It's well known he's spent a good amount of time on The Drive but apparently he is learning all aspects of the business:

CHARLOTTE: Sorensen: Panthers' Steve Smith, now a veteran, still holds hope for future | Tom Sorensen | NewsObserver.com

“He would come in with copious notes,” says Taylor Zarzour who, with Marc James, hosts The Drive. “He’d text me on weekends and ask what he should watch – the Masters, college basketball, the NCAA tournament? He’s competitive in the studio, too.

So there will be Rules & Regulations in the radio booth too!

He wants to be prepared.” The frustration, says Smith, is after preparing, callers would drive the show in a direction he hadn’t anticipated and a subject he hadn’t researched. “With March Madness there wasn’t enough TiVo, there weren’t enough eyes, to be abreast of everything,” he says. “There was too much going on, and I felt like I was always unprepared because I was always missing something.”

I see Smith as a great representative for the Carolinas upon his retirement. He has history here, good history from the Panthers biggest seasons in its history:

"And I remember how this community was when we were on the Super Bowl and playoff runs," Smith says. "And I don’t care what New York says, I don’t care, being from Los Angeles, what Los Angeles says. Charlotte was the place to be. "Man, this city was on fire. Charity events were selling (team) auction items like hotcakes. It was just a fun city to be in, and I would love to be a part of that as a player and as a radio personality because I know how fun that is.

Yet he's not just ready to base his experience on those early years. of course he wants to add to it before he hangs them up:

" How much fun would it be to spend a career with one team, and leave it with a ring? "Who does not want to have the picture-perfect career right at the end?" Smith asks. "Everybody does. That’s why a few more years and really just let it go, you know, I don’t want to be a guy hanging on. Or a guy that’s playing just to play to get – ‘Oh, I want to play 20 years’ and for the next seven years I’m playing for nine different teams."

In other words, he has no interest in leaving Charlotte just to hang on a few more seasons. Hence he didn't leave when John Fox did. He has roots here and he wants to add to his legacy, a legacy that to his family is about more than just Smith. His family bleeds black and electric blue as well:

Smith has three children, the youngest of whom, Boston, is eight. "He’s a Panther fan and I say that because he’s raised here, he’s born here," says Smith. "He’s not just a Steve Smith fan. He’s a Cam Newton fan, he’s a Luke Kuechly fan, he’s a Jon Beason fan, he’s a Thomas Davis fan. "Boston has two jerseys he wears when he gets up. He’ll wear the Panther jersey or he’ll throw on a Bobcats’ jersey, now the Hornets." Unlike radio Steve Smith, Boston doesn’t have to worry about multiple teams. Charlotte’s teams are his teams. It’s that simple. "And that’s huge," Steve Smith says.

Huge indeed.