KCRA 3 producer David Manoucheri combines journalism and music. He is out with his first record in 18 years, a product of his love for music and a salve for the memory of the loss of his wife at an early age.
By Kevin Wing
If Sacramento journalist David Manoucheri hadn’t launched his television news career 30
years ago, he might have been a rock star today.
The special projects producer and investigative producer for KCRA 3 loves his television work. But the Emmy Award-winning storyteller for Sacramento’s NBC affiliate loves
music as well.
Manoucheri, who posts songs, photos and event schedules on his website, not only writes music, he’s a performer as well.
This fall, he went into a recording studio to record an LP for the first
time in nearly 20 years.
“It’s my first record since 2001,” Manoucheri said in an interview with “Off Camera,” the monthly newsletter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chapter in Northern California. “I’m really
proud of it. It’s been a long time.”
“Journalism is fantastic,” Manoucheri adds. “Someone asked me once about what I would do if
I’m not working in television, and music is it.”
Music has truly been a part of Manoucheri’s life since he was a young boy growing up in the
little Nebraska town of O’Neill.
“My Dad brought music home all the time,” he said. “My Mom sang, and and my Dad had
everything from Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith to Thelonious Monk. Friends loved coming to my
house because we had great music playing all the time.”
Manoucheri started playing the guitar when he was a teenager.
“I have a 1985 Stratocaster,” he says proudly. “I always plink on that guitar. The guitar is literally
like my left arm. I feel very comfortable with a guitar around my neck.”
Manoucheri says his music became more a part of his life after tragedy struck eight years
ago. In 2011, his wife, Andrea Andrews, died on their 18th wedding anniversary. Like her
husband, Andrews had also worked in television news as a reporter and anchor. Her passing,
and at such a young age — she would have been 49 this year — was unexpected,
and it left Manoucheri to become a single father to their two daughters and twin sons.
Manoucheri’s music has helped him get in touch with his emotional side
since losing his wife.
“The music is really a part of who I am, but even more so now than ever before,” he
says. “My music has given me the freedom to open up” — so much so that Manoucheri and his band, Ain’t Got No Time Blues & Rock Band,
have cut 11 new tracks for his forthcoming solo album, “When the Giants Fell.” They
recorded the songs at Pus Cavern, a recording studio in Sacramento. They did it all in
just two days.
“When I get up on stage or go into a recording studio with these guys, and when
everything is feeling good, it’s a great feeling, and it’s really healing,” he says.
When Manoucheri and the band perform, they play mostly covers, he says. But they
also play original songs, too.
“The title track comes from a phrase from my daughter,” Manoucheri explains. “When
you’re a little kid, you live in the land of giants. But as a child it’s difficult to understand
when you realize that giants can fall.”
“I wrote a lot of material 20 years ago, too,” he adds. And, he wrote an album’s worth of
material after his wife passed away. His music had been relegated to a hobby during his
marriage, but it helped him to heal. In March 2016, he went into a recording studio for
the first time to record a track. The result was Manoucheri’s first single, “When the
Morning Comes,” which was released that spring.
There is no release date yet for the album. Manoucheri says it is being mastered in
Nebraska — his home state — at a studio in Omaha. The mastering was expected to be
completed days before Thanksgiving.
Meantime, Manoucheri will continue to toil away as an investigative producer and
special projects producer at KCRA. When he’s not in the field and not at the station’s
studios on Television Circle, he will be tending to his music and his responsibilities as a
loving father to his four children. For instance, he does everything he can to get home
after work to make dinner for his family.
Kevin Wing is senior correspondent for “Off Camera,” a monthly publication of the San Francisco/Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is also a chapter governor.