Dave the Metal Guy doing his show at WVUA. Photo from Metal Zone page.
Last Friday, May 28th, long-time college radio DJ David Standifer, aka “Dave the Metal Guy,” died at the age of 38 of an apparent brain aneurysm. Up until December, 2009 he’d been the host of University of Alabama college radio station WVUA‘s long-running metal show “The Metal Zone.” The program, which began in 1982, had been hosted by Dave since 1993.
Sadly, Dave was fired by station management last December and “The Metal Zone” was taken off of the air. When it became clear that WVUA would not reconsider, Dave began working with other WVUA alums and metal fans to create a new metal radio station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. According to the proposed station’s Facebook page, they were on their way towards creating an FCC-licensed station. Sadly, the last post by Dave (just a few days before his death) on the new station’s group page was “we now have a control room!”
Hopefully Dave’s enthusiasm for both metal and for radio will be embraced by his friends and fans and his dream of a new station will be realized.
