Creates The Spirit of Radio
After CFNY program director Dave Pritchard left the station in 1978 due to conflicts with the station management, Marsden was promoted to program director. 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 opened CFNY's focus, creating Canada's first alternative music station. Throughout the 1980s, under the slogan the spirit of radio, CFNY was one of the most influential promoters of new international and Canadian artists most radio stations ignored.
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 left CFNY a year later. He joined the CBC and moved to Vancouver to produce the successful TV show Pilot 1. That show won several awards, including a silver medal at the Chicago Film and Video Festival. Following that, Marsden launched another freeform modern rock station, Coast 800, later Coast 1040, in Vancouver.
He was later involved in the creation of Iceberg Radio, the first major Canadian Internet radio project, and returned to the terrestrial radio airwaves as host of a freeform rock show on The Rock 94.9 in the early 2000s. CKGE-FM is based in Oshawa, Ontario. He currently hosts The David Marsden Radio Program on Saturday and Sunday nights on The Rock. Marsden is also currently Program Director at KRYD-FM in Montrose, Colorado. Marsden currently lives in Toronto.
He has also been profiled in exhibits at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both for his on-air Dave Mickie persona and for his role as program director of CFNY. He is openly gay, and has also worked as a club DJ at gay club nights dubbed "The Mars Bar".
Read more about this topic: David Marsden
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