For one year, starting March 15, 2007, David F. Diamond was a Primary contender for the Republican nomination for president (see Wendi Thomas’ Commercial Appeal column of 9-16-07). He  came to Memphis in 1980 and was a morning radio news anchor, commentator and talk show host on WHBQ, WWEE and WMC until about a decade ago.  Now, he's kinda retired -- but not really!  Diamond continues to be involved as an occasional TV and radio commercial spokesman, an actor, a freelance writer and broadcast spot producer, and a marketing and public relations consultant.  Diamond served as the national radio voice of Levitz Furniture Corporation, an assignment that began in 1981 and continued for 14 years.

    He has been a member of the board of directors for Crimestoppers, on the Friends of the Library advisory board, on the Kansas Vo-Tech School Homemakers and Home Health Aide Advisory Committee and a reader for the West Tennessee Talking Library for the Blind (WYPL). He has also done volunteer work for the Commission on Missing & Exploited Children, Memphis Crisis Center and co-founded Memphis Friends of the Russian People about 15 years ago.   Diamond appeared in a number of plays at Theatre Memphis, Playhouse on the Square, and at Gaslight Dinner Theatre. He has been a student of communications and the Russian language and culture at the University of Memphis.   And he was a member of the Memphis Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

     Following four years of service (1953-1957) as a Russian language technician in the U.S. Air Force Security Service, Diamond studied foreign affairs at George Washington University in the late 1950's. He then accepted a number of assignments working for Maryland state senator Newton I. Steers, Jr: as congressional and state senatorial campaign manager; as executive assistant and deputy commissioner in the Maryland Insurance Department; and as a legislative assistant in the state capitol in Annapolis.

     Diamond ran for Congress in Baltimore in 1970 and subsequently spent a year there as office manager for U.S Senator Charles McC. Mathias. Moving to Pittsburgh, PA in 1972, Diamond served as news anchor for WTAE radio; radio/TV news director for the 1973 National Boy Scout Jamboree; and managed a successful congressional primary campaign for Robert Casey.  From Pittsburgh, Mr. Diamond came to Memphis.