Media remembers 'Dean of Broadcasters'

Media Association president, Ira Mathur, described broadcasting icon David ‘Dave’ Elcock was an entertainer, a preacher, an artist and a brilliant broadcaster.

She said the association was deeply sorry at the passing of “the king among announcers in TT,” and broadcasters, especially those in radio, felt as if they lost a foundation in the media.

Elcock, 78, who had been ailing for some time, died around 1.30 pm on Thursday in Brooklyn, New York.

Mathur recalled Elcock was nearing the end of his career when she joined the now-defunct National Broadcasting Service’s Radio 610 Radio where he had his programme, Elcock in the Morning.

“I remember this really amazing vibrant personality who just wanted to contribute in some way, not just to journalism but a really positive, bright journalism where he wanted to make people feel better about themselves, to instill hope in people. And I think he did that through his art.”

Known as Big Brother Dave and the Dean of Broadcasters, he touched the lives of schoolchildren on their way to school, public servants with their radios on, politicians who wanted a sense of the people, and many others.

“We all remember how his show began with the gospel hymn, One Day at a Time, and the jingle ‘David Elcock in the morning.’ It just became part of the national psyche and very much part of a young country defining itself, finding its way. And David Elcock was very much part of the scene.”

She said his career was not separated from his private life, and that he embodied the spirit of what it was to be a media practitioner.

“He was a man with a huge heart who wanted to touch everyone he could. He used the power of radio just to make people feel good.”

Dale Enoch, Head of News at One Caribbean Media's network of radio stations, and popular radio host on i95.5 FM said Elcock commanded the airwaves for years so that almost every adult in the country would have had some type of experience listening to Elcock.

Elcock had already left when Enoch began to work at Radio 610 but Elcock would visit to see how everyone was doing. At i95, Elcock continued to visit him and his morning co-host, Tony Lee and even shared the show with them on a few occasions.

“He was a real professional. He always expressed concerns about the direction of the media over the years and we always shared opinions on that.

“Even though he has not been practising for a while, I feel a sense of loss because he was a great media practitioner. He started the morning show thing. Those of us who came after are really standing on his shoulders.”

Elcock’s friend and former journalist Jones P Madeira recalled they were both at Voice of Rediffusion at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s.

“We were just voices over the radio. We were not employed by them. We simply went in, did what we had to do, and left at the end of the day just as if we were responsible institutionally for the programme we just did. In other words, we were exploiting ourselves.”

He said Elcock “offered himself” and eventually won his place on staff when a vacancy opened up. He loved radio and encouraged Madeira to be more intimately connected with it.

He lamented that Elcock had not been well “for a while” and lost contact with a lot of people who loved him dearly.

“Dave was a good soul who loved people and who offered all of his help to all of those who came after him.”