David Piszcz, journalist, radio host dies at age 54

BELFAST – Local journalist and longtime radio host David Piszcz, 54, died this week after a battle with cancer.

Respected as a thorough newspaper reporter and admired as a radio personality for WERU-FM, Piszcz left a lasting impression on his community. With his long hair and mutton-chop sideburns, Piszcz was a fixture at community meetings throughout Waldo County, reporting for The Republican Journal.

Friends and co-workers remembered him Wednesday as a good reporter who was dedicated to his work, but who also enjoyed life.

“He gave 100 percent at work, but when he was done, he enjoyed listening to jazz music, playing drums in his band and his annual Labor Day party,” said Tanya Mitchell, a reporter at Village Soup in Belfast who worked with Piszcz at the Journal. “He really did enjoy life.”

Piszcz was an award-winning reporter, garnering state and regional honors for his reporting and for his editorials and opinion columns. According to Dan Dunkle, editor of The Republican Journal, Piszcz was a beat reporter, and “he did a good job at it.”

“But his real passion and gift was writing for the opinion page,” Dunkle said Wednesday. “He wrote editorials and a column ‘Of Cabbages and Kings’ that was generally political. He had a nice way of writing, and I think it was a high point of his week.”

Piszcz was born and raised in Chicopee, Mass., where he developed an early interest in radio. He attended the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Hartford and got his first radio job in Springfield, Mass.

His radio career was interrupted by the Vietnam War. Piszcz received conscientious objector status and was assigned to work in a hospital in Massachusetts for two years. He renewed that interest when he and his wife Claudia Luchetti, moved to Maine in the early 1980s.

He later volunteered with the then-fledgling community radio station WERU and then was hired as program director and news director.

Listeners recognize him as Ras Chicopee, the on-air name he used on “Talking Furniture,” his long-running show on the East Orland station.

The format for the show included a mix of readings, commentaries and a wide variety of musical genres, including reggae, salsa, jazz and polkas, according to WERU station manager Matt Murphy.

His weekly “rants” were a favorite of his fans. He also was a gifted radio producer, Murphy said, and received a Golden Reel award from the National Association of Community Broadcasters for a series of promotional spots for the station titled “The Mutant Newts of Doom,” a satirical piece about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“He was articulate and intelligent. He had an ability to communicate about the human condition,” Murphy said. “He had a keen sense of irony and the surreal and for the important things, the things that people hold dear.”

A memorial service will be held at 7 tonight at Crabiel-Riposta Funeral Home in Belfast.

On Friday, WERU will remember Piszcz during an on-air celebration of his life that will include music, remembrances and samples from past “Talking Furniture” shows.

The memorial will be held during Piszcz’s regular slot on the radio from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday. Listeners are encouraged to join by phone, 1-866-625-9378 or by e-mail, at info@weru.org.