Condolences: Dave Dworkin

• We are sorry to report the passing Dave Dworkin, the founder of The Radio Mall, who died this week. He would have turned 66 on Tuesday, October 16.

There is a tribute to Dworkin posted on the website of KQRS/Minneapolis, where he worked from 1978 to 1984. After leaving KQRS, Dworkin started his own successful business, creating and selling comedy material to morning radio shows and air personalities across the nation, a service he initially called “Ghostwriters.” He later augmented the service with sound effects, production elements, music beds, and music libraries, eventually changing the name of the company to The Radio Mall. The new name was based on fliers Dworkin mailed to radio stations touting his company as “the shopping mall for radio professionals.”

Dworkin’s sister Judy was unusually blunt in releasing the circumstances of his death, in the hope of shedding light on this killer disease that affects so many. She said, “My brother David lost his long struggle with alcoholism yesterday. David was a bright, clever, entrepreneurial guy who loved traveling to warm climates, rock and roll, his cat, and making people laugh. When we were kids, he could always make me laugh by saying the word ‘shishkabob.’ I miss him, but I know his struggle with this horrible disease is finally over. A memorial service will be planned in the next couple of months.”