Dr. Dave Obit (Jan 2, 2007)

According to e-mailer Matt: "Dave has been a good friend and a hard working employee of CCU, Jacor and the like for more than 20 years and had been behind the scenes the last 10 years or so. I knew and worked with Dave for several years during my time at CCU and I know that I speak for everyone when I say that his absence will be felt for a very long time. Godspeed Dr. Dave."

Dave held several jobs in Radio, working for a small station in Carlsbad for a while (probably KKOS as my guess). He announced commericals for Kearny Mesa Ford and Drew Ford of La Mesa and such for CCU.

Thanks to Bob for this coverage: Dave Stuart goes back to at least the PAR radio days (before Jacor swallowed PAR and Clear Channel swallowed Jacor). It's the same guy that KSON's Nick Upton and Bob worked with at KOWN Escondido back in the mid-70's - he was known then as Dave "Mojo" Stuart.

He commuted all the way from Pomona to do his shift at AM 1450 in Escondido. He also was one of the first nightclub DJ's, spinning disks at the Ice Palace in Escondido. The last time Bob saw him, he had moved from on-air work to being, he seems to recall, traffic director (radio's title for the person who basically made sure all the commercials got aired at the correct times) for PAR Broadcasting and maybe doing some computer work too.

Matt adds that Dr. Dave worked both in and behind the scenes at Par Broadcasting, Jacor and Clear Channel.

He was larger than life, a big, friendly guy who "got it" and was one of the brighter lights at Clear Channel.

The last ten years or so he worked in the IT department keeping all the stations online. He and Matt always worked the early shift and helped the morning "Zoo's" on air thru many glitches, snafu's and minor mishaps. For them, he says, it was a labor of love. Dave and Matt were present in the KOGO news room at 5:30am on Sept 11 when the 2nd plane hit and suffice to say, it was a rough day for them all.

The enclosed pictures Matt sent were taken in Feb. 2001 as they put the final touches on Clear Channel's mega-google plex on Granite Ridge Drive, a 75,000 sq foot state-of-the-art broadcast center. From the left, Javier Soto, Sam Balasteri, Bill Tompson, Matt Seufert, unknown, Dr. Dave, Kevin Douglass and unknown. I dug these up a little while ago and I know that Dave throughly enjoyed the group photo the best.

These pictures were taken shortly after the completion of a long, hard transition of 3 Clear Channel buildings (Pacific Coast Highway, Kearny Villa Road and Murphy Canyon) into the consolidation of the Granite Ridge Drive facility which is one of the largest radio broadcast centers in existence today (at least in the US.) Dr. Dave was a huge part of this and they were extremely proud of the work that went into it. Matt had the privilege and pleasure working alongside of Dr. Dave who was a quick witted, intelligent and big hearted guy. He concludes, "The loss of him to us all, just like Dr. Dave, is larger than life."

Thanks to Matt for sending in the photos. Check out his website http://www.casualtyfilms.com/.