article that was published a few months after Pluto lost its status as a planet. The article stated that “Kates is leading a local effort to regain that status.” Hoping to make a difference, Kates created a website with the duel purpose of honoring the individual who discovered Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, and also for inspiring others to get involved by emailing the International Astronomical Union, urging them to have “a change of heart.” The article went on to state that “the issue hits close to home for Kates, who met Tombaugh while studying at New Mexico State University.” Kates stated in that article that his “‘mission is to keep his memory alive.’”

When Apollo 13 was released in June of 1995, Kates hosted a special live discussion about the film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Chandler, Arizona. The cinema issued the following statement in a promotional advertisement article about Kates’ personal viewpoint of the film: “Join us for a special post-film discussion with Phoenix's own Dr. Sky!” (The Alamo Drafthouse corporation “filed for bankruptcy in early 2020, citing financial issues exacerbated by the pandemic.”)

Kates has done astronomy presentations at Lost Dutchman State Park, located in the Sonoran Desert 40 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona. (The park was named after the famous Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.) The Arizona Republic stated that he “has been leading talks at Lost Dutchman State Park for eight years.” In another Republic feature article about Kates, he mentioned some of the things that were supposed to take place during an upcoming extraterrestrial event being held at the same Arizona state park. The event, known as Meteor Madness, was touted by Kates to be a spectacular celestial show at “a great spot to see the stars.”

Kates, Jim Scotti and Geoff Notkin at Spacefest V, May 2013. Kates is holding one of Notkin’s meteorites.

Kates, along with other notable “space specialists,” (Brian Cox, Carolyn Porco, Geoffrey Notkin, Andrew Chaikin, Dan Durda, Rick Tumlinson, Phil Plait, Sy Liebergot, Jani Radebaugh, Francis French, Rosaly Lopes, Michael Carroll, Adam Block, Alfred McEwen, Peter Smith, Michael Cassutt, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jim Scotti), was a guest speaker at Spacefest V, in Tucson, Arizona, in May of 2013. According to an article in Photorecon magazine, “Spacefest is a unique gathering of astronauts, space scientists and space artists.” Organized by Kim Poor and the company that he founded, Novaspace, Spacefest is an annual event held in Tucson, Arizona. An article in the Arizona Daily Star stated that Poor was “a world-renowned space artist based in Tucson.” One of the notable individuals in attendance at Spacefest V was Mercury Seven astronaut Scott Carpenter. He was the second American (after John Glenn) to orbit Earth. Carpenter passed away later that year. Kates stated in the Photorecon article that a portion of his Spacefest “talk was about how people of all ages and backgrounds can help educate people on the wonders of Astronomy, Space, Aviation and Weather.”

It was stated in a November 2016 article written by the East Valley Tribune that there were many reports of “twinkling lights in the sky over the East Valley.” The article mentioned that local television stations in the area contacted Kates in order to get his take on the alleged UFO incident. The East Valley Tribune mentioned that he did not know what those lights were, but did, however, share his personal beliefs about extraterrestrial intelligence with ABC 15. Kates stated, “‘How arrogant and naïve would it be for us to think we are the only precious species in the entire cosmos? Meaning I believe there is truly life out there.’”

An extremely bright meteor lit up the Arizona skies in the predawn hours of June 2, 2016. According to a Slate magazine article, the object that was responsible for lighting up the sky that Thursday morning was an asteroid about the size of a living room sofa. An ABC 15 article stated that “there were no reports of any damage or injuries, only light and sonic booms.” The article also stated that “NASA believes there are meteorites scattered on the ground north of Tucson.” In addition to what NASA mentioned, ABC 15 also shared the intelligent insights of another trusted space source, stating, “Astronomy expert Steve Kates, better known as Dr. Sky, said it's a very likely chance that it was a meteor bolide...there's also a very good chance that debris hit the ground, judging by its apparent size.” About two dozen meteorites (LL chondrites) were recovered in the weeks following the fall.

Dolly Steamboat on Canyon Lake

Kates hosts a Solar System presentation every month on the Dolly Steamboat, a vessel that has been operational since the 1920s. The Astronomy Cruise, which includes a buffet style dinner, is a 2 1/2-hour excursion on Canyon Lake. Under the instruction of Dr. Sky, passengers use on-board telescopes to view solar system objects up close.

Kates was briefly mentioned in Chapter Three of Marina Benjamin’s book Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond. She stated that he was “a self-styled investigator of aerial phenomena who goes by the name Dr. Sky.” (Benjamin is a former arts editor of the New Statesman and deputy arts editor of the Evening Standard. She currently is a senior editor at Aeon.)

2017 Solar Eclipse Weiser, Idaho

Kates covered the 2017 Great American Eclipse from Rigby, Idaho. The live event was aired on 3TV in Phoenix. (During the broadcast, he demonstrated ways to safely look at the eclipse.) A couple of weeks before the eclipse occurred, Kates wrote a feature article in the North Valley Magazine about it. He stated, “I’ll be setting up camp in Rexburg, Idaho, in a 70-mile-wide path, where the eclipse will be total and totality will last some 2 minutes and 15 seconds.”

On March 28, 2017, Kates and Coast to Coast AM producer Tom Danheiser flew on NASA's airborne observatory SOFIA.

Public relations and earned media software company, Cision, published an article on their site regarding a Heroic Investing Podcast discussion that Kates participated in. The majority of the discussion centered around the controversial immigration law officially known as Arizona SB 1070.

External links

• Official website

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