Still Rocking

Dave Pratt reflects on his legendary journey from radio rocker to media mogul

By Alison Bailin Batz / Photos by Claudia Johnstone

While it may be election season, for more than 40 years, those who grew up in the Valley have had the same “mayor.”

Dave Pratt, long known as “The Morning Mayor,” has built a legendary career in radio before making his mark in music, podcasting, and – ultimately – business. Along the way, he has shared the airwaves with Howard Stern, rubbed elbows with celebrity royalty and earned national recognition in both rock and country radio.

But long before becoming a household name, Pratt was a small-town kid with one very big dream.

Small-Town Beginnings

From his hometown in Elko, Nevada, Pratt grew up playing baseball and basketball, though his ambitions had little to do with athletics.

“All I ever wanted to do was radio,” Pratt says. “There wasn’t one single or special moment of inspiration. I just knew that I would be on the radio.”

In 1977, when Pratt was just a teenager, his mother helped secure him a job at KELK, the town’s only radio station.

“I was beyond horrible, even for a 16 year old,” Pratt says.

During the disco era, Pratt had two on-air personalities: “Boogie Shoes Pratt,” who spun disco records, and then just Dave Pratt, who played rock music.

In a town where casinos and seven brothels advertised on the radio, a parade of characters flooded the station to record commercials while his friends cruised past the station’s picture window, listening to his broadcasts and occasionally walking inside to make requests.

“It was the most fun I ever had in my radio career,” Pratt says.

Despite the fun, Pratt recognized that a broadcasting career would require leaving Elko. Given his father lived in Arizona, the Valley was a natural next stop.

Pratt arrived in 1979, determined to break into local radio. “I knocked on every radio station door in town, and wisely, none of them hired me,” Pratt says.

Instead, he landed a job at a roller-skating rink near Big Surf, despite being unable to skate.

“Yep, bad at that, too,” he says. “And I never learned to skate!”

Still determined, Pratt enrolled at Arizona State University, where a broadcast news writing class would change everything. One morning, Pratt watched someone post a notice announcing an internship at KUPD. He promptly removed it, then typed a replacement from himself informing classmates that Dave Pratt had accepted the position and no other applicants needed to apply. Unsurprisingly, no one else applied, so he got the gig.

Becoming Radio Royalty

At the time, KUPD operated out of a graffiti-covered double-wide trailer in Guadalupe. It was hardly glamorous, but Pratt saw an opportunity. Each evening, he spent hours alone in the side studio, practicing introductions, weather reports and jokes while studying established broadcasters.

The effort paid off. By his early 20s, Pratt had moved from overnight radio to the coveted morning slot. Then, in 1983, a contentious Phoenix mayoral election gave him the nickname that has followed him ever since.

The race between Terry Goddard and Pete Dunn had become heated, so Pratt invited both candidates to KUPD’s trailer for an interview, with one condition: No politics.

Instead, he asked about their favorite bands, concerts and personal interests. Soon, the rivals were laughing and discovering common ground. As the interview ended, Pratt remarked that one of them would become the Mayor of Phoenix the following day.

Goddard, who ultimately won, responded that one might win the election, but Dave Pratt will always be Arizona’s “Morning Mayor.”

The nickname stuck. During his 20 years at KUPD, Pratt transformed the station into a ratings powerhouse, developing its “Big Red Radio” identity, even designing its logo in his apartment. His morning show became one of the country’s longest-running rock radio programs.

His success extended beyond the microphone. During the 1980s hair band craze, Pratt created Dave Pratt and the Sex Machine Band to poke fun at rock stars of the era. However, the joke became a phenomenon. The band sold more than 100,000 albums and became so popular that Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent and Blue Öyster Cult opened for them.

Following KUPD’s sale to corporate ownership, Pratt joined CBS Radio’s “The Zone” in 2002, sharing the lineup with Howard Stern. With Stern handling mornings and Pratt commanding afternoons, the station became a ratings juggernaut. But after 18 months, both personalities were too expensive to keep together. Executives offered Pratt opportunities in New York and Chicago, but with a wife and four children, Arizona was home.

Instead, he proposed something unexpected. Pratt wanted to go country.

A Country Crossover

The decision made national headlines, but Pratt wanted to prove his success had never depended on the music. In 2003, Pratt took over mornings at CBS-owned KMLE Country, bringing his audience and humor to an entirely different format.

The timing was perfect. Rock artists were increasingly embracing Nashville. During one visit, Pratt encountered Jon Bon Jovi, whose band had found country success with Who Says You Can’t Go Home, and Kid Rock, whose collaboration with Sheryl Crow, Picture, had crossed musical genres.

Both questioned what the longtime rock personality was doing in Nashville. Pratt turned the question around. If rock stars could embrace country music, why couldn’t a radio personality?

KMLE became another ratings success, and in 2005, Pratt earned a Country Music Association nomination for Major Market Morning Show of the Year, attending the awards ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

Then came 2008. When the Great Recession battered the radio industry. Rather than accept a substantial pay cut, Pratt began looking to the internet for his next move.

Betting on Himself

While an enormous gamble for a father of four accustomed to financial security, Pratt believed digital broadcasting represented the future. By 2010, he launched the business that would become Pratt Podcasting and Pratt Marketing Agency.

His vision was never simply another Dave Pratt show. Instead, he wanted a professional operation where businesses and personalities could create programming without managing production themselves. He invested in first-class studios overlooking Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, assembling professionals to handle everything from recording and editing to distribution.

By the end of the first year, approximately 200 shows were paying his company for production and distribution. Soon, clients began requesting additional services, including media buying, social media and website development.

Pratt listened, transforming the podcasting operation into a full-service agency serving clients nationwide. Today, he has hundreds of clients that run the gamut in services, not to mention several full-time employees and another few dozen contractors under his umbrella.

For all his professional accomplishments, Pratt considers his family his greatest success.

He and Paula have been married for 38 years and have four adult children, including three involved in the popular Pratt Brothers Christmas business and their youngest daughter pursuing a master’s degree in clinical psychology.

Pratt is also a two-time prostate cancer survivor who advocates for early detection and screenings.

And while his career has taken him from a tiny Nevada radio station to the heights of broadcasting and digital media, one thing has remained consistent.

“I am still just a kid who loved radio, loved entertaining people and believed that with enough hard work, I could make something special happen,” Pratt says.

For more information or to listen to Pratt’s free audio autobiography, visit www.prattpodcasting.com.