East Side Dave
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David "East Side Dave" McDonald is an associate producer and on air personality for the Ron and Fez Show. The show can be heard on XM Satellite Radio, Channel 202 The Virus weekdays from 12-3PM (EST). A second show was added on 92.3 Free FM, which broadcasts weekdays between 6-9pm in New York.
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[edit] Background
Raised in New Jersey, he attended CBA, where he played two years of sports and then started the poetry magazine. Later, he was enrolled at Fordham University for one year before moving on to Monmouth University.
Originally an aggressive poster on ronfez.net, East Side Dave became a regular fixture on the show in late 2005. Initially Dave would drop in after finishing his full time job selling hot dogs on the corner of 32nd St. in Manhattan and contribute to the show on air. East Side Dave is notable for his gregarious nature, notorious boasts, alcoholism, and outlandish claims. This gradually attracted a following of both avid detractors as well as hardcore fans.
East Side Dave revealed on the March 6, 2007 show that he once had a frequent bed wetting problem. This issue was not resolved until he was fifteen years old.
[edit] The Ron & Fez Era: Early Days
McDonald later parlayed his early appearances into a full time job with the show. Amongst his most recognizable work was an act with a puppet named Roberto, the development of the taunt "Face!" (which later solidified its place in the Ron & Fez show lexicon), the Power Hour drinking segment, being "choked out" under the persona of Bob Backlund, and the Big A intro song. Dave entertained the audience with various stories from his own life, such as tales about celebrating New Year's Eve with a jar of peanut butter and a friendly dog. Dave also did a regular round-up of events on various XM related message boards, for a segment known as "Board Gossip". The content of Board Gossip was obtained by Dave and a group known as the 'Board Gossip Team'. Initially a popular segment with a catchy theme, Board Gossip showcased Dave's vocal talents and wit in a dynamic, quick paced format. As the segment soon became repetitious, featuring gossip about the same online fans (such as Happy-Typing-Girl), Ron often considered discontinuing the Board Gossip segment.
[edit] The Ron & Fez Era: Latter Days
The constant focus on such a small niche of minor personalities took a heavy toll on East Side Dave's standing on the show. While he attempted to make the segment entertaining, both Ron and Fez commented at various times that interest in Board Gossip was minimal. Dave himself seemed aloof to the fact that the segment had little mainstream appeal, and continued to focus on a smaller and smaller group of Ron & Fez fans and their activities, thus further alienating himself from mainstream fans.
[edit] The Decline and Fall of East Side Dave
After Ron & Fez had secured an evening slot on 92.3 Free FM in New York, Dave failed to turn up for work for that portion of the show. Additionally, he entered into a heated and on-going on air quarrel with show producer Earl Douglas. Ron mentioned on numerous occasions that working 2 show shifts seemed to be spreading Dave's talents and energies too thin, and that having Dave on the show was the equivalent to "carrying a sack of doorknobs over his shoulder".
The situation came to a head in mid-January when Dave addressed the criticisms and offered to have a vote on XM to let the listeners decide his fate.
[edit] "Banishment" from the Ron & Fez XM Show
Dave's "banishment" from the Ron and Fez Show started as a criticism by Ron of Dave's recent performance as a producer of the show. As per the nature of the show, this quickly evolved into a running gag/bit when Ron decided to put East Side Dave's fate on the XM show to a vote.
On the January 11th show, Ron held a vote on whether or not to banish Dave from the show, manipulating certain factors, including a penalty of between two and four vote against him initially (the exact number changed throughout the show) and "absentee voting", where callers voting against Dave on the day before the official vote were accepted, while callers voting for Dave were rejected for various, ever-changing reasons. These absentee votes resulted in the aforementioned vote penalty.
East Side Dave was forced to take off of work on the day of the vote, though he did call in. His absenteeism was due to his sustaining 1st degree burns, after he applied Frank's Red Hot sauce to his penis, urethra, anus, and armpits the day before during a stunt involving frequent call-in guest Jay Mohr, who was in studio that day.
During the course of the vote, Dave supporters rallied to win the initial vote at 11-10. Although it seemed as though Dave's job was saved, a caller later reminded Ron about the two penalty points from the previous day's show. Ron counted the two points against Dave, clinching his "banishment" from the show.
[edit] "East Side Dave vs. The Midnight Rider"
Initial fallout from Dave's XM "exile" was the status of the Board Gossip segment. Earl Douglas took over the reigns of the bit beginning on January 15th. However, Earl got off to a shaky start and seemed to struggle with reading the gossip. Since then, Board Gossip has become a much less frequent bit on the show.
Dave was "officially replaced" as associate producer on the XM show by the Midnight Rider, who was in fact East Side Dave in a luchador mask and small, pink cowboy hat. Dave called in on the January 31st show to indicate that he was interested in returning to the Ron and Fez XM show if the Midnight Rider would step down. He claimed the vote to get him off the show was proven to be a sham. The Midnight Rider declined to step down and remains associate producer of the show. Ron and Fez decided to hold a wrestling match between East Side Dave and The Midnight Ride. The event was held at the New York City location of the Hard Rock Cafe on February 23, 2007.
During the match East Side Dave was taken out of the ring by EMT's after the Rider hit him with a leg drop from the top rope. East Side's partner, Genesis, continued alone, until another Midnight Rider appeared in the ring and won the match, unmasking the fake rider as being former ECW superstar and best friend of Ron Bennington, Mr. Danny Doring. Dave did not return to the show and was supposedly taken to hospital for checkups.
Since the February 28, 2007 XM show, East Side Dave is once again officially the associate producer of the Ron and Fez show.
[edit] Trivia
- Owner of numerous tattoos including one saying 'LUCKY BOY' (the 'C' looking quite a bit like a 'G'), and another saying 'WACKBAG.COM'. After receiving the Lucky Boy tattoo, he was informed by Ron that "Lucky Boy" is slang for a pedophile.
- Raised in New Jersey, but was actually born in California.
- At CBA, he was a classmate of ESPN's Tony Reali.
- Fought against the Midnight Rider in a tag team wrestling match live on February 23rd.
- On the March 23, 2007 XM show, Dave claimed to have invented dipping chocolate in peanut butter.
