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For more than a decade, widely known voiceover artist David Drexler has played a large role in the Radio and Television Department at San Diego City College.
Drexler came to SDCC after starting his own production company, Drexler Media, in 1986, and continues to produce commercials for clients such as the Viejas Casino. He also received three Emmys for performance and writing at KPBS before coming to City College.
When the department chair of Radio and Television approached Drexler with a teaching position, Drexler said that he was experiencing his “mid-life crisis of sorts.” While most guys go out and buy new cars, Drexler wondered what he was doing to better society. The most rewarding part of being a professor is when “the light goes on” for a student, he said.
A San Diego native, Drexler has used the city as a home base throughout his lifetime of world exploration. When work has been slow, Drexler feels that traveling to places such as Japan and Australia has provided him with a “masters in life.”
The professor produces and directs the “Jazz Live” show in the Saville Theatre at City College on Tuesday evenings. Each show is lead by a crew comprised of Drexler’s students, whom he says are “working under pressure” with a live audience.
Former “Jazz Live” producer/director John Hildebrand said that Drexler has “maintained the production quality level” that Hildebrand had spent 25 years developing. After six years, Drexler is still proud to be a part of the show, expressing that each show would turn out differently even if it were the same program from the previous week.
On Sunday evenings Drexler can be heard on SDCC’s radio station, KSDS Jazz FM 88.3, hosting the show “Inside Art,” which “entails anything art related in the community” said the show’s production director, Michael Rovatsos. With frequent interviews featuring popular guests, Drexler conducts the show with a professional demeanor, Rovatsos said.
Drexler said this was a new experience for him, as he had not previously conducted interviews on radio.
Is his schedule hectic? “I don’t like to refuse positive opportunities,” he replied.
