An Ode to the David Lee Roth Radio Show

O David Lee, where have you gone now? Ousted from the 92.3 airwaves by the powers that be.

An absolute disgrace. A bum deal. I’ve never been a person to ever feel empathy for celebrity types – especially guys like Roth, who live lives only a microscopic fraction of the world gets to experience. On top of that, this is certainly not the first time Roth has fallen flat on his face since his departure from Van Halen in the mid-1980’s. He is like a scummy little stray cat – always landing on his feet while looking both suave and sketchy doing it.

But this more about feeling sorry for a rock ‘n’ roll has-been. This is about me losing my newly found morning entertainment.

Howard Stern leaves for satellite radio and the CBS suits feel they must parachute a celebrity voice in to retain Stern’s massive audience. With no experience at conducting a four-hour radio show in the largest market in the US, what the hell did they expect?

With that brand of car-accident curiosity, Roth’s opening shows was a must-listen event. Surprise, surprise, he sounded like someone who had never done a four-hour morning radio show in multiple large markets before. In fact, at times he really was unbearable, boring and at times stupid.

Yet something kept me listening. Maybe that car-accident curiosity was entertaining enough. But it really was his personality. After a few weeks, Roth started to quickly develop a style for the radio and his show grew. And he grew on me. He eventually brought more and more of his strengths into the mix. One of those best strengths was his interesting approach to language. He was always coining phrases that seemed simultaneously witty and corny.

If I were to take away anything from his three-and-a-half-month run on 92.3, it’s saying “human hand grenades” when referring to city people wrapped up in their winter hats and jackets. Or how about “large and in charge!” and my favorite “Where the debris meets the sea”?

With his rock-star pedigree, he became an on-air music critic hilariously slamming some of the biggest names in the industry during the February Grammy buzz. His time with EMT crews in New York and living downtown gave his show a distinctly city feel.

Most importantly, he made me laugh and smile in the morning.

What can I say? I simply found him thoroughly entertaining. Now he’s gone and I can’t stand Opie and Anthony, nor am I crazy about Imus. Nor do I want to spend money on satellite radio.

Hopefully D-Ro will find his way back to New York radio…soon.