David Marsden

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David Marsden is a Canadian radio broadcaster. As the driving force behind Brampton, Ontario radio station CFNY in the 1980s, he became one of the most influential figures in the Canadian music industry by giving many Canadian and international alternative rock artists their first major Canadian radio exposure.

1 Early career
2 Creates The Spirit Of Radio
3 Marsden in the 2000s
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Early career

Born in Toronto, Marsden got his first radio job in Chatham, Ontario. He first came to fame in April 1963 as the fast-talking Dave Mickie, a DJ at Toronto's CKEY top-40 AM radio station, and called "the most controversial thing on Toronto radio."^[1] He was fired by CKEY after just five months. He hosted the weekly Club 11 Dance Party on CHCH-TV in 1964-1965 and then became host of Music Hop on CBC Television in 1965, succeeding Alex Trebek. He also started writing a column for the Toronto Star in the same year.

As David Marsden, he joined Montreal's CKGM (AM) in 1967, and in 1973 returned to Toronto with a completely different on-air persona at CHUM-FM. While at CHUM David was the first DJ in North America to air Pink Floyds's Dark Side of the Moon, as he stated on air Feb. 15th, 2007. He left the station in February 1975 to devote more time to his radio commercial production company.

[edit] Creates The Spirit Of Radio

Marsden was hired by station owner Leslie Allen as CFNY's program director in 1978. The station's mandate had been to present significantly different programming than other radio stations in the Greater Toronto Area, but before Marsden's arrival the station's format had been highly eclectic. Marsden saw the commercial potential of punk and new wave, and narrowed CFNY's focus, creating Canada's first alternative music station in the punk/new wave format. Throughout the 1980s, under the slogan the spirit of radio, CFNY was one of the most influential promoters of new Canadian artists.

In July 1987, Marsden and CFNY general manager Bill Hutton hired Don Berns as the new program director. Initially, Marsden continued as director of operations, and as executive producer of the CASBY Awards, but he soon left CFNY to launch a similar station, Coast 800, in Vancouver.

[edit] Marsden in the 2000s

In the late 1990s Marsden became vice-president of Internet music portal Iceberg Radio. As of 2006 he produces a show heard Thursday and Friday evenings on Oshawa-based station The Rock 94.9, playing a freeform mix of classic rock and alternative rock music. Additionally, he produces a weekly show on the internet radio station PulverRadio.

Marsden was Canada's first openly gay radio broadcaster,^{[citation needed]} and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's radio wing.^{[citation needed]}