David Dalle was introduced to CKCU FM by his father who would regularly tune in. They both had a strong fondness for music. David’s interest led him to become a Carleton University Music program student, and since he was on the campus, he decided to volunteer with the station. He soon began hosting music programming for overnight programs, and in 1994 he moved on to producing and hosting his own live program, The David Dalle Show, that airs every Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm. His love of classical music quickly expanded to experimental, industrial tunes, which then led him down a rabbit hole of discovering and spinning tracks from around the world.
“Music is infinite – it’s endless, there’s so much of it. So that’s why I’ve been doing it for 30 years, but I feel like I’ve barely touched the surface of music,” he said. After being on the air for 30 years, Dalle says that discovering the wide range of music he plays on his program allows him to learn more about the major difficulties and history of the state of the world. “I want to be a great champion of multiculturalism. In music, you can see that people are the same everywhere, basically at heart, and they express so many of the same things in music but it’s using different means, instruments, and music theory.”
The David Dalle Show is one of the longest running ones at CKCU, and he admits that throughout his time as a radio host, he has grown and learnt a lot since he first started as a university student. “I’m glad that my programming from 25 years ago was not preserved because I’d be embarrassed about it now,” he joked.
Aside from sharing his love of multicultural music with his listeners, Dalle also has a passion for sheep herding with his Old English sheepdogs. He talked about how his first dog went on to compete in the Agility Association of Canada’s Nationals in 2016 and won 5th place. “My life is music and dogs right now!”
Dalle is still eager to discover more music and share it on CKCU’s airwaves. His show’s main theme of “unity in diversity” through the music he shares is what connects him with his listeners. “I found that in [the past] 30 years, the world seems to be going into kind of a darker path… I want to counter that as much as possible.”
– Audrey Pridham