THE ANTIINFLUENCER

It was 1991, mere hours before 24-year-old David Freiburger went to interview for a staff writer job at HOT ROD magazine.

- TORI TELLEM

DAVID FREIBURGER STILL CONSIDERS HIMSELF "JUST A MAGAZINE GUY" EVEN AS HE CONTINUES TO BE WHY AUTOMOTIVE CONTENT THRIVESOR FAILS-ACROSS EVERY MEDIA PLATFORM

He walked into a “long-hair, rock ’n roll kind of hair-cutting place” on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles “with full-on heavy-metal hair and got it all cut off.” The hair advice had come from Jeff Smith a couple years earlier when he was editor of Car Craft. “David was very young with a ton of enthusiasm but not much life experience,” Jeff recalled to HOT ROD. “I told him it would be better to work in the industry for a while and gain experience, which is what he did.” Also, you know, the haircut. Jeff went on to become the editor of HOT ROD and hired him.

Chopping off his hair would be one of the few times David would conform to a norm in his career, but being a nonconformist wasn't what got him canceled in November 2024. That's when MotorTrend Studios ended production of his original series Roadkill after 13 seasons. Roadkill spin-offs also got canned. It meant the TV host and former editor-in-chief of HOT ROD, HOT ROD Deluxe, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, and 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazines was unemployed. He turned his focus to developing content for The David Freiburger Channel on YouTube. The video in which he told his version of the demise of Roadkill had 1.2 million views as HOT ROD went to press.

“I've always considered myself an automotive journalist, even though having my own YouTube channel feels like I'm now doing a teenager's job,” David said when we spoke to him a couple months later. He was preparing to travel to Florida to take on a second venture: reporter for the NHRA drag racing series on Fox Sports.