By Scott Cronick
When I heard the extraordinarily alarming news that my friend and media colleague David Spatz died last week, I would be lying if my first reaction was sadness.
That came later.
It was anger.
Pure anger like I haven’t experienced in a very long time.
When my father died in a nursing home two years ago at 86 years old, sadness overcame me immediately, particularly since I watched him gasp for his last breath as COVID took him. When radio legend Pinky Kravitz died at 88 after an up-and-down health battle, I cried like a baby.
A father and a father figure gone.
The last time I remember feeling anger like the day I was told Spatz died was when former Longport Media President Dave Coskey called me to tell me Bob Burns, another local legend who helped me get started in radio, died at 70 years old.
70 years old!
Spatz died at 71.
Way too young.
Cue the anger.
At one point in my life – like everyone when they are young – 71 seemed old. When you are in your 50s, 71 is right around the corner.
And Spatz – for whatever reason, I never called him “Spatzy” like so many of his friends did – had way more life to live … as did Bob Burns. As do so many people we say goodbye to way too soon.
My anger about David’s passing is normal, I guess. And I am sure as you get older, it’s a more common feeling. It’s not something I look forward to.
I am not sure what took David in the end, but I can tell you from someone who talked to and texted him regularly that while COVID wasn’t the cause of death, I think it contributed to it psychologically. Unlike my dad, who was directly killed by it, COVID had long-term effects on David and many others, including me. During COVID, I was massively depressed, gained quite a bit of weight and lost a lot of motivation. I am still digging out of the mess it caused me personally.
David shared his thoughts on COVID every day. Even though newscasters stopped reading COVID numbers a long time ago, David would continue to read those numbers on his show every day. It was always on his mind. And although he had some other health issues, COVID, in my opinion, took some of David’s life away day after day. He didn’t come to any casino media events – at least to my recollection – since COVID. He told me that he rarely went anywhere. COVID took away his motivation to be social, to be around people, something that was an essential part of David’s entire life.
When I saw him around Christmas, he certainly didn’t look well. I asked him how he was, and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Meh.” I could tell he wasn’t the normal Spatz … hasn’t been for a while.
I couldn’t get him off my mind for days.
David and I had an interesting relationship. I could actually say there was an awkward time at the beginning of our relationship because I was the new entertainment/casino guy at The Press of Atlantic City right after he left The Press. That initial awkwardness turned into a great friendship as we sat together at more concerts, dinners and media nights than either of us could count. I told my wife the other day that other than her, my parents and son, I probably had dinner with David Spatz more than anyone else on the planet.
Our work – and passion for all things Atlantic City – made us friends, but we bonded through our stories about the industry and the city we loved, particularly his stories. No one liked to wax nostalgic more than David Spatz – well maybe fellow entertainment journalist Chuck Darrow – but David certainly loved talking about his encounters with the “greats” in the “good ’ol days.” I heard about his fishing trip with Tony Orlando a hundred times, but he always told it with the same enthusiasm as he was telling it to me for the first time. I loved when he talked about hosting the March of Dimes Telethon and the backstage stories with icons like Paul Anka. His eyes lit up when he would reminisce about “the old man” – Frank Sinatra – or when he used to freeze on the top of Resorts Casino Hotel for a New Year’s Eve show he hosted with the late, great Merv Griffin. And he and I really loved to swap stories about Tony Clifton, the Andy Kaufman/Bob Zmuda creation who confused audiences at the Atlantic City Hilton in 2010 with his raunchy, avantgarde schtick.
He would also light up when sharing stories about his family, daughter Erica Hoffman, son Jason Spatz and particularly his granddaughter Kayleigh. And if there was ever an example of how to get along with your ex-wife, his lifelong friendship with Sherry Hoffman was one for the ages.
When The Press eliminated my position last year, Spatz was one of the first people who “congratulated” me, telling me there was definitely life after The Press. And he was proof of that, too. His terrific interview series, “Curtain Call with David Spatz,” ran for more than 200 episodes, was syndicated in 82 cities in North America and was the first and only program produced out of Atlantic City to win an Emmy Award. He didn’t do that alone, and he was the first to acknowledge his business partner and longtime friend Jake Glassey, Jr., for making that show look and sound as good as it did. When he mentioned Jake, it was always in reverence. Their friendship was as strong as any I have ever seen. Listening them do a special Sunday radio show about “The Walking Dead” during the height of its popularity was not only entertaining, but showed how much these two men really connected and loved each other. We all should be blessed to have a friendship like that in our lifetime.
Spatz was also instrumental in Coskey’s plan to return WOND to a “live and local” radio station. With Don Williams in the morning, the late Barbara Altman from 10-2, Burns from 1 to 3, me from 3 to 4 and Pinky from 4 to 6, Spatz anchored two new shows at noon and 6 p.m., providing the area with much-needed local news after WMGM TV-40 went dark.
And Spatz loved every minute of it. His connections to everyone in the area allowed him to break news regularly, often faster than an entire newsroom at The Press. And damn, did he love being the first one to get big news out, often breaking into my show or the other WOND shows, for a breaking news report.
When Pinky passed and I was honored by his family to take the 4-6 spot, some of my most memorable times with Spatz came when he would mosey into the studio around 5:30 p.m. to kill time before his show by chatting with me. I would generally let him take over as he would have some interesting news of the day, or I would encourage him to share those stories that he often told me over dinner. I thought everyone should hear those stories.
And, eventually, so did David. In his final chapter, his noon to 2 p.m. show would often replay “Curtain Call” interviews, and he even put together a stage show that would do just that: Share great entertainment tales that included clips from his Emmy Award-winning series. He presented the show locally and had plans to tour it around Florida during the winter months, but COVID killed its progress.
I often told David he had a book in him. And if you listened to his stories as many times as I did, he probably had two to write. He told me that he wrote some pages here and there, but he never got it all together.
That’s a shame for all of us.
Because no one told a story better than David Spatz.
Scott Cronick is an award-winning journalist who has written about entertainment, food, news and more in South Jersey for nearly three decades. He hosts a daily radio show – “Off The Press with Scott Cronick” – 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays on Newstalk WOND 1400-AM, 92.3-FM, and WONDRadio.com, and he also co-owns Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in Atlantic City, while working on various projects, including charitable efforts, throughout the area. He can be reached at scronick@comcast.net.
