Waipiata was the location for his first foray into broadcasting and he has retired in Alexandra, where he and wife Annette bought a vineyard and settled two years ago.
''I've been broadcasting from here - just across the corridor,'' he says, pointing to the office in his Alexandra home.
The 89-year-old talkback host has ''reluctantly'' retired to focus on his health and regaining his strength after a cancer operation in July.
''I loved radio and I've never lost that passion.''
The genial Presbyterian minister turned radio announcer had an early connection to broadcasting.
He was raised in Wallacetown, Southland, and his father fixed radios.
After contracting tuberculosis, he spent several years at the Waipiata Sanatorium in the 1940s and it was there his interest in broadcasting was piqued.
''One of the patients had built a wee transmitter and we had a request session for patients that we thought was just broadcasting at the sanatorium, but in fact, was going right over the Maniototo. It broadcast for six months and was probably the country's first pirate radio station.
''Of course, you needed a licence, so the Post Office was searching for the source and finally shut the station down.
''That was my first go in broadcasting - taking turns at hosting the request session.''
His career blossomed following regular sessions on air in Dunedin while working as a minister.
He moved to Auckland in his church role and furthered his radio career in that city, forming part of the founding team at Radio Pacific in 1979.
Then came the advent of 24-hour talkback radio and in 1989 he began hosting the Radio Pacific (now Radio Live) overnight show and continued as host until August.
Radio Live-Mediaworks Radio network director Cliff Joiner said Mr Stevens had all the values expected in a great talk host ''... he was always working on his craft, was always well prepared - and was always looking after his listeners and callers.
''Listening to Ewing's shows - without fail, you could hear the warmth, generosity, curiosity and the connection needed from a host whose job it is to get the best possible radio out of listeners who choose to be callers.''
''And you need to remember that most people who listen to talkback are eavesdroppers. Only one in 20 will ever phone in.
''People used to reckon bad things happened when I was on air - the Falklands War broke out, Twin Towers, a shocking helicopter and plane crash in Auckland, the Queen St riots - they all happened on my shift.''
