R.I.P.: 'Detour Dave', Longtime Baltimore Traffic Reporter

David Harvey "Detour Dave" Sandler Jr., the longtime News/Talk WBAL 1090 AM Radio and WIYY 98 Rock traffic reporter who warned drivers of Bay Bridge backups and JFX accidents for three decades, died of a pulmonary condition Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He was 58, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“Dave grew up loving radio and sports. He idolized Chuck Thompson,” said a family member, Dorrie Anshel, who lives in Ocean View, Del. “It was his life’s dream to be on the air.”

He broke into radio work at a small State College, Pa., station and worked as an assistant in the news department at WCBM Radio in Baltimore.

In a 2017 interview with the Frederick Community College student newspaper, Mr. Sandler said of his early days at WCBM, “This got my foot in the door. [I] made very little money and I got my start in the radio business.”

“He learned the business through the back door and the front door,” Dorrie Anshel said.

He got a job with Metro Traffic Control and flew with pilots in a helicopter and later a Cessna aircraft. He created a persona for himself, that of the unflappable Detour Dave.

He formed a 31-year association with WBAL Radio and 98 Rock. He worked the morning shift and an afternoon drive-time slot and became recognized at Detour Dave. He also appeared on camera on WBAL television. In a 2017 interview in The Sun, he said he got the job on a handshake. "We never really had what I would call a contract. We had an agreement...”

John Patti, a WBAL morning news anchor, said, “Dave was always calm and easygoing. He was reassuring. Nothing rattled Detour Dave Sandler. … He was an icon on the radio. He became a personality.