Howlin' Dave

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Dante David (July 16, 1955 — May 26, 2008) was a Filipino radio disc jockey. Better known by his stage name Howlin' Dave, he is credited with introducing Filipino radio listeners to Pinoy (Filipino) rock music^[1] in the early 1970s, and to new wave and punk rock in the 1980s.^[2]

Howlin' Dave grew up in Pasay City and dropped out of high school.^[3] While enrolled in a Fine Arts course at the Philippine Women's University, he was hired as a radio announcer on DZRJ-AM in 1974.^[3] He adopted the name "Howlin' Dave" after the American blues singer Howlin' Wolf.^[3] He soon became the host of Pinoy Rock and Rhythm, a weekend thirty-minute radio program that featured the then-nascent Pinoy rock music. The program was credited with popularizing such Filipino rock acts as the Juan dela Cruz Band, Asin and the singer Sampaguita.^[2] Howlin' Dave himself would become known for his trademark mangled grammar and syntax, his atypical on-air use of the Tagalog language, and for his passionate and excitable delivery in his big booming voice.^[3][4] The drummer Pepe Smith would call him "the best rock DJ the Philippines ever had.”^[4]

Howlin' Dave was also credited with introducing Filipino radio listeners to punk rock and new wave music beginning in the late 1970s, through his program New Wave Nights.^[3][2] His choice to promote punk music was controversial among his fellow deejays and with his station, but his program developed a following, with spikey-haired teens soon showing up at the radio station, drinking gin and breaking bottles.^[3] Between 1980 to 1985, Howlin' Dave would host the annual Brave New World punk concert, which he would close himself with his take on Sid Vicious's version of My Way.^[3]

In the late 1980s, Howlin' Dave was diagnosed with a brain tumor, as well as several other health problems that left him house-bound for several years. In his later years, he hosted radio programs with DZRJ, ROCK 990, and NU 107. In 2001, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the NU Rock Awards. He died in May of 2008, two days after collapsing at home following a stroke.^[4]

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