Dave Lee has been a Minnesota radio mainstay for more than three decades on WCCO Radio News Talk 830. When the morning show host bids farewell Friday, it will be a humble moment for a guy with humble beginnings.
66 year old Dave Lee grew up in rural North Dakota, working on a farm doing everything including picking beans. It was hard work to put some cash in his pocket.
“When I was 18 a buddy and I got the midnight shift at a potato processing plant; we made tater-tots. During my lunch break one night, about 2 am, I was eating a sandwich in my car and turned on the radio. The overnight jock was having so much fun, playing rock and roll, laughing, telling jokes and getting listeners to call in. I thought why am I not doing something like that to make money.”
In 1971 he enrolled at the University of North Dakota, where he would later graduate with a degree in History.
“My first week I went to college radio station looking for a part-time job to help pay for college. They told me they probably wouldn’t need me until my junior year and they probably couldn’t pay me until I was a senior.”
That wasn’t going to help pay for an education.
“So I went to the commercial station in East Grand Forks, North Dakota. The PD at KRAD had an opening, Sunday’s 3 pm to midnight; it was a country music shift. He said I’ll put you on this Sunday, see if you are any good and if you are we will ask you to come back. So I did it and he called me Monday and said you’re hired. A short time later they needed a sports play-by-play guy. In those small stations they did high school sports three or four times a week. So that was pretty good income for a college kid. Doing games and the Sunday air shift.”
There were other radio resume stops along the way to WCCO, including 790 KFGO Radio in Fargo.
“I still have a copy of the letter from a PD at the Fargo station where I applied early in my career. It went something like this…‘well we don’t have room for your now, maybe something will come up later on, we will keep you in mind,’ obviously a bunch of BS. Well the PD that wrote that letter later hired me. I keep that letter framed. That’s inspiration for me. When people say you can’t do something; ‘What do you do?’ You work hard to get it done.”
Lee’s hard work has paid off with numerous awards and success helping charities.
“The high point in my career is once you realize the power you have on the radio to help people. Here’s an example. I did Gopher play-by-play for The University of Minnesota. University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital was building a new facility and nobody really knew much about it. I went to management and asked if I could start a fundraiser plus raise awareness for the hospital. So we did it. You know the power of the medium to help people, to me, is the most fulfilling thing of all in my career. You know, you just walk away and say, Yup, that’s something we should feel good about.”
So when Lee walks away from the daily radio grind Friday morning, he is going to do it with humility.
“I’m just going to probably include thoughts about my family, talk about my appreciation of them putting up with these wacky hours. Getting up at 2:45 in the morning then going out and doing play-by-play at night. I will thank the listeners. It won’t be anything to ostentatious, just a few minutes to thank the listeners that made it all possible. It will be pretty humble, I come from really humble beginnings, and I think that is probably the way I should finish…very humbly. I’ve been truly blessed to be in a wonderful situation.”
