Dave was born in Liverpool. He worked as a carpenter/joiner for Liverpool City Council. He gained a City and Guilds qualification in his trade and lived at his parents home. In his spare time, he worked on various landbased pirate radio stations in Liverpool such as Radio Elenore. He also spent a short period of time working on ABC Radio in Dublin in the early 80's. ;The Voice of Peace In 1984, he joined The Voice of Peace radio station in Israel. He was known on the peace station run by Abie Nathan and broadcast from the East Mediterranean as Paul Rogers, the same name he used on Radio Elenore in Liverpool. ;Radio Caroline On the world famous station Radio Caroline, he was the first to be heard on the radio in the early hours of 7 August 1985 where he used the name Dave Collins for the first time as the station already had a DJ with a similar family name, Del Rogers. Caroline DJs on board the ship at this historic time included Susan Charles, Peter Philips, Johnny Lewis and David Andrews. ;Others Following Radio Caroline, he enjoyed another spell In Ireland, on the breakfast show at Radio West in Mullingar and then working in the UK on more than a dozen radio stations. He has presented and scheduled music at many radio stations in the UK including Radio Top Shop in Newcastle and Liverpool, Marcher Sound in Wrexham, Radio City in Liverpool, Red Rose in Preston, CFM Carlisle and Wire FM and was at CFM as Head Of Presentation, Programme Controller at The Bay in Lancaster and Alpha FM in Darlington. After this period in radio presenting and management, he moved into sales management and worked as Sales Account Manager for Yorkshire Coast Radio and Minster FM and Sales Account Manager for Viking FM/Magic 1161. Dave also broadcast again on Caroline, from a ship docked at Albert Dock in Liverpool from March 31, 2014. This was a RSL called Caroline North Liverpool on 87.7FM. He also was Head of Sales. Following his days in offshore radio on Radio Caroline, VOP and Radio Seagull, Dave has also been included in The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame. ;Personal life In February 2008, after leaving Wire FM, he went on a travelling around the world with his partner. He currently lives in Brussels working in print and digital marketing sales at The Brussels Times. He also presents regular shows on Radio Seagull www.radioseagull.com on 1602AM from Harlingen in The Netherlands.
