Longtime TV host in San Diego

Bob Dale, 83, who was one of San Diego’s best-known television personalities and who displayed a folksy on-air presence during more than 40 years on the air, died May 26 at a San Diego hospice, said Ken Kramer, a former colleague. The cause of death was not released.

Dale was host of “Zoorama,” a series that was filmed in the early 1960s at the San Diego Zoo and aired nationally. He also had a daily talk show, was host of various late-afternoon movie shows and children’s programs, and was a longtime weatherman.

“Some people think I’m corny because I say things like ‘They haven’t had any water in Gila Bend since an RV backed over a six-pack.’ And I wear a bow tie,” Dale told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1989.

He joined the local CBS affiliate after moving to San Diego in 1956 and was hired by the local NBC channel in the late 1970s. Dale last appeared on the air about seven years ago.

Robert Dale Bergmayr was born in 1925 in Canton, Ohio. He served in the Army during World War II.

After an explosion ruptured his eardrums, he returned home to study drama at Case Western University in Cleveland and became a local TV announcer in 1947 while still a student.