Dave Shafer, 73, one of the original Big 8 [CKLW-AM] discjockies
Hoodoo
Dave Shafer: 1933-2006
Radio jock helped voice the Big 8
Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
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Detroit News file photo
Dave Shafer's personality helped him become a hit with fans.
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Hear Dave Shafer
To hear audio of several classic Dave Shafer airchecks from the early
and mid-'60s, go to keener13.com. Check out thebig8.net for more
Shafer airchecks.
Former Detroit air personality Dave Shafer, whose voice and name are
well-known from his stint as a jock at CKLW-AM (800), died Sunday in
Florida of complications from outpatient surgery. He was 73.
Shafer was probably best known as one of the original Big 8 jocks
during the Windsor station's fabled tenure as the flame-throwing 1960s
musical powerhouse of the Midwest. CKLW was big and loud, and the
voices like Shafer's that introduced the music were memorable even in
the 30 seconds they had in between records.
But before he hit the Big 8, Shafer had already made his mark in
Detroit radio at a more leisurely pace. The Rochester, N.Y., native
came to Detroit in 1961 to work as record librarian at WJBK-AM, then
known as "Radio 15," a top pop radio station.
Later that year, he was tapped to be the nighttime jock, "Jack the
Bellboy," on WJBK, a franchise that started years earlier with Ed
McKenzie. Shafer's laid-back personality was a winner with fans.
As a music jock, he also was known for the record hops he hosted,
giving early exposure to Motown acts Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and
Martha and the Vandellas. By May of 1963, Shafer had moved across the
Detroit River to do afternoons at the pre-Big 8 CKLW, then known as
the somewhat sleepy "Radio 80," with the jocks known as "The Good
Guys."
Shafer left CK in '68, then returned in the '70s as program director.
"I first met Dave Shafer when I started on the switchboard at CKLW,"
said Rosalie Trombley. "Eventually, I ended up working for him when I
became music director. Dave was one of the good guys. He was always a
gentleman, he had a great sense of humor."
That sense of humor got Shafer in hot water one time with CKLW's
notoriously difficult program director, Paul Drew. As former CKLW jock
"Big" Jim Edwards tells it, Shafer was working a weekend shift and
decided to bring in a lawn chair so he could do his show reclining in
comfort.
Drew often made surprise visits to the studio to check on the jocks,
and he stopped by on this particular day. When he saw Shafer in the
lawn chair, Drew went ballistic.
"Such a humble man, he was loved by everyone who knew him," said
Edwards of Shafer.
Later in his career, Shafer served as a program director at radio
stations WCAR, WOMC and WCZY in Detroit.
At last September's Radio Reunion in Novi, which Shafer attended,
another former CKLW colleague, Dick Purtan, brought the house down
when he remarked: "Dave was an unusual program director in that he
actually liked people."
On Monday, Purtan remembered Shafer's facility for dialects. One time,
Purtan had conducted a "Gandhi Look-alike Contest" for his CKLW
morning show. The winners, as well as station staffers and their
spouses, all traveled to New York to see the somewhat risque show "Oh!
Calcutta."
During the play's infamous nude scene, "you could hear a pin drop," as
Purtan recalls. "All of a sudden you hear this very deep voice say, in
a German accent, 'Vat is dis?' We all laughed so hard and for so long
that the people in the audience started yelling at us to leave the
theater, and we did. All because of Dave.
"Dave was funnier off the air than he was on," Purtan recalls. "He got
caught up in the restrictive format at CKLW. I escaped that and
somehow got away with doing my own thing."
CKLW's "Brother" Bill Gable called Shafer "my earliest mentor."
"Dave was effortlessly funny. He would crack all of us up in the
hallways."
Shafer retired 14 years ago, living just south of Tampa and playing
golf four times a week.
A Detroit memorial service is planned for May 23, at Lynch & Sons,
1368 N. Crooks Road in Clawson, with visitation at 11 a.m. and the
service at 1 p.m.
Shafer is survived by wife Kathy, sons Michael and Terry, daughter
Tammy and seven grandchildren.
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