David Roe got hooked on radio listening to rock ‘n’ roll as a teenager and went on to a 35-year career as a news anchor and reporter for WBBM-AM in Chicago.
“He was a wonderful anchor — nothing ever flustered him,” said retired WBBM news anchor and reporter Regine Schlesinger. “He was unflappable as an anchor and in fact, he was so good at it that whenever anybody new was hired and went through a training process, (management) would always put that person with David because they knew that David knew how to teach them properly.”
Roe, 71, died of esophageal cancer Jan. 20 at his home in Yorkville, said his wife, Gloria.
Born and raised in Denver, Roe took a few college courses at Metropolitan State University in Denver and worked for a manufacturer of power transmission belts, then at a plant nursery. He later completed a certificate program in a correspondence program with the Columbia School of Broadcasting.
Roe’s first radio job was as a music disc jockey at a 250-watt station, KBBS-AM, in Buffalo, Wyoming. He then began working at KCOL radio in Fort Collins, Colorado. On July 31, 1976, a flash flood swept through a canyon near Loveland, Colorado, killing more than 140 people and injuring another 150.
Roe saw a graphic on the screen about the flood on TV at his home and hurried to his radio station.
“We started broadcasting news about the flooding. That’s what (hooked me on) the news business,” he recalled in an article written by the Tribune Content Agency in 2014.
Roe worked at stations in Denver before joining WBBM-AM in 1983 as an anchor and reporter. Over the next 35 years, he was a familiar voice on the airwaves, including taking part in the station’s annual broadcasts from the Chicago Auto Show.
“He was very committed to … very much wanting to do good work, accurate, honest work,” said WBBM political editor Craig Dellimore, who signed on at the station just one day after Roe started working there. “It was a matter of trying to be our best. And David was very funny and personable and got along with everybody. He had a very calm manner about him, and that was very helpful in times of breaking news.”
“He had a wonderful voice and delivery,” Dellimore said.
While mostly busy with hard news, Roe enjoyed working on human interest features, his wife said.
“He loved capturing the story from an individual’s perspective to represent issues in Chicago and its surrounding communities,” she said. “It was important to David to not include his opinion in his reporting. He wanted to share the information with his audience in concise and neutral reporting, (and) David liked the time pressure of getting the information in real time and quickly relaying it over (the) radio.”
When longtime news anchor John Hultman retired from WBBM-AM in 1998, Roe was management’s favorite to become a morning co-anchor at the station. Ultimately, Roe and management could not come to terms, and he instead continued his work as midday news anchor.
In 2000, Roe was WBBM’s interim news director for about a month. Roe also was the longtime union steward for workers at WBBM.
“He fought for the rights of all of us workers versus management,” Schlesinger said.
Roe later anchored evenings at WBBM. Looking back on his career in 2014, he reflected on what he felt made radio special to him.
“I was a big rock ’n’ roll fan as a teenager and listened to the radio a lot,” he told the Tribune Content Agency in 2014. “In the process, I got to thinking, this is really magical. You talk into a tube and are heard all over the country. It seemed pretty fun, so I did it.”
After retiring from WBBM in 2018, Roe traveled around the country with his wife, and “glamping” in their RV in various locations including the Amana colonies in Iowa, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Grand Teton National Park.
Two previous marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, Roe is survived by two sons, Adam and Sean; a stepdaughter, Cristina Ortega; and a brother, Philip.
A service was held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
