• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

RIP: Dave McElhatton

BossRadioDJ

BossRadioDJ

KCBS just announced that longtime KPIX/5 anchor and KCBS morning man Dave McElhatton has passed away in Palm Springs.
 
The KPIX obit was a bit skimpy on McElhatton's radio career. Maybe DJ or somebody with a long memory can give us a rundown of all that. Not being a KCBS listener until the late 70s (when Dave was already on KPIX), I missed it. I've heard that he was the Music Til Dawn late night DJ on KCBS for a number of years (KNX in LA had the same name for it's all-night show in the MOR era).

Then I heard he moved to morning drive, where he was initially a DJ, of course - competing with Sherwood, among others. When KCBS became an all-news station (1968?), Dave became morning anchor until his move to TV (about 1977?).

When Dave's TV career is discussed, it's always pointed out that he was hardly a typical anchor -being rotund and balding. I recall that KPIX actually exploited that to some extent - publicizing Mac as the antidote to all the "Broadcast News" style blow-dried anchor-clones of the 70s.

Dave deserves the credit for being the anchor that finally put a crimp in Van Amburg's armor. Shortly after joining KPIX, McElhatton became the first competing anchor in about a decade to seriously challenge KGO-TV in the ratings.
 
We've got some McElhatton -- but not nearly enough -- in the museum's KCBS archive:

http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kcbs/

I also have a great "audio postcard" of Mac narrating "Voices Of San Francisco," an odd little tourist item that includes cable car bells, Chinese opera, fog horns and other sounds of the City:

Voices Of San Francisco
 
From the CBS Corp. UPDATE newsletter (Wed. 1 Sept., 2010):

A Memorial Service will be on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, at 11:00 AM, at San Francisco's Calvary Presbyterian Church, Pacific Heights, 2515 Fillmore Street (415)346-3832.
 
As of today, a post about transmitter maintenance for KTRB gets 28 replies and the death of Dave McElhatton a broadcast legend in both radio and TV, gets four. Just sayin'
 
tripton99 said:
As of today, a post about transmitter maintenance for KTRB gets 28 replies and the death of Dave McElhatton a broadcast legend in both radio and TV, gets four. Just sayin'
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a slight of Dave McElhatton, or the people who post here. I've observed that radio-info posters on both the radio and TV boards tend not to comment on the deaths of well-known people in the media. You'll find no more than a few posts when some famous TV actor passes away, but dozens or even hundreds on The Price Is Right announcer being fired, or the re-branding of some third tier cable network.

Perhaps people are uncomfortable with death...I don't know...I'm not judging, but that's been my observation.

And I'm always been amazed at the number of posts about obscure small market or low rated AM stations. It's similar on the LA Board - people post endlessly about KNX, KFWB, sports-talk AMs, and low-power stations in the Inland Empire.

If the people posting here were a representative sample of radio listeners, the AM band would still be popular.

Just sayin'...
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom