- Dave Mitchell
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For other people named Dave Mitchell, see Dave Mitchell (disambiguation).
James David Mitchell (b. 1947 in Wichita Falls, Texas) better known as "Dave Mitchell" is an American radio personality, producer, engineer, voice-over artist and former broadcast executive who has appeared on over 100 radio stations in Texas, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and on Sirius Satellite Radio. Mitchell is currently producer of several programs for 50,000 watt WHIM-AM in Miami, Florida. He also does voice-over work on that station as well as sister station WZAB-AM.
Mitchell is also heard as the only English-language voice on 50,000 watt WWFE-AM in Miami, a Spanish-language station with emphasis on Cuban news and music. Mitchell has been heard since 1995 48 times a day on the hour and half-hour giving WWFE's legal station identification (The Federal Communications Commission mandates that all American radio stations legally identify (call letters and city of license) in English, regardless of whatever language their programming is in).
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Life and career
The son of Roi Carter Mitchell, a banker and Dorothy Catherine Mitchell, a teacher and musician, Mitchell, grew up in the Texas cities of Chillicothe, Garland, Dallas and Lewisville. Mitchell graduated in 1966 from Lewisville High School and in 1967 from the Elkins Institute of Radio and Electronics in Dallas, where Rush Limbaugh was a schoolmate. Mitchell is an alumnus of Tarleton State University but did not study broadcasting there.
A "jack-of-all-trades" in broadcasting, he began his broadcasting career at KEIR-FM (now KDMX-FM) 102.9 in Dallas. He served as a disc jockey, news anchor, news reporter, sportscaster, talk show host, broadcast executive and broadcast engineer at various stations during the first 18 years of his 45-year career (as of December 2010). Mitchell currently works as a program producer and voice-over talent at Salem Communications' stations in Miami, Florida WZAB-AM, WKAT-AM and WHIM-AM.
In 1984 he became an airborne traffic reporter for Traffic Patrol Broadcasting, giving live traffic reports on over two dozen stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. During the 1980s and 90s he also broadcast on over a dozen stations in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has also been heard doing airborne and ground-based traffic reports on all 40 English-language stations in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the only known person to have done this. For 11 years he was part of the number-one rated James T. Morning Show on WEDR-FM 99.1 in Miami. This was following Traffic Patrol Broadcasting's purchase by Metro Traffic Control in 1990. In 1991, Metro Traffic Control became Metro Networks which later became part of Westwood One in 1997. On April 29, 2011, Westwood One sold Metro Networks to Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel also owns Metro's rival, Total Traffic Networks. Both Metro and TTN are now combined into one network and has retained the Metro Networks name once the transition is completed.
In addition to his broadcasting duties, Mitchell worked as an audio production engineer for Zig Ziglar Corporation from 1980–82. Mitchell served from 1986 to 1987 as National Director of Operations for Traffic Patrol Broadcasting, overseeing broadcast operations in Charlotte, Miami, West Palm Beach, Raleigh, Mobile, New Orleans, Dallas and Greensboro-Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Married with three children and four grandchildren, Mitchell currently maintains residences in West Palm Beach, and Boca Raton, Florida.
News reporting, sportscasting and commercials
In 1977, while serving as News Director for KROZ-FM and KZEY-AM in Tyler, Texas, he covered the famous capital murder trial of Kerry Max Cook, reporting from the Smith County courthouse, sitting in on the trial. In 1984 Mitchell reported from the floor of the Republican National Convention in Dallas, specifically covering the South Carolina delegation for WGCA-AM in Charleston, South Carolina. One of Mitchell's well-known bloopers happened at the convention in a pre-recorded interview. Mitchell told South Carolina U.S. Senator Strom Thurman that some were calling the convention dull and boring, then asked Thurman if he "was dull."
He has also reported from the midst of two of America's most historic hurricanes, Hugo in 1989 and Andrew in 1992. While in Charlotte in the late 1980s Mitchell broadcast dozens of reports for CBS radio on the collapse of Jim and Tammy Bakker's PTL empire. He reported for CBS on the expansion of the National Basketball Association in 1988. He has also served as a voice-over and public address announcer for various projects including film narration for the Texas Department of Health and the city of Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Mitchell broadcast ten seasons of football play-by-play and three seasons of NCAA Division-I basketball. He also has done NAIA college baseball play-by-play and auto racing public address announcing. He spent several seasons announcing play-by-play for high school basketball. From 1988 to 1990 he covered the NBA Charlotte Hornets for CBS radio and also covered the NBA Miami Heat for WQAM-AM 560. He worked as a sideline reporter for Boston-based TalkAmerica, covering the NFL Miami Dolphins in the early 1990s. He also reported daily from the Dolphin's training camp for WQAM-AM. In 1975 he covered Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers for KEAN-AM.
During his disc jockey days (1966–1984) it is estimated Mitchell produced and voiced over 30,000 recorded 30- and 60- second radio commercials for a wide variety of products and companies, including live commercials from 1984 to 2008 in traffic reports for companies such as Wal-Mart, McDonalds, General Motors, Microsoft, ChevronTexaco, the National Football League and American Airlines. He has also appeared in a number of television commercials in Charlotte for a local Ford dealership. In 24 years as a traffic reporter Mitchell broadcast hundreds of thousands of traffic reports, most with live commercials. He broadcast his 300,000th traffic report on October 23, 2007 with a 2:05 p.m. report on KVCE-AM in Dallas.
Between 2000 and 2008 Mitchell also served as a news anchor for KLIF-AM, KAAM-AM, WRR-FM and KVCE-AM in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, before returning to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market in 2009.
Radio stations
Station City State Dates KEIR-FM 102.9 Dallas TX June 15, 1966 – September 6, 1966 KSTV-AM 1510 Stephenville TX September 27, 1966 – May 1, 1967 KEIR-FM 102.9 Dallas TX June 14, 1967– June 17, 1967 KABH-AM 1510 Midland TX August 16, 1967 – September 26, 1967 WNLA-AM 1380 Indianola MS September 29, 1967 – December 27, 1967 KIOX-AM 1270 Bay City TX March 16, 1968 – May 15, 1968 WABG-AM 960 Greenwood MS May 17, 1968 – July 8, 1968 KYAL-AM 1600 Plano TX July 15, 1968 – July 29, 1968 KDNT-AM/FM 1440/106.1 Denton TX August 22, 1968 – February 13, 1969 KDSX-AM/FM 950/101.7 Denison-Sherman TX February 14, 1969 – August 22, 1970 KGAF-AM/FM 1580/94.5 Gainesville TX August 23, 1970 – October 5, 1970 KOCA 1240 Kilgore TX October 15, 1970 – April 1, 1971 KWFR-AM 1260 San Angelo TX April 3, 1971 – May 5, 1972 KIXY-FM 94.7 San Angelo TX April 3, 1971 – May 5, 1972 KONO-AM 860 San Antonio TX April 22, 1972 – April 14, 1973 KITY-FM 94.9 San Antonio TX January 15, 1973 – April 6, 1973 KIXY-AM-FM 1260/94.7 San Angelo TX April 15, 1973 – March 197211 KBWD-AM 1380 Brownwood TX November 28, 1973 – September 7, 1974 KEAN-AM 1240 Brownwood TX September 8, 1974 – October 8, 1975 KROZ-FM 92.1 Tyler TX October 22, 1975 – March 16, 1979 KZEY-AM 92.1 Tyler TX October 10, 1977 – March 11, 1978 KMZK-AM 1540 Fort Worth-Dallas TX April 6, 1979 – June 9, 1979 KROZ-FM 92.1 Tyler TX June 19, 1979 – August 29, 1980 KTBB-AM 600 Tyler TX May 17, 1982 – August 14, 1982 KNET-AM 92.1 Palestine TX August 22, 1982 – January 26, 1983 KYYK-FM 98.3 Palestine TX August 22, 1982 – January 26, 1983 KXVI-AM 1600 Plano TX January 28, 1983 – June 19, 1984 KAAM-AM 1310 Dallas-Fort Worth TX October 8, 1984 – April 18, 1985 WIOD-AM 610 Miami FL May 20, 1985 – January 26, 1986 WBSS-AM 980 Pompano Beach FL September 26, 1985 – January 26, 1986 WLVK-FM 96.9 Charlotte NC July 11, 1987 – August 30, 1987 WRHI-AM 1360 Rock Hill SC September 7, 1987 – February 16, 1990 WRHM-FM 107.1 Lancaster SC September 5, 1988 – November 14, 1988 WKIS-FM 99.9 Boca Raton-Miami FL March 4, 1990 – January 26, 1992 WQAM-AM 560 Miami FL June 20, 1990 – January 25, 1993 WZAB-AM 880 Miami FL May 16, 2009 – present WKAT-AM 1360 Miami FL May 16, 2009 – present WMCU-AM 1080 Miami FL May 16, 2009 – April 4, 2010 WHIM-AM 1080 Miami FL April 5, 2010 – present Other activities and awards
Mitchell is a federally-licensed broadcast engineer and has served as Director of Engineering for Metro Networks bureaus in Miami, Charlotte, West Palm Beach and Dallas, and has also been an engineer at numerous radio and television stations in Texas. He is an Extra Class amateur radio operator with the call sign AJ5F.
Besides broadcasting, Mitchell is a licensed and ordained evangelical minister and has served as a bi-vocational pastor and associate pastor at several churches. He has authored two theological books: Challenged to Investigate and The Beginner's End. He studied theology at International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas, Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Howard Payne University, New Covenant International (NCIU) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mitchell also was a teacher for NCIU, teaching courses in apologetics, church history, and Old Testament.
Mitchell has also had several business interests over the years, including part ownership of a credit reporting service and a home remodeling company. In his career Mitchell has received broadcasting awards from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Texas and AIR (Achievement in Radio).
Mitchell was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia which was possibly the result of a dental accident in 2002. Mitchell has suffered pain when speaking for extended periods, which can make doing his jobs as broadcaster and a minister quite difficult. He is currently being treated with tegretol (carbamazepine), and has responded well to treatment.
External links
Categories:- 1947 births
- Living people
- American radio personalities
- People from Wichita Falls, Texas
- People from Garland, Texas
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