Dave Cooke

It was 1964 and Dave Cooke was a sophomore in his hometown of Gainesville. It was a time when the Viet Nam War was raging and the threat of nuclear weapons was hanging over our heads.

Dave was the lead singer in a rock n' roll band but he wanted to become a lawyer. Radio changed that plan and his life. Dave won a jingle singing contest at Gainesville's KGAF 1580. When he picked up his winnings, he was introduced to another of today's Texas Radio Hall of Fame inductees, owner-manager Joe Leonard, Jr.

He asked Joe for a job and got it. After KGAF came WRR 1310, then WFAA 570 in Dallas-Fort Worth. His first management job was at Gordon McLendon's KNUS 99 FM when he became the founding news director and worked with two other of today’s Texas Radio Hall of Fame inductees, Jo Interrante and Bob Morrison.

Soon, Dave "went west!" His job at San Francisco's 610 KFRC as news director brought him two Billboard Magazine's News Director of the Year awards.

Besides KFRC, Dave served as on-air anchor as well as News Director at ABC Radio Networks in New York, Ninety-Three KHJ in Los Angeles, and WHDH in Boston. He would then go on to serve for six years as the founding Vice President and Director of News at RKO Radio Networks in New York.

For 10 years, from his home base in San Francisco, Dave would work as a Programming Consultant in news/talk radio with such legendary call letters as WCBS New York, WBBM Chicago, KNX Los Angeles, KCBS San Francisco, KIRO Seattle, KXL Portland, KTRH Houston, KMOX St Louis, KSL Salt Lake City, WTOP Washington, DC, and KRLD Dallas-Fort Worth.

In 1996, Dave returned to local radio as Operations and Program Director of KABC and KMPC Los Angeles, and later KFWB Los Angeles.

After three decades, Dave came home to Texas in 2002 to host and anchor at the legendary news and talk station, 1080 KRLD. Since 2004, Dave has been heavily involved with many media ventures and projects, and consulting, through his BilCo Productions.