Berkeley's pioneering listener-supported radio station, KPFA, presents its annual Grateful Dead fund-raising marathon on Saturday, January 31, 2015 from 9:00 am to 1:00 am. Host David Gans and co-host Tim Lynch promise a bounty of unreleased music from the Grateful Dead archive, highlights of live performances that have happened on Dead to the World over the past years, and live in-studio musical surprises (musicians TBA) from the KPFA Performance Studio. Just imagine sixteen hours of non-stop musical fun!!
David Gans is celebrating 30 years in radio broadcasting! His first radio program was broadcast live February 18th, 1985 on The KFOG Deadhead Hour. For the past 30 years, David has produced radio programs that deliver insightful, intriguing and compelling interviews and musical selections that confirm him as a well-known expert in Grateful Dead history and culture. He has produced a nationally-syndicated radio program, The Grateful Dead Hour, since the mid-'80s, and he has been a programming consultant and on-air host on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead Channel since its inception in 2007. He has published three books on the subject and has produced several important boxed sets and compilations of Dead-related music. He has hosted a weekly program (known as Dead to the World since 1995) on KPFA since 1990.
Gans is a KPFA listener as well as a KPFA programmer. He has served on KPFA's Local Station Board for several years and is active in station governance. "I am as passionate about the importance of community radio as I am about the music I play in my two unsupervised hours of air time. I see this annual marathon as a gift of service to both the station and to the listening community, and I am deeply thankful to the Dead organization and the Garcia family for the opportunity to broadcast unreleased music from their archives."
In the weeks leading up to the 2015 marathon, as in 2014, Gans will auction desirable Grateful Dead memorabilia via the Facebook page of his weekly program Dead to the World (https://www.facebook.com/dttw.kpfa). The auction items will be announced shortly in an upcoming press release.
