aka: Dave Mickey, The Mars Bar
Founder, Program Director (1977 - 1987)
Weekends (1986 - 1988)
Christmas Eve
In November 1990, Marsden took over AM station CKST in Vancouver and renamed it Coast 800 - The Spirit of Radio. Coast 800 no longer exists.
As of early 1999, Don Berns says:
"[David is] currently managing two recording artists in Vancouver, where he went in 1987 to produce a years-ahead-of-its-time TV show for CBC called "Pilot One." Last year David was "inducted" into the radio wing of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice--once as David Marsden and once as Dave Mickey. This is a true radio visionary whose talents are being wasted by an industry that could care less about creativity and any vision other than how to make pots o' cash."
David emailed me recently and said:
I am deeply touched by your site. It is quite obvious you have put a lot of effort and love into your work.
You have more paraphernalia than I do. The only difference is that I do have a lot of the originals. Such as the picture of the old yellow house as it appeared in the newspaper. A couple of months ago I did discover an old CFNY lighter in a box of stuff. Surprise -- it stilled worked! Not being a smoker any longer I had little use for it other than as a souvenir.
Anyway, thanks again for the memories and the love you have shown. Happy New Year. Perhaps I should return to Toronto and put a new station on the air. Do you think anyone would listen? Just wondering.
November 2000: David is currently working with Don Berns on 1groove.com.
December 2002: Marsden writes:
CHIC was the AM side. When they got the FM license the Allen boys called it CFNY due to its frequency at 102.1. The license was originally granted to try and let Toronto have an FM frequency to hurt the Buffalo station at 102.5. They called themselves Rock 102.
In its most early days the CHIC sister station was operated on a turntable in the back corner of the AM station. Then it was moved a block up the street to a second little old house while the AM stayed in the first old house. Both places were painted an ugly baby shit yellow.
One final little known part of the early days of CFNY – originally both Don Shafer and I were hired to program the very early CFNY. In those days Don was in Vancouver. Then I received a call at my home telling me that the Allen brothers had changed their minds and I wasn’t wanted. I think Shafe decided to stay in Vancouver and I decided to challenge the Allen’s on their withdrawal. Soon there after they phoned me and said they had changed their minds yet again and would I please report to the station that day at 4 PM
The first day I arrived – John Morris was in the building along with Bruce Heyding. Also there was someone sitting at the reception desk. None of them had been advised that I was coming into the station to do a show and work as PD. When I introduced myself they were very surprised and I was scheduled to go on the air that evening – in fact in just a couple of hours. It was at that moment that I just about turned around and returned home. The station I had been at before was CHUM-FM so this was quite a shock.
However – something told me I had a reason to stay.
For those interested in even more detail please read on…
The control room was in a little bedroom of the house. The ceilings were not higher than six feet. The library was in a closet of the bedroom. The production room was in the other bedroom and the news booth was in the previous home bathroom.
In the very early days of the little house (I’ll scan a picture from a newspaper to you in the next couple of days) the music we played was stuff that others wouldn’t play. This included the very early AC DC, Ozzy and so on. When Slaight took Q-107 into Heavy Metal (at that time it was just called really hard rock and Gary
Last updated: Thursday, September 15, 2005
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David Marsden