Fred Rated Comes Out of the Shadoes to Join
"The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson

 (December 2, 2005)

Out of the shadows, Shadoe Stevens, first pd at KROQ FM has emerged with some phenomenal news. He’s joining The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS December 19^th as announcer. “It’s exactly what I want to be doing right now,” emailed Shadoe. “I think Craig is brilliant, charismatic, and really funny. I think he’s poised to be a major star and I like everyone I’ve met there. I’m honored to be asked to join them. All is well and getting weller.” How did he get the job? “My agent, John ‘Hoss’ Hossenlopp at Atlas Talent in New York, called me a few weeks ago saying, ‘I just got a call from CBS. There’s strong interest in you for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Are you interested?’ The producer is the legendary Peter Lasally. I couldn’t believe how perfect it was,” said Shadoe. 

 

The ubiquitous Shadoe was a regular on Dave’s World, Hollywood Squares and for those around the Southland. In the 1980s, he wrote, produced, and starred in a hilarious, long-running series of television commercials (1,100 different commercials) for a chain of electronic stores as Fred Rated for The Federated Group. “After the first weekend of the campaign, sales increased 500%,” remembered Shadoe. “In four years, the group grew from 14 local stores to 78 superstores in 5 states. The success of the Federated advertising campaign was extraordinary. It was the first regional advertising campaign ever to have received a 2 page spread in Time magazine.” 

In recent years, Shadoe has been quietly writing a series of five children’s books. “They have turned out great, in fact, they’re better than I ever imagined,” enthused Shadoe. “The hard cover editions will be in stores in the coming year and we’ll be offering a gorgeous, large-format, hard-cover, boxed-set as well. It looks like something Disney would put out. It’s called The Big Galoot.”