What’s in a number?
A lot in the case of legendary WDAF 610 Country personality David Lawrence.
Because that’s the day – Sunday June 10th (get it, 610?) – Lawrence will be remembered at the Power & Light District’s outdoor pavilion. Lawrence, who retired in 2006 right before the station moved to the FM dial, passed away last month in Texas, a victim of ALS.
“We’ll probably start around #:30 pm or 4 pm and have it last until 7 p.m.,” says his daughter Bailey Lawrence. “But we’ll start wrapping things up around six. We’re going to have speeches and memories from people that were close to my dad. And we’ll be raising money for the ALS Foundation with a fundraiser, 50/50 raffle and auction.”
Two items up for grabs: “A Clint Black framed and signed record,” Bailey says. “And an etching done in marble of the downtown Kansas City skyline. And we’ll definitely have some autographed baseballs and we’re having a deejay and dancing.
“And people will share some fun-loving memories and stories. I’m sure there’ll be some tears, but we want to have a lot of laughs.”
Admission will be free, but the goal is to increase awareness and help fight ALS.
“You know, somebody said that instead of making it a disease with a death sentence, they want to make it a chronic illness – something that’s treatable, manageable.”
I remember when my dad started working news at 61 Country in the summer of 1978. They had a DJ working there called “The Afternoon Bozo” and a sweet gal named Anne Austin worked the night shift. Within a year they fired the Bozo and Annie moved over to 810 WHB and very soon we were #1 in the Arbitron ratings. Dave Lawrence was the foundation of a great lineup with Caroline Rooney, John Wagner, Frank Haynes, Charles Gray, Jack Tobin and on and on and on. I’d go to work with my dad on swing shift and I think I even ran into Skid Roadie as they shared the same top floor with KY-102.
Wow, Dave Lawrence was a great guy back when radio was fun, nobody every said a bad word about him. He worked at WDAF for 33 years and took the station to #1 for almost 2 decades. Thanks for everything Dave Lawrence!
Well David purchased his first big screen TV from Bench Mart home theater, and I was sent on a service call to set it up. Well to my surprise David answered the door. He was nice, he introduced me to his family, including a little girl who was drawing pictures on the new TV with an electronic drawing board. I had to go out and pick up supplies, while I was out, picked up an AC adapter for his daughter, he tried to pay me for it, I would not take that from me. He later showed me his old radio collection. I left there feeling good. Brian Cook of Overland Park KS.
Interesting story and quite a flashback to Bench Mart home theater!