Dave McBride ⁽²⁾

ex-WCKG-FM - NEWS DIRECTOR/ANCHOR

There’s a proverb that goes; “To change and to change for the better are two different things.” Listeners to the Steve Dahl Show know that Steve has made a change, which he feels he needs to make to stay engaged and to remain entertaining. This is his call and he has the right to make it. But it promises to change the dynamic of the show to the degree I no longer feel comfortable in continuing my role here. The change, as it has been described on-air, is manifested in the aphorism, “Tension is action,” and promises a meaner edginess. Till now, the relationship between the three principals in our studio each day has been one of mutual admiration and professional respect, not tension. My five-year association with Steve Dahl has been the most satisfying of my career. It was a pleasure to inhabit a studio in which the talent genuinely liked one another. When I was invited aboard the show, I was told the best thing that could happen to me was to work with Steve Dahl, and the worst thing that could happen to me was to work with Steve Dahl. But unlike Sidney Carton, I have been witness to the best of times, never the worst. I am happy that Steve has agreed to extend his relationship with WCKG and know he will enjoy his customary success. I am naturally disappointed I won’t be along for the ride, but given the fundamental changes in the nature of the program, my work environment has ceased to be a happy one. And I am happy by nature, and confidant my ability will land me on my feet. Steve was kind enough, long ago, to plant my daily feature at the beginning and end of his show, as a solid entrance and exit to his rowdy five-hour comic fellowship. I am proud to claim a measure of credit for the consistent popularity of the show year in and year out. And I have always appreciated the close relationship I’ve enjoyed with listeners as the official “concierge” of the Steve Dahl Show; the conduit through which most of our audience communicated with us. Until I pass through this current career wormhole and emerge at some other location in the Chicago radio cosmos, I will continue to answer all E-mails from those who visit www.davemcbride.com . I’ll keep myself busy in the interim and not cry over spilt milk, for, in the words of Pogo; “Don’t take life too serious. It ain’t no ways permanent.” I’ve been happy for 7 years at WCKG. I guess I’ve been of a mind that it would be time to leave when I’d feel disinclined to sing Old Man River at the Christmas party. That time has come. 

Veteran News Announcer Dave McBride (wife Anita, son Jonathan) is veteran, not in the sense of having served his country, but veteran in the sense of being old, and looks forward to one day earning the titles "Seasoned" and "Venerable." McBride was born on Christmas Eve in 1948, a month after the Chicago Tribune printed "Dewey Defeats Truman" and a week after the Chicago Bears lost the pro football championship game to Philadelphia 7-0. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the result of the United States Navy having released his father from service aboard the U.S.S. Birmingham the previous year, for the purpose of having sex. 

Following 23 years of life-shaping events lost to history in a series of diary fires in the early 70s, Dave McBride left home with a lunchbox and a dream: to become the best News Pronouncer in Northeastern Ohio/Northwestern Pennsylvania. His first professional stop was at WPIC in Sharon, Pennsylvania (The "Pic" of the Dial) at which his assignments included reading the funeral home calling hours of listeners who had recently ceased being active members of his target demographic. Next stop--- the powerful "Voice of the Mahoning Valley," WHOT (Hot Radio) in Youngstown, Ohio (motto: "There's lots more time to listen to the radio since the steel mills closed"). 

During this period Dave shared a house with air personality colleagues Mike Richards and Ed Richards in the hard years when the radio business was so lean many disk jockeys were required to share the same last name. During this time, he cultivated radio friendships that would last as long as five minutes past the time he was hired by another station across town, WKBN (Widely Known Broadcasting iNitials). In 1975, McBride was tapped by the 50 thousand watt AM powerhouse, WGAR (George A. Richards), in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was to start a two decades-long association with air personalities whose last names were "In the morning", in the years when disk jockeys felt compelled to remind listeners what day-part it was. 

"I worked with Lanigan in the Morning", says McBride, "He was very humorous, but the newsroom was in a cinderblock windowless annex, so in four years, I spoke with him twice and was photographed with him once, in the group shot at the Christmas party." During the first and second years of McBride's tenure at WGAR, it was twice voted the Billboard Magazine Adult Contemporary Station of the year, for reasons, as far as one can tell, unrelated to the delivery of the news. 

In 1980, McBride received the call to come to Chicago to join the NBC owned-and-operated FM adult contemporary WKQX (extremely high word-score if the proper names rule is waived). With subsequent scientific findings that attempts to pronounce the station's call letters as a word were resulting in vocal cord injury, NBC changed the designation of WKQX to Q-101. 

In the first year, McBride was paired with Joel Sebastian, Art Roberts, Bob DelGiorno, and Man Mountain Walker, before Robert Murphy was hired to become the franchise player, "Murphy in the Morning." A dozen years later, Q-101 switched to an Alternative Rock format and fired all on-air people over 40, which, in any other industry, is a violation of Federal Law, but which in radio is okay because none of the departed were desirous of lingering long in the vicinity of Toad the Wet Sprocket. 

Actually, management kept McBride for six months following the switch and paired him with former MTV Veejay Mark Goodman, before concluding the match had less chemistry than the curriculum at Karate School. McBride joined Cox Broadcasting's WCKG, which in a subsequent buyout became Infinity Broadcasting's WCKG, which in a subsequent buyout became Westinghouse Broadcasting's WCKG, which became CBS radio's WCKG, which it has been announced will soon revert to Infinity Broadcasting's WCKG, home to the legendary Steve Dahl. 

On the Steve Dahl Afternoon Radio Program, Dave McBride exercises due diligence to make the sort of contribution to the Steve Dahl team which will result in his ability to meet Jonathan's tuition and room and board.