David Marsden, CFNY program director and Canadian music champion, dies at 85
· Toronto Sun
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
Visit een-wit.pl for more information.
David Marsden, the man who pioneered the original CFNY and guided the Toronto station through its “Spirit of Radio” years, has died. He was 85.
Marsden “put on his wings” on Friday, according to his obituary, and will be remembered as a “brilliant, innovative broadcaster and steadfast champion of new and independent Canadian music.”
David Marsden, a beloved voice in Canadian radio, has died; his influential years at CFNY in the 1980s helped define Toronto’s alternative music scene and the station’s legendary Spirit of Radio era. pic.twitter.com/sB0VvLEbbV
— 102.1 The Edge (@the_edge) September 28, 2026
Marsden was born David Michie on March 2, 1941, in Toronto and raised in Stratford, where his interest in music and radio took hold early, producing local “sock hops” as a teen and managing a band called The Revols.
He already had an extensive radio career by the time he started at CFNY in 1979, where he transformed the struggling rock station into a space for alternative music to shine, even inspiring the Rush song bearing the Spirit of Radio title.
Launched Iceberg Media in 1999
Marsden remained with the station through 1988 before he moved to Vancouver to work on TV (though he later brought the “Spirit of Radio” format to Vancouver’s CKST-AM in the early ‘90s.)
Around the same time, his former home at CFNY went through another transition after station owner Maclean-Hunter was acquired by Rogers Communications in 1994. CFNY was sold to Shaw Communications as part of the acquisition and eventually became 102.1 The Edge, as it exists today.
Marsden returned to Toronto to launch Iceberg Media in 1999, Canada’s first online radio hub, before hosting The Marsden Theatre at Oshawa’s CKGE-FM for more than a decade in the 2000s.
He went on to create NYthespirit.com, continuing the free-form tradition that defined his career.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame member
Marsden’s contributions to broadcasting were formally recognized with his induction into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame.
He is also one of only two Canadians in the “Dear Mr. DJ” exhibit at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and was Canada’s voice for the international radio broadcast of Live Aid in 1985.
Marsden will be remembered as a kind, introspective and passionate leader whose commitment to new ideas and supporting new Canadian talent will be missed, his obituary said.
The NYthespirit.com team said it remained committed to keeping David’s vision alive and the station will “continue to broadcast in his honour, maintaining the independent musical ethos he championed his entire life,” his obituary said.
Details regarding a public celebration of life will be announced in the coming months.