My name is Dave, known to my online friends as DooWopDave. Since 1996 I have been sharing the Hidden Treasures of the 50’s & 60’s from my extensive vinyl and digital music collection via my jukebox websites, internet radio stations and YouTube channels.

In 2001 I created the original Oldies Central Network website as a home for mine and my friend, the late Wayne Demmer’s, jukebox websites and to serve as a link hub for other sites who promoted and preserved the music and nostalgia of the 50 s era. The website was popular amongst other oldies music and nostalgia fans and we had over 100 member sites in our directory.

When broadband internet became available and many peer-to-peer platforms like Napster made it possible to share music files with other users freely and easily, the music publishers began losing revenue as CD sales began to plummet. That led to the government crackdown on music piracy as they started tracking down and prosecuting offenders. That caused panic to grip many folks who ran music sites like ours and many decided to shut down their sites for fear of being targeted by the feds. My friend Wayne expressed his concerns with me and we agreed it would be best to shut down the site in 2003.

That was a very difficult decision for me as I had enjoyed sharing favorites from my collection with others who appreciated the music as much as I did. We made friends with doowop and teen collectors from all around the world as our sites were more geared to playing the more obscure songs from the 50’s & 60’s and became a place for other collectors to discover new favorites to add to their want lists.

It wasn’t long after shutting the website down that I discovered a new craze that was gaining popularity, internet radio. I stumbled across an ad for Live 365, a platform that hosted streaming professional and amateur radio streams for a nominal cost. Since the cost was affordable and the setup and management of the station was pretty straightforward, I decided to start up my original Oldies Central Network radio station on Live 365. I broadcast the station for nearly 14 years on Live 365 until they shut down in January of 2017.

It was at that time I became more active creating music videos on my original YouTube channel, DooWopDave’s Malt Shop, which I started in 2007. As I began getting more active on YouTube my channel became more popular and I began reconnecting with many old friends I made from my days running the website. In 2017, just as my channel was experiencing enormous growth, I was shut down by YouTube for acquiring 3 copyright strikes for music I posted. Many of my favorite YouTube channels suffered a similar fate and went missing as well. Shortly before being shut down I had created a Facebook group for my channel and to be a place to interact with others who shared my passion for the music and nostalgia of the 50’s era. I then began sharing my music videos via my Facebook page and in my group, which was called DooWopDave’s Malt Shop.

One night while checking my news feed on Facebook I came across an ad for Citrus Radio, a platform like the Live 365 platform for streaming radio stations. Since the cost was reasonable, I decided to start up a new station and DooWopDave’s Malt Shop Radio was started in the summer of 2018. In October of 2018 I started a new YouTube channel under the name of The Malt Shop Jukebox to share the music videos I create.

My radio station was very popular and was gaining listeners all around the world at a very rapid pace when I lost my job as a machinist in the Fall of 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and I had to shut down the station a few months later.

In the summer of 2022, I began working on building an oldies community on Patreon called DooWopDave’s World with a corresponding website and digital store for those wishing to purchase HQ MP3 files of songs from my collection, as much of what I post and make available is obscure and not readily available elsewhere.

About a year into working on this project, everything came to a screeching halt when both my computer and main backup drive crashed and years of work saved on the computer and backup drive were lost. That was the summer of 2023 and for nearly 2 years I was inactive on the internet as I did not have the funds to replace my computer.

Earlier this summer I decided to see if I could get my dad’s old laptop computer setup to create content for my YouTube channel and get back online doing what I enjoy, sharing music and memories. To my surprise, I was able to make things work, albeit very slow and sluggish. So, I was able to get back online creating content and decided to rebrand my YouTube channel as DooWopDave’s World to keep in line with my Patreon Community Brand. The Patreon platform allows me the opportunity to post content that I cannot post on YouTube and I find the platform to be much more user friendly than YouTube’s platform. Even though I have not monetized my content on YouTube, I have little control over the ads that appear on their platform. I have yet to see any ads on any of the posts I have seen on Patreon.

In exchange for use of the Patreon platform, Patreon collects 11% of all revenue from merchandise or subscription sales. So, while a paid subscription is not necessary to have access to much of what I post on Patreon, specially created digital compilations and content are available exclusively to those who support my work with a paid subscription. Available content varies based on the subscription tier. It is thanks in part to those who are supporting my work that I have been able to replace my computer with a computer powerful enough to do what I do in an efficient manner. Their support has also helped me cover the cost of reviving my radio station and website. So, thanks to all my Patreon subscribers!

My radio station and this website are in their infancy stages right now and as everything evolves, I hope that you become a part of my viewing and listening community and feel free to share your comments and suggestions to make the site more enjoyable for yourself and others.

Check out the links below for the other internet platforms you will find me on. 

Keep rockin’ while you can!

Dave