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Dave Archard

Originally from Rochester, New York, Dave and his family moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1941, around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was there that he graduated from Bergen County schools in 1954. To earn tuition for radio announcer training, he worked in the mailroom of the ABC network in New York before launching his career in 1956 at a station in South Carolina.

In 1958, he became a deejay at Tampa’s WALT where he helped introduce Top 40 radio to the Tampa-St. Petersburg market that December. In spite of the fact his countdown show pulled a 52 share in the Hooper ratings, he was pink slipped two years later to make room for Al Dunaway from sister station WSAI in Cincinnati.

Shortly thereafter, Dave was hired by former WALT PD Roy Nilson, who had left in 1959 to flip St. Pete’s Mutual affiliate WTSP to Top 40 WLCY. Once there, he found himself doing middays and writing lines for “The Weather Chick,” the sexy-voiced dumb-blonde, character on Nilson’s afternoon show. Then, in 1963, he joined fellow WLCY deejays Dick Stambaugh and Rock Robbins and departed for Miami’s WFUN.

Since 1970, he has worked in the Daytona Beach area for an ad agency, a newspaper, and several radio outlets, including WROD and WNDB, where he hosted a talk show. He’s also done considerable work for the local PBS TV station, hosting half-hour civic affairs and home-improvement shows, and producing a two-part program showcasing central Florida jazz musicians.

Today (2010) Dave continues to make his home in Daytona Beach. He is a member of the Florida Writer’s Association and was vice president of the Ormond Beach Writer’s League in 2009. His memoir, “Through Slanted Windows, a Journey into Radio,” chronicles his struggle to get on the air, and was a finalist in the 2008 Royal Palm Literary Awards, excerpts of which have been published in Florida Writer Magazine and Seniors Today.

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