Darryl Morden
March 14, 1958 – February 25, 2011
Darryl Morden was a music journalist whose media included radio, print, television and the internet. Over the course of his career, his features could be found in such respected outlets as the Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Buzzine, examiner.com, and Launch/Yahoo. At one point, Morden was the head writer and producer of American Top 4o with Casey Kasem, and later Shadoe Stevens. He also created, produced and edited the World Chart Show, the first of its kind dedicated to world-wide audience. Darryl Morden died of cancer on February 25, 2011.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums
Irwin Sibler was a music journalist and longtime editor of Sing Out! magazine. Co-founded by Sibler in 1950, the quarterly publication is one of the most respected folk music magazines in the world. Sibler acted as editor from its inception until 1967. The magazine and Sibler’s pieces were largely responsible for the folk revival of the ’50s and ’60s. After leaving the magazine, Sibler became more politically outspoken, becoming an editor and movie critic for the radical weekly, The Guardian. He also launched Paredon Records where he released albums that spoke for the radical liberation movement of the ’70s. Irwin Sibler was 85 when he passed away on September 8, 2010.
A man of many hats, Tony Wilson is best remembered as co-owner of Factory Records, home the one-time home of Joy Division, New Order and OMD. He also owned The Hacienda, which became the epicenter of the Manchester music scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Before his foray into music, Wilson was a journalist and BBC television peronaility, most notably hosting So It Goes and After Dark. Suffering from advance stages of renal cancer, Wilson, age 57, died of a heart attack in a Manchester hospital.
Alan Lomax was an ethnomusicologist who, like his sister, 
Harvey Pekar is best remembered as an underground comic book writer whose autobiographical American Splendor series inspired the critically acclaimed film of the same name. Paul Giamatti portrayed Pekar in the movie. But Pekar was also a jazz music lover and critic whose essays appeared in some of the most respected periodicals in North America and were often read on NPR radio. He primarily focused on jazz’s golden age, but also found room to highlight some of the music’s more experimental artists like Fred Frith and 
Timothy White was a respected but at times controversial music journalist who started as an AP writer but went on to be editor of the Crawdaddy! the ’70s, senior editor of Rolling Stone in the ’80s, and finally, editor-in-chief of Billboard in the ’90s. He also wrote a handful of popular music biographies, his subjects being the Beach Boys, James Taylor and 
Steven Wells was a British music journalist whose aggressive writings appeared in respected music magazines like NME. During the late ’70s and early ’80s, he touted the greatness of such punk acts as Black Flag and Butthole Surfers and the Mekons. For a time, Wells was also a stand-up comic, supporting such acts as Gang Of Four and the Fall. In 1992, Wells co-formed a video production company, directing videos for the likes of Manic Street Preachers and Skunk Anansie. Steven Wells died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 48.
Born in Queens, Barry Lederer, started his DJ career while attending college in upstate New York. It was there that began throwing parties, entertaining guests with tapes he made from the radio. Lederer moved back to New York City after college and started hanging out a club called the Firehouse. After complaining to management about the music being played, he was given a shot at putting his money where his mouth was. Before long, he was drawing crowds of as many as 1500 on weekends. He soon became a popular draw at the gay clubs throughout New York’s Fire Island. Lederer also wrote a Disco column in Billboard magazine during the hieght of the era. He passed away of heart disease on May 31, 2008.
William D. Littleford entered the publishing business in 1934 when he joined the staff of Billboard magazine, which his grandfather founded in 1894. Starting as an apprentice, Littleford became GM in 1943, and then President and CEO in 1958. He stayed in that position until the magazine was sold in the mid ’80s, afterwhich he was appointed Chairman Emeritus. He passed away in his home at the age of 94.
The Music's Over 