2024 London Music Hall of Fame
inductee for Lifetime Achievement
Ian was born in Toronto, grew up
in Hamilton then made London Ontario his home. He came to study at Western
University thinking he would get a degree in Biochemistry.
In
his second year everything changed when he saw an ad in the Gazette newspaper
looking for people interested in starting a closed-circuit radio station on
campus. He answered the ad and became one of the 6 founding members of Radio
Western in the fall of 1970 which was heard only on campus over closed circuit
starting in early 1971. To encourage these fledgling broadcasters, management
of CFPL AM/FM offered the team a Saturday night slot on AM in the spring of
1971. After one show on AM, they decided the programming was better suited to
FM where they could be heard from midnight to 6am time slot seven days a week
for several years. Radio became Ian’s obsession and career. He was Radio
Western’s Music Director, then Program Director, and eventually Station Manager
in 1973. Ian never completed his university degree because of his dedication to
Radio Western and his newfound radio career.
Ian
was hired at CFPL-FM in the spring of 1971 as a board operator and worked at
CFPL-FM from 1971-81 … as Music Director, writer/producer, and announcer. His
radio shows on CFPL-FM included the After Five Show (easy listening), Night
Sounds (jazz) – alternate host with Janice Zolf, and MusiCanada
a weekly one-hour documentary on Canadian musicians. In all, Ian produced,
hosted, or wrote for 27 different programs while at CFPL-FM, while teaching
courses to first year radio students at Fanshawe College from 1978-1981 (Pop
Music History, and Radio Music Formats).
In
1981 Ian moved to become Program Director of the Windsor radio station CJOM-FM
which became known as OM-FM Lazer Rock. In the fall of 1993, Ian had the
opportunity to move back to London as the Director of Development for Orchestra
London, responsible for Corporate Donors, Individual Donors, Sponsorships and
Grants. Later, adding Sales Manager to his duties.
After
leaving Orchestra London in August 1999, Ian started his own business IDEA – an
acronym for Ian Davies Entertainment Agency … an independent concert promotions
& booking agency. He had a roster of about 15 different artists for several
years including legendary British guitarist John Renbourn, Scotland’s
Battlefield Band, Canadian folk icons Ron Hynes, and John Allan Cameron. Now
only one artist remains on Ian’s roster – Toronto-based classical/jazz group
Ensemble Vivant led by pianist Catherine Wilson. A major highlight was when
Catherine performed at Carnegie Hall as featured soloist with the New York Pops
under the baton of Skitch Henderson in April 2005.
Ian
went on to present nearly 200 independent concerts under the Acoustic Muse
Concerts banner at Aeolian Hall, London Music Club, Wolf Performance Hall,
Chaucer’s Pub, and other local venues.
In
addition to operating his own business, Ian worked as Programming &
Creative Coordinator for TD Sunfest for 5 ˝ years until the end of March 2020.
He became involved with Sunfest in 1997 when he was invited to join the board.
He is still involved with Sunfest as Special Projects Coordinator.
Ian
has been the volunteer Artistic Director of the Cuckoo’s Nest Folk Club which
presents folk and roots concerts at Chaucer’s Pub since 1994. Ian is currently
a board member of the Goderich Celtic Folk Society (Goderich Celtic Roots
Festival & College) and has been a volunteer there for over 30 years. Also,
Ian has been a big part of the Canadian Celtic Choir (since 1997) and London
Pro Musica Choir (since 2022) and works tirelessly to promote local music and
musicians.
Ian
founded the Ken Palmer High School Music Bursary in 2014 and since 2016
this program has awarded annual $1000 bursaries to graduating London & Area
high school music students who are going on to post-secondary music education
in Ontario. Please consider donating to support this valuable program.