Longtime music journalist David Farrell, the co-founder of industry publications The Record and FYI Music News, has passed away. He was 73.
Billboard Canada announced Farrell’s passing on their website Thursday morning. Billboard acquired FYI Music News last year, with Farrell staying on as a contributor. He had been living in New Brunswick for the past few years and was set to retire at the end of this year.
Farrell was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award during Canadian Music Week (CMW) in June, recognizing his more than five-decade career covering the music and broadcast industry. He had previously been inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.
Born on Vancouver Island, Farrell – the son of two journalists – started his career in the late 1960s, inspired after a backstage experience following a The Who show at The Rockpile in Toronto. That led to syndicated segments with CHUM Radio and newspapers across the country. He went on to become the Billboard correspondent for Canada. Following the closure of trade industry weekly, RPM, in the early 1980s, Farrell started The Record, a go-to for chart information. He navigated the music industry’s upheaval through the digital age, before advertisers dried up. The Record employed a staff of eight full-time before it was shuttered in 2001 after a 20-year run.
Broadcasting executive Gary Slaight underwrote Farrell’s next venture, FYI Music News, which covered the Canadian music industry for 15 years, starting in 2008. The publication’s archive remains accessible via Billboard Canada.
“You really have to be able to be observant of opportunity when it arises, because it’s fleeting,” Farrell told Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast in May. “If you grab that and you have a zest for life and you love what you’re doing…the music business as a whole – there are just so many characters…some are rascals, some are loveable, but just an extraordinary panoply of people…and many are entrepreneurs. If you’ve got an original idea, run with it. Run with it as hard and as fast as you can.”
Listen to Farrell’s episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast here:
