by Sara Marsala

From his firm handshake to his booming ‘on air’ voice with just a hint of Yorkshire, you know that WhiStle Radio’s Dave Booth is a personality to be reckoned with.

Dave Booth article

 The 68-year-old, silver-haired, silver-tongued host of Dave’s Jukebox is as charismatic as the music he plays.

I caught up with him recently at the Main St. WhiStle studio as he was pre-recording his weekly show. “We started doing the show live, but it just wasn’t working out,” he explained between sets. “This way we have better control, and the finished product sounds more professional.”

As he works to get the song intros perfectly aligned with the beginning of the next piece of music, you get a sense of his passion and vast knowledge of the music. Between songs, he offers up trivia about the artist, the song or the era. With over five decades in the music business, Dave has a story or two to tell. His career in radio started when he traded in janitorial services for on-air time at a Kitchener radio station.

“I cleaned the wastebaskets and scrubbed the floor, and in exchange I got an hour on the air at 1 a.m., to do whatever I wanted with.” Soon his one hour show stretched to three. Many years and a lot of experiences have passed since then, and they have all contributed to making him the artist he is today.

Although Dave’s Jukebox is a selection of popular music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, not all the recordings are personal favourites. Dave understands that there has to be an element of familiarity for Stouffville listeners, so he tempers his choices with more mainstream pieces that will appeal to a broader audience.

To my undiscerning ear, his music is a sassy mix of familiar and edgy that strikes just the right chord. For Dave though, his heart really belongs to the hard blues. “I love music from Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and that whole era when music challenged people. That was a really exciting time.”

Hard blues may be his favourite genre of music, but it is by no means the only music he adores or collects. With more than 10,000 vinyl records in his basement, plus another 135,000 pieces on computer, he is a collector extraordinaire with music encompassing vintage soul, R&B, country, bluegrass, rockabilly and rock n’ roll. He has personally met many of the artists whose music he plays, and with filing cabinets full of clippings and photos, is able to give his listeners interesting bits of lore to go along with the music.

Best known as Daddy Cool from his popular Blues show on CFNY’s 102.1 during the 80’s, Dave has also been a promotional manager for such groups as Battered Wives and Bob Segarini as well as managing bands Bop Cats and the Stray Cats.  Recently he has compiled a series of R&B tracks called Blowing the Fuse, compilations of classics that rocked the jukebox from the late 40’s to the 60’s and are produced by Bear Family Records in Germany, where they won a best vintage release of the year award.

Dave and his family moved to Stouffville eight years ago to get away from the maddening crowd of downtown Toronto. He has not regretted it. “I like it here, and I like talking to people on the street,” he said. Asked how he got involved with WhiStle radio, he chuckled, then explained, “I was semi-enthusiastic when Jim (WhiStle founder Jim Priebe) first approached me about a spot at the station. That was before there was a station, and to be honest, I never dreamed he would pull it off.” 

As for the future, Dave hopes that WhiStle radio will be a permanent fixture in Stouffville and that it will continue to mature and offer Stouffvillites an array of different musical genres. You can listen to Dave’s Jukebox on 102.7 CIWS, Saturdays at 1 p.m. with repeats Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

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