Remembering David Dalton

• Late last week we were deeply saddened to learn about the passing of a man who helped make an indelible mark on our careers — and in doing so, set us on a path that lead directly to the publication you are now reading. David Dalton, the former CEO of the late, legendary Gavin Report in San Francisco, recently passed away at his home in Norfolk, England.

We learned of David’s death from a story in Music Week, a major UK-based music industry publication that he edited from 1985 and 1990. Dalton later launched Music Business International before moving to San Francisco to head up The Gavin Report.

It was at Gavin, in 1998, that David hired Steve Resnik to do sales, and hired me as Top 40 Editor, succeeding industry icon Dave Sholin. It was under Dalton’s leadership that we began to have serious conversations on how trade publications — and Gavin specifically — could better serve an industry that was rapidly outgrowing its increasingly outmoded “weekly” model. To that end, Gavin launched a daily news fax(!) publication, which they dubbed “gmail” [Ed. note: how we wish we could have locked down that name at the time!]. Sadly, the Gavin publication shut down in early 2002, but, based on the independent success of gmail, which had evolved to an email publication, Steve and I were able to take that concept over to R&R, where it was rebranded as Street Talk Daily and enjoyed even greater success for the next seven years.

And in a case of history repeating itself, when R&R closed its doors in 2009, we adapted that daily concept yet again when we launched RAMP, which in 2019 celebrates its 10th year of service — and we have David Dalton to thank for it. Dalton is survived by his wife, Julia and son, Harry. [Thank you to my longtime friend and former Gavin colleague Annette Lai for sharing this 1993 photo of her, David and Sting backstage at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre]