This news made the rounds amongst my former colleagues yesterday. Tom Taylor has it in his newletter this morning...
R.I.P., Dave Robbins, gone at 59. Robbins, born David Robinson, was the victim of a heart attack. Dave grew rapidly from his beginnings as a jock – he programmed in Phoenix, St. Louis, became a group programmer for the former Nationwide chain and manager of its awesome cluster in Columbus, and later managed for CBS Radio in Chicago (2002-2010) and Orlando (2010-2015). (He’d previously been a jock in the early days of Chicago CHR “B96” WBBM-FM.) Dave was an early advocate of tech in radio, and his LinkedIn page says he “launched CBS Radio's Digital Radio Initiative.” In 2015, he left radio to devote full-time to one of his own family’s ventures, begun a decade earlier, named “Florida Getaway Vacation Homes.” He’d been partnered in that vacation-rental business with his son.
Dave was the only person in radio who ever fired me, although in fairness, he didn't technically do it himself. He had his underlings do it. He fired the whole Landecker show in 2003. Last time I saw him (about a year after he fired me), he said "So jealous of you, getting to spend so much time with your family." I thought it was an odd thing to say to someone he had fired. Still sad to hear he passed at such a young age. 59 is way too young.
