David Butler ’77, whose deeply sonorous and reassuring voice over WQFS’ airwaves entertained and educated music lovers for more than 40 years, died March 7, following an extended battle with cancer. He was 69.

David first began playing records at WQFS in 1973, a year after the station renewed its license with the Federal Communications Commission. The new license allowed the station, once confined to the campus, to broadcast across the city.

Almost overnight, friends and colleagues say, David reigned as one of the most influential and popular disc jockeys – not just on campus but the Triad. Hester Penny, a WQFS listener who eventually became a community DJ, says David refused to accept the stereotypical mold of a DJ cramming puns and punchlines in between songs.

Instead, she says, David was more interested in challenging listeners with new sounds than spinning the same Top 40 songs.

She first heard David’s show after moving to Greensboro in 1994. “I just fell in love with David and WQFS in the car right then,” says Hester, who eventually went to work at the radio station in Founders Hall in 2014. “There was something different about them both that was so refreshing.”

David’s commitment to an alternative playlist spread to other DJs at WQFS, helping the station win over local listeners tired of the same old Top 40 format. In 1975, he started the “Sunday Morning Rehab Show,” which offered a traditional and eclectic mix of music with interesting stories woven into his show about the bands and their histories. He reliably delivered those songs and stories on Sunday mornings for the next 41 years.

David, a Management major, was a national sales representative who sold products and services to automobile retailers. Joanne Butler says her husband might have been a successful DJ at a commercial radio station but he never wanted to even try. “He hated commercials, he would have hated being told what to play,” she says. “He had his own tastes in music and he loved playing it. (WQFS) was like a hobby for him.”

Joanne says David would begin his next Sunday show almost as soon as the most recent ended. “We would write for hours and develop his themes,” she says. “He was like a preacher and his shows were his sermons.”

Alan Socol '75, who worked at the radio station with David, would listen to his colleague and marvel at his musical memory bank. “If there was a voice to the radio station it was most definitely David’s,” says Alan. “He would not like to hear something like that because he never possessed an ego or had any air about him, but it is the truth.”

David was always on the search for new bands to share with listeners. In 2004 he walked past two brothers playing by the ticket entrance to Merlefest, one of the nation’s largest music festivals in Wilkesboro, N.C. Most of the concertgoers walked right past the Avett Brothers, but David was hooked.

He spent the next several months imploring his listeners to follow the folk-rock revivalists who went on to win five Americana Music Honors & Awards and have been nominated for four Grammys.

“He had a gift for hearing talent just starting out,” Hester says. “But that wasn’t enough. He wanted to share what he discovered with his listeners.”

Funeral arrangements are not complete. Joanne says one of David’s last requests was to have live music performed at his service. She laughs when she says she has not selected a band yet.

“He’s put a lot of pressure on me,” she says.