John David Brooks, whose broadcast news career included 34 years with Los Angeles radio stations KFWB and KNX, died in his sleep Thursday after a long battle with respiratory illness and diabetes, at his home in the Ventura County community of Oak View.
Brooks began his radio career while a student at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, according to Don Barrett’s L.A. Radio People. He moved to Southern California with his brother Scott in 1970.
“I was actually in school learning television production when radio chose me,” Brooks said. “One of my instructors was KVEN-Ventura’s Ned Rogers. He told me of a job opening and since it paid about as little as the job I had with the Ojai School District, I took it.”
Brooks became news director at KVEN, winning “a bunch of Golden Mikes,” before he was offered a job at KFWB in 1979. During 30 years at KFWB, he worked as a news anchor and reporter.
During that time, Brooks had the chance to cover NASA events. “I was fortunate to cover many space shuttle flights and most of the science missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” he said. “I will never forget the third space shuttle mission, the 1982 landing of Columbia at White Sands in New Mexico, when rain at Edwards Air Force Base forced a change in plans. Had to rush there and it’s a very different place.”
He reported on numerous space missions, including the loss of the Challenger orbiter and the seven-member crew directly from JPL, as well as other space missions, including the Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and Mars Pathfinder launches.
In 1990, Brooks flew to Saudi Arabia on Air Force 2 in the press entourage traveling with Vice President Dan Quayle before the liberation of Kuwait.
Brooks moved over to sister station KNX in 2009 and remained there until his 2013 retirement.
Whatever the topic, Brooks adhered to a philosophy he suggested for future reporters. “Be honest and try to tell stories filled with humanity, wonder and excitement.”
He won numerous awards, including a Distinguished Journalist Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Los Angeles, in 2013 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 from the Radio and Television News Association in Los Angeles.
Brooks was born March 30, 1951 in Buffalo, New York, the fourth of five children.
After moving to Southern California, he attended Santa Monica City College, where he met future wife, Frances Melin.
Brooks is survived by wife, Frances; daughter April; son-in-law, Paul Zebalese; sister, Meredith Brooks; brother, Scott Brooks; and sister-in-law, Pat; sister, Leah Brooks; and sister-in-law, Barbara; nephews Jesse, Raymond and Roxanne Brooks; niece Kali Brooks Ashton and her two children, Pluto and Gwyneth Ashton. He was predeceased by his brother, Bob, in 2008.
Brooks’ family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy or an environmental group of one’s choosing.