“He was just a genuine, honest person on the radio,” said Peter Casey, director of news and programming for WBZ news radio. “There wasn’t a Dave Maynard on the air and a Dave Maynard off the air. He made a career being Dave Maynard on the air, and that was the Dave Maynard who lived next door to you.”
Mr. Maynard, who also hosted a TV talent show each Sunday morning for more than two decades, died today in Citrus Hills, Fla., where he lived in retirement. He was 82 and had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about 10 years ago.
“I think people who listened to him just loved him because he was down to earth,” said Don Batting, who reported the news on Mr. Maynard’s “Maynard in the Morning” show for many years.
The audience also “liked the music he played,” Batting said. “At that time, the disc jockey picked his own music. It was very personal for him, and people loved what he was playing.”
Mr. Maynard was adept at raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities such as Easter Seals and with his annual Farmstand for Children’s Hospital Boston, a multi-hour farmers’ market hosted live at WBZ.
In 1999, the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association named Mr. Maynard Broadcaster of the Year. Ten years later, he was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
One of his most powerful moments in the WBZ studio, however, was not when he was playing songs or bantering.
In June 1979, before Mr. Maynard moved to mornings, his show ran midnight to 5:30 a.m.
Shortly after 1 a.m. during one show, a caller announced he had just swallowed 50 pills of the anti-coagulant medication Coumadin and downed a bottle of 100-proof vodka. The man, later identified as a retired police officer, wanted to speak with Mr. Maynard’s guest, Dr. Ari Kiev, who had written a book for those considering suicide.
Listeners from across the country and into Canada tuned in as Kiev and Mr. Maynard kept the caller talking for about 50 minutes, police figured out where the man lived, and went to his home.
“It was like a movie script,” Mr. Maynard told the Globe afterward. “My heart was in my mouth most of the time.”
