Steve Padgett began working at WAYR-AM 550 in Orange Park, as a teenager in 1967. After a couple of years there, he moved to WPDQ and WRLJ-FM in Jacksonville, where he was the first person hired to bring WRLJ-FM on air plus he worked weekends on WPDQ. When his family was transferred to Melbourne in 1970, he started working at WMMB-AM 1240 and WYRL-FM 102.3 The majority of this time he worked the 6PM-10PM shift on WMMB and mornings on WYRL. Padgett left WMMB and WYRL in 1972 and started at WTVX-TV in Fort Pierce. He was a director for the evening news plus anchored Sunday evenings. He also worked with Charles Castle in the station's engineering department. The TV career was quickly interrupted when Padgett was drafted into the US Army. For the next two years, Padgett served in the Third Armored Division's Public Information Office in Frankfurt, Germany and as the 3AD's liaison to the American Forces Network in Europe. During that time, Padgett won two Keith L. Ware Awards, one of the highest award for Army journalists for his news programs on AFNE. After the Army, Padgett returned to radio at WRUF-AM 850 in Gainesville, Fla.  While attending school in Gainesville, Padgett was a full-time employee at WRUF working mostly as an engineer at the transmitter location on Tower Road. Padgett moved to the Orlando area around 1978 to attend the University of Central Florida. Between 1978 and 1981, he worked morning on WTLN-AM 1520 in Apopka. While Padgett is no longer in the day-to-day side of the radio industry, he is still involved as the director of the Hall School of Journalism at Troy University and a professor there.