Some Dave Dixon Stories I've Received 
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I watched him every night as a teenager. I loved his pithy comments about the usually bad movies they would show. One time I called up the show to tell him about a particular horn player that was in this movie they where showing ( I am a professional musician). This fellow was retired and living in So. Florida at the time. So I thought that I was "helping" to bring this to Mr. Dixons attention. Well, he kind of sarcastically blew me off, then went on the air and made some rather disparaging comments about "this kid " (me) who just called in and thinks he knows everything. Chris |
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It was odd to see an "I hate Dave Dixon" page on the web. I liked Dave Dixon. But I "knew" him in a different way than from the radio. When I was in sixth grade in Miami, Florida; around 1976, a UHF TV station (it was on channel 51) had a late night movie show. They showed old "B" movies, and old serials and stuff. Dave Dixon was the host. I used to watch it every night. I thought that Dave's dry sense of humor and comments was hilarious. One night, I got up the nerve to call him at the show. He answered, and I don't remember what we talked about, but he was patient with a 12 year old kid calling him and we had a nice conversation. So that is how I "knew" Dave Dixon. I never talked to him again. He also appeared in a series of television commercials for Sound Advice, a local electronics retailer. I thought that Dave Dixon was probably the most obscure person who was ever even remotely a celebrity. I just thought that he was a South Florida personality. It is only recently, when I looked him up, that I found out about his radio past. I never knew that before. And if not for the Internet, I would never know. I looked him up because he was so obscure, and I wanted to see if I could find anything. Of course, among the few pages that I found, to find a page about hating him was even more bizarre! Anyway, I was saddened to hear of his passing. I am not into the cult of celebrity. I could care less about most of them. Dave Dixon was a real person, I always could picture him farting while he was on camera! We could use a few more like Dave around today. Jeff |
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Hey PBR, My name is Lee and I agree Dave was coarse with his words. However one late night in Jan. 1972 a friend and I were invited up to the 33rd. floor studio [very small] to meet mark parrenteau and give him a copy of a live feed that got frawley fired for saying F.O. live on air. So the doors are locked outside and up walks this HUGE monster of a person in a 5 foot long leather coat carrying 2 big bags of asst. fruit for the guys upstairs. He rides up in the elevator and offers us each some fruit. What a soft spoken kind person he was. If his voice wasnt so distinct, I wouldnt believe it was Dave. I too gave to WDET in 93 and requested Dave read my pledge expressing my still active allegiance to the wabx air aces and long live WABX. He did. The comercial paradies the gang did as the air aces stranded on frozen precipises and all were very entertaining and quite believable. I still have them on cassette tapes as well as Daves IDs and asst. blab. I also agree that Daves taste in music opened me up to stuff such as phil ochs to oblivion express to canned heat to furry lewis and so on. He was a master on his show. At the time I was 17-18 yrs old and Mark Parrenteau"s show really was closer to my taste. Today WDET is my primary station, and listening to my late 60s - late 70s material that NOBODY plays anymore. Thanks for hearing me out. Lee. |
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Ah.. Dave Dixon, on Channel 51 in Miami at night. I was a (literally) a captive audience working the night shift at a cab company! I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Dave, and the other characters: King Paul of Monarch Dodge; Barry Goldberg of the "Night Owl Boutique" in North Miami and former blues artist; the Majestic Interiors' man, "if you don't get your carpets and draperies at Majestic Interiors, you'll get burned! Aaaaagh! (as someone set him on fire!); and my all time favorite, the Cisco Kid and Pancho, "Adios Amigos, see you at the Bon Soir! (a porno hotel in Ft Lauderdale)" Rod |
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I remember Dave Dixon as a caustic, sarcastic, brilliant song weaver. He was sometimes full of himself, but always informed and on the cusp of the local "underground" rock scene in Ann Arbor. I'm not sure if it was he or Jerry Lubin that used the phrase "hauntingly beautiful" to describe a piece of music just played that was anything but! If you know, could you tell me what part of "Rock n' Roll Music" he wrote? Was it a verse, music, or was he a part of the whole process? I think of him everytime I hear that song, because I remember Dave relating to the radio audience how he helped to write the song, but I can't remember what he said about it. There are verses in it that are very "Dave". Thanks for the opportunity to remember WABX's Air Aces. Regards, Dennis Wilcox |
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Dunno if you want Dave Dixon stories still.....but here goes. I first saw Dave on "The All Night Show" in the late 70's in Florida, on channel 51 out of Ft Lauderdale (which later became "OnTV" a scrambled porno broadcast). Dave had a show lineup that was fairly interesting - Sea Hunt, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, sometimes an oldie movie that was pretty good. He used to do his bit on TV, from like midnite or 1am to 5am. The thing was, and I believe this... Dave thought he was hot stuff on TV, even though everyone used to watch the show and basically make fun of him. Some years after, in about 1980 or 1982, he came into the camera store where I worked, and was into high end Hasselblad cameras. He was pretty obnoxious in person, moreso than on TV. Ah well. Charles |
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I was at a benefit for the late Ross Marino at the State Theatre in Detroit and Dave was there chatting with Rob Tyner and I approached him and said "good to see you Dave" and the arrogant bastard replied "Its good to be seen". Another time was the VIP opening for the nightclub Vis a Vis in Pontiac. I watched ole Dave polishing off a whole bowl of shrimp cocktail I mean a whole serving bowl. About 100 good size shrimp. He would not let anyone even get close. I enjoyed your site! Dan |
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Don't have a Dave Story to speak of. But thanks for the Memory. I do have to agree with your Position on him, Whole Heartedly. Grew up in Detroit in the 60's Listened him on WABX & on WDET in the 80's / 90's. Talked to him Once on the phone to identify a "New" Album he had just played on WDET. Acted Like I was Stupid for asking Who it was. ( Although He did end up telling Me, Traveling Wilburys 3.) Thanks!!! Brad |
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Back in the late 1970's I lived in Miami and was a film editor at WCIX-TV. Dave was hosting the all-night movie on the UHF station Channel 51. He used to annoy the hell out of me by introducing a Pat O'Brien movie and saying what a lousy actor Pat O'Brien was. Or wondering how in the world Walter Brennan ever got an Oscar for KENTUCKY. But my all time favorite Dave Dixon moment was when they came back from a commercial and there he was standing with a sloppy joe STUFFED into his face. He raised his eyebrows over his granny glasses and, nonplussed, explained how he was just sampling some of the wares of one of the stations advertisers. Total gross-out moment. Imagine my "delight" when I learned that Dave was coming to WCIX to host our NIGHT OWL MOVIE. I quickly made arrangements to move to New York and have been at CBS ever since! Ray |
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Used to watch Dave Dixon on "The All Night Show" on Ch 51 in FT. Lauderdale when I was a teenager in the 1970's. He used to play a lot of lesser shown films and tv programs from the distant past that kept all of us insomniacs going. Topper, The Whispering Shadow, and The Avengers amongst others. I also recollect a very old serial about French Foreign Legionnaires featuring a pre star John Wayne. I'd love to spend a few evenings in that way again, soaking up some classic cinema and television from my parents era as well as being in the company of good old Dave. 25 years have passed since that time and I now have lived in London, England for the past two decades but still, deep in the back of the dark recesses of my mind, Dave Dixon is knocking around. Enough so that I sought him out on the internet only to find that he left us five years ago. Spooky really. Even with the proliferation of so much cable and satelite tv, things will never be on the same par. Cheers Dave. Dan |
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If you think Dave was bad, you should meet his sister! I should know, she's my mom. You'll be happy to hear, I pee-ed all over Uncle Dave's bed as a toddler! Monica Hi Monica, Thanks for making my monday morning! thanks for visiting my Dave site, & hope it didn't offend, wasn't meant to |
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I, too, was amazed by Dave Dixon's taste in music, but abhorred him personally. Arrogant, rude and self-aggrandizing, I had to deal with his ego and bad manners in the mid-1980's in Detroit. He had a fawning audience. People spoke of him in hushed tones. I wanted to stick a pin in him and watch him deflate. Notoriously misogynist, I might add. (I'm normally a nice woman, but you hit a nerve here.) Jomarie |
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Dave was a fav of mine. I would spend my summers in Erie, MI when I was a teen (around '67-'71) which was just close enough to capture the signal. I listened to his show in my bed away from the adults (I also caught the late underground shows from Toledo on AM as well as "Uncle Russ" from Detroit). Anyway, he exposed me to a lot of music that I would have never heard otherwise. However, I remember him throwing a little coniption over a phone request for "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground. He got fairly moralistic about how the song was "disgusting" and that he didn't want to play it anymore because he hated it. But he played it. I couldn't figure out if he was trying to cover his ass (FCC, owners, city officials, etc.) or if he really meant it. However, when it came time to plug The Stooges...he was all over it, even though their producer was none other than John Cale (and I heard their first LP on "rotten and evil" WABX before it was released) who was, of course, a member of the hated band: The Velvet Underground. A mystery that will never be solved, I guess. He played a lot of other drug songs- it was hard not to in those times and the genres that Dixon favored. I guess the Velvets were a little too hard-edged for him...as if the Stooges were any softer! Oh well...hey man, thanx! |
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Here's my Dave Dixon story. As a huge fan of WDET I was listening to the Fall Pledge Drive this afternoon as Martin Bandyke (Great programmer, Triple Ace Award winner, 1-4PM EST Mon-Fri) was describing the way WDET presents at least 58 minutes of music every hour unlike what you get on commercial radio. This got me thinking about how it was Dave Dixon who lead me to discover WDET back in, what?, 1986 when they threw him out of Miami. Then I started thinking about the early days of ABX, and how so very special a time it was for popular music and my emerging adult identity. So when I got home I did a Goggle search on "Dave Dixon" and cracked up when I read your website. I agree 100% with every damn thing you said about that arrogant fat fuck! It was 1970 or 1971 when I called ABX one afternoon to offer a "suggestion". You're right, he railed at listeners for phoning in "requests' or "dedications!" Earlier that day I had heard on the news that there was a serious flood in Texas. So I, a faithful and loyal listener, called Dave and "suggested" he play Led Zeppelin's 'When the Levee Breaks' on behalf of the folks in Texas. All he said was, "Real fuckin funny Asshole!", and hung up on me. And you know he didn't play the tune. Thanks for your website and for a good laugh! Tom |
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My girl friend and I went to a WABX showing of the movie STEEL YARD BLUES. Dave sat down next to me and shared his joint with us. My first celebrity contact. Nelson |
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Are there any more Dave Dixon sites? I used to watch him here in Miami when I was a kid, and I thought he was great, but he was a very abrasive person. I called in a few times and talked to him, and like you, he basically blew me off every time, especially if I had anything that was on-topic and supportive of what ever he had been talking about on the TV show. He used to take calls after commercials, live while on camera. You could watch TV and listen to him talk to you on the phone. That was a big thrill for a 12-14 year old kid! Thanks, Al |
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Well, I hate to admit it...but I'm the schmuck responsible for unleashing the abrasive, egomaniacal, Dave Dixon, on the Detroit people. I met the old stool-sample at a party in B'ham one nite and he had just arrived in Detroit that day after ending a job working with Peter, Paul and Mary....it was some non-prestigious loser job as I recall.....we talked briefly and he told me he was new in town and looking for work. Alas, it was then that I opened my big mouth and told him that WABX was looking for a new DJ. He told me he'd check it out and I gave the incident no more thought. To my horror, I then heard him on the radio and quickly realized how much I hated this paragon of arrogance, now filling in time on the Greatest radio station in the history of the universe!! I HAVE SINNED!!!! FORGIVE ME DETROIT!!! I met him again a month later at the Grande. and as he walked by me I said "Hi, how's the new job?" and the SOB walked right past me without even acknowledging my existence as a fellow hippie, let alone as someone who turned him on to a great job that he in no way deserved. Well, blame me for this disaster, I opened the door and let the serpent into heaven. I'll sit here and calmly wait for the crowds to show up on my front lawn with the torches and the boiling oil. "Still Ridin' 'em High, and Shootin' 'em Low" Gary |
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I live in Miami where Dixon hosted that late night TV show you mentioned. Yes, he was overbearing and blunt, but in those days (early 1970s) before cable when local stations signed off at midnight or 1:00 AM Dave was all there was late at night. And since often at that time of the night our state of mind was ... well, you know, Dave's rants were actually welcomed. The movies he showed were old, low-rent B&W castoffs the networks weren't interested in at that time. When he was on the air the set was just a counter to put some papers on and big Dave, as you know Dave could fill the screen. We actually looked forward to his comments. One that I remember was at the end of "High Noon". Dave apparently didn't care much for Grace Kelly so he went off on her saying something like "... yeah, she was a good little Quaker girl, but in the end she shot that man right in the spine!" Thirty years later my brother and I still crack up over that one. Go figure. Leon |
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I remember calling big Dave to suggest he play "Lickin Stick", and his response being "Mmmmm…no." Then he hung up. Reading these stories, I feel better now. "Better than James Brown"? I don't think so. Note to Dennis Wilcox: I remember Dave describing a Zappa tune as "taken from the 'hauntingly beautiful' Weasels Ripped My Flesh." The man could use the language. Brian |
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I really like your website! Dave Dixon and I used to talk on the phone all the time about film. Most people don't know that his favorite film was "Bedazzled," with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Usually, when he said things to piss people off it was with a wink, since he had a very British sense of humor. He could be very sarcastic, and didn't suffer fools too well. My friend Stan is a cab driver in Fort Lauderdale and used to drive Dave around alot - he never tipped... One night dave mooned the audience during his all night show. It was during the first year or two before anyone really started watching. A lot of the movies he showed were uncut. I recorded "Baba Yaga" with Carol Baker on vhs when it aired and there was alot of nudity. I still have it in storage and it includes Dave and his comments-its a real blast from the past. I don't know if you remember, but he almost always showed "Nightmare Alley" with Tyrone Power on Halloween. I wonder if any fans out there have tapes of Dave running movies. It would be nice to trade and unleash that flood of South Florida memories again. Peace, RJ Radcliff |
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Dave was originally on uhf channel 51 all night, then he went to channel 39 I think and was on earlier in the evening.in the early 80's. You could always call him while the film was running and chat. I think the station manager at channel 39 muzzled him alot more than the folks at channel 51. He was very personable when I spoke with him I called him several times while home from FSU during the summer. Dave was a phenomenon in Florida that never happened before and won't happen again. There was a small window between the advent of uhf tv and the coming of cable and Dave literally slipped through the cracks with a totally counterculture television program that could only compare with the early days of live tv in the 50s. I remember taking a tour of channel 51 back then and it was as primitive as a 1950s television station. They had little or no budget, but assumed nobody was watching anyway. During the day they showed old television shows like Burk's law. They had another famous tv host on the weekend named Charlie Baxter, who came over from channel 7 (nbc affiliate) where hosted horror films as MT Graves. So you had him on the weekend and Dave on the graveyard. The first year Dave was given free reign-hardly any sponsors advertised and his show was slow to catch on. It was the nightwatchmen, hotel desk clerks and insomniacs that spread the news about the show by word of mouth. Gradually, the sponsors came and Dave became a local phenomen in South Florida in the late 1970's. There were actual lifesize Sound Advise posters exploiting his substantial girth all over town. I don't think Dave made alot of money off of that fame but it was his day in the sun. Gradually it tapered off and by the 1980's he left 51 and gradually phased out of South Florida. You just can't imagine his impact back then. Today, a small portion of the poplulation will watch a tv channel at one time because of all the choices offered by cable. For a time all South Florida had in the wee hours was Dixon-and his viewership would surpass any South Florida channel, cable or network, today. That is why he'll probably be remembered there long after he's forgotten in Detroit. By the way, I was born at Women's Hospital in Wayne Michigan and lived for years on Monterey and Boston Blvd in West Detroit. I used to go to JL Hudson's when Soupy Sales was local and made store appearances there. You may remember another detroit personality Dave brought with him to Florida by the name of Conrad Patrick. RJ |
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While I was surfing the net trying to rattle my memory and answer a question a friend asked about the the old WXYZ-AM disc jockey lineup from the 60's (Lee Alan, Fred Wolf, Dave Price, etc.) It led me to thinking about the WABX "Air Aces" and that led me to your " I HATE DAVE DIXON" site. Very funny stuff.. If Dixon were alive I would hope that he could see the compliment concealed in your tongue in cheek frustration. Dixon and the ABX group expanded upon the great radio tradition of Detroit and certainly expanded the bounds of my musical taste. Truly a "free format" where the listener never knew what to expect from a DJ like Dave Dixon or where his choice of music would lead you.. Although I may not have always agreed with his opinions I certainly respected them. And I loved to here his verbal ramblings because at least it was unique and most often insightful coming from a man with an incredible scope of knowledge regarding music. Unlike Uncle Russ Gibbs who used to DJ on WKNR=FM. Gibbs would ramble incoherently and with long blank pauses that seemed to last minutes ( you could hear him breathing so you knew he was there). I laughed my butt off when Dixon interviewed Bobby Mcferrin on WDET and pissed him by inferring that his song " Don't Worry Be Happy' sucked and that he was his method of music was a shallow gimmick unworthy of being called jazz. Sadly, I think that was the beginning of his demise at WDET. Next I think he said something unkindly of the program director, Judy Adams, and he was gone for good from Detroit. I appreciate your site and thanks for posting the photos and audio clip. Dave Dixon was a great disc jockey in a town with one of the greatest radio traditions in America. Jim Sanders Jim, Appreciate your story. Great! Thanks... Do you mind if I add your comments with some others to the dixon page if and when i update it again someday? Sure, go ahead. By the way, that lineage of great radio tradition in Detroit ending abruptly this year when the public station,WDET, fired all of the open format DJ's and replaced them with NPR syndicated talk shows and news. Sad. If you know of outstanding DJ's anywhere in the country I'd be interested in hearing about them. I'm talking about people who lead their listeners to good music rather that following the corporate playlist...Jim Jim, I'm sure there's lots of them around. One guy in the area had a radio show for years that was fun while it lasted. Now he's doing it on the web, the future wave of media. radio is about dead I believe.... check him out, he has a long and deep library... google "The Bone Conduction Music Show" Thanks for your email!... Don |
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He screwed me out of two free tickets to the Goose Lake Rock Festival back in the late 60s. He had some contest, identify a song or an artist, something like that. So I call up with the right answer and he says, "sorry we've already got a winner." I say "thanks" and hang up. After the current song ended, he comes on and says, "we still don't have a winner to our ticket giveaway...." My guess is that I was the wrong gender. He was babe hunting. I always hated the guy after that. Thanks for letting me vent. Roger |
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One more. Martin Bandyke, former WDET DJ and long time pal of mine, told the story about how someone once stole that fat ass's stocking cap. He railed for hours and days about how he needed his damned hat and how he was going to sue the station and whoever stole it. I don't think they ever found it. Roger |
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It was the summer 1968 I was 13 years old, living in Detroit's comfortable Rosedale Park with my family. Across the street our neighbor had a garage sale where I spotted her console stereo.. Wow.. One dollar later it was mine and I dragged it across the street and up the stairs to my room. Now, as a punk 13 year old I was a product of loud and obnoxious blaring AM radio of the like of then WKNR Keener 13 and that was all I knew of radio. I fired up my new acquisition and for the first time made the discovery of FM radio! This was incredible... no static ,no station overlap , no yelling and blaring.. nice I kid u not, I believe it was the very first day I discovered the totally awesome WABX and the ABX Air Aces and I NEVER changed the channel til ABX went off the air. Dave Dixon was the Chief Pilot and I immediately loved him and his sense of airplay. The whole ABX team changed my life... I mean THEY CHANGED MY LIFE! I feel so fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time... These people were outstanding and I will be grateful my whole life for what they brought to me. Dave especially was my hero and I will always miss him. Thanks for remembering Dave, regards, Billy Gonzalez |
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I was a huge ABX fan from 1970-74 (I lived in Michigan for 30 years) and recall Dave's talent and rudeness as well. I believe I heard him as early as '68 when I was exploring that "weird" FM band I'd never really paid attention to before. If memory serves, there was Dixon, chatting about FM and saying something like, "Around here, we believe that FM is the future of radio." I was just 13 and didn't think so. Certainly, I hadn't heard a statement like that before. A few years later, I recall Dixon playing the Flying Burrito Brothers and possibly more than once calling them one of his favorite bands--something else you didn't hear everyday. One thing I use in my own radio work is something modeled after Dave Dixon: he usually didn't "frontsell" a song, at least by the time he got to WDET in the 1980s. Never said, "here's (artist mentioned)." He would just wrap up a set, chat a bit and then start another song when he got to the "punch line" (not necessarily humorous) of what he was saying. I've always dug his style, and he was a fine interviewer, too. Here's a rude one from WDET: Someone phoned him, just crazy about one of the songs he played. They wanted to know where to get the album. He was really snotty sounding when he said, "How would I know? I've never paid for a record in my life." On the one hand, he was bragging about the free promo records he got, and on the other, treating the caller/listener like crap. Judging from a good deal of the great records he played, I thought he loved music. Now it all sounded phony. You mean that there was NOTHING he'd ever purchase if he couldn't get the record for free? That sounded even worse than snubbing his listeners, if that's possible. Thanks for reading my story. J.J. Syrja host of "Retroactive" Saturdays (since 1994) KAOS-FM Olympia, WA www.kaosradio.org |
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I don't have any specific memories of Dave other than watching him on the all night show in the mid seventies in Fort Lauderdale. I don't think I ever worked up the nerve to call in to the show, with him being such an "argumentative" person. But what fun it was. Dave would screen a LOT of crappy movies and t.v. shows and aways provide criticism that was usually richly deserved. I can still remember our little living room on 34th street, bedsheets hung on either doorway to keep the cool air from the fan in (we grew up with no air conditioning in Florida!) my eyes glued to the screen. My brother and I would see who could stay up the latest, although, I don't think either of us made it past 4 am...And we weren't the only ones who got tired. I remember once the show cutting back from commercial and Dave was sound asleep on a nearby couch. a stagehand had to wake him up! As I recall, before Dave, a guy named Edie Eagan (a former cop)co-hosted a similar show. and there was another show called "Midnite at the oasis" although I cant remember if they were on channel 51... If anyone has pictures of Dave, specifically from the all night show, I would love to see them and share them with anybody who remembers that wacky show, and, of course, the late, great, Dave Dixon. |
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I was in middle-school during Dave's time at WCIX-TV51 and, trust me, to be able to receive his All-Night Show on my rigged tinfoil TV antenna waaaay up in Boca ("pre-cable", of course) was pure Nirvana. He was irreverent, to be sure, but where else could one see an ad for "The Cheetah III" strip club on the TeeVee?! Maybe he was an asshole in real life but, ultimately, he didn't come off that way on TV. Beasley |
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I grew up in South Florida and discovered Dave Dixon in the mid-seventies, when he was hosting The All Night Show on Miami UHF channel 51. I was in middle school then. On the summer nights when we weren't burdened with school, my brother, sister and I would gather in the den at midnight to the strains of the All Night Show's Dixieland theme song, Clementine from New Orleans. Fat, sloppy, sarcastic Dave Dixon would then thank the main sponsor, Brits Pribbles Jewelers, and introduce the nights line up of old TV shows and even older movies. Soon Rod Serling would take us away to The Twilight Zone or the erie control voice would advise us that there was nothing wrong with our television sets before taking us to The Outer Limits. Back then, I had no knowledge of his past as a famous radio DJ. I just thought he was some fat loser who couldn't get a better gig than hosting the late night movie show on a UHF station. Sort of a real life version of the Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons. Still, he was very different and entertaining in his own way. He seemed to take a disparaging view of everything and alienated more than a few sponsors over the years he was there. And what a rouges gallery of sponsors they were; strip joints, used car dealers, cheep carpet outlets, etc. That was some thirty years ago, but I still have nostalgic memories of those summer nights with Dave Dixon at the helm of The All Night Show. I just wish we had a VCR back then. I'd love to see him again. Richard T. |
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