David Ferrell Jackson
Founder and Executive Director Emeritus
The Bay Area Radio Museum & Hall of Fame
David Ferrell Jackson grew up listening to Bay Area radio during its “second golden age,” when many of the greatest stations and personalities were at their height during the 1960s through the 1980s.
While he was still a teenager, he launched Bay Area Radio Digest – The BARD – which featured schedules for each of the Bay Area’s AM and FM stations, interviews with local radio personalities, and the latest news and information on what was happening in broadcasting in the region.
And then came the internet, which essentially rendered obsolete a print magazine about local radio…
David Jackson, along with his cousin Jason Jackson, later transitioned The BARD online and expanded it – through Jason’s hard work – into numerous other markets around the United States.
Leaving The BARD in Jason’s capable hands, David continued his career in printing and publishing with the nation’s largest paper distributor and in the aerospace film industry … but what to do with all the radio memorabilia he collected over the years – all the photos, documents, airchecks, bumper stickers and other ephemera that was simply collecting dust in storage?
The answer was simple: create an online museum where visitors could listen to classic recordings of their favorite personalities and stations, and read about the history of Bay Area radio – The Birthplace of Broadcasting!
The creation of the Bay Area Radio Museum led to an alliance with the long-established California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) and the Broadcast Legends, which culminated in the first Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (BARHOF) ceremony in 2006.
Since the early 2000s, the Bay Area Radio Museum has grown exponentially, with hundreds of pages of historical articles, recordings, and features on Bay Area radio personalities and stations.
Now merged into the California Historical Radio Society, the Bay Area Radio Museum & Hall of Fame is now housed in CHRS’ magnificent Radio Central facility near downtown Alameda, which includes much of the radio museum’s archives as well as the BARHOF gallery, and is poised to maintain its position as the finest local broadcasting museum in the United States.
A enthusiastic and tireless researcher of Bay Area broadcasting history, David Jackson was named a Fellow in History by CHRS in 2011, and was the 2007 recipient of their Charles D. ‘Doc’ Herrold Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Preservation and Documentation of Early Radio. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the Broadcast Legends since 2008, and received their Legend of the Year award – The Myrna – in 2009.
In addition to producing and presenting nearly every BARHOF induction ceremony during its first dozen years, Jackson has presented countless presentations on Bay Area radio history for the Broadcast Legends and other local organizations throughout the region.
Jackson currently resides just outside of the Bay Area – but close enough to continue to write numerous articles and curate the radio museum’s online collection. He and his wife, Debbie, are the parents of two sons and have been married for more than thirty years; they met while working in the printing and packaging industry, and continue to own and operate two affiliated businesses (one in printing, one in packaging).
In addition to his “real job,” Jackson has programmed KOMY/1340 (Santa Cruz/Watsonville) for Michael Zwerling and KMPH/840 (Modesto) for Harry Pappas, and launched the very successful online “tribute stations” Classic 1260 KYA – Golden Gate Great Oldies with Gary Mora – and Classic KABL 960 with Bill Moen, as well as the whimsical (and mythical) KWPX Cowpoke Country Radio, broadcasting from Banta, Calif., in the Heart of the San Joaquin Valley.