Tributes paid to radio professional Fred Marden

Radio presenter, producer, executive, and lecturer Fred Marden has died at the age of 55.

Fred has worked in radio his whole life after attending Swansea University where he became Station Manager of the student radio station.

During his career, he was a presenter at County Sound, MFM and BBC Southern Counties, and spent almost 20 years at Eagle Radio.

He was also Programme Controller at Star FM and Lantern FM, and held many positions sharing his love of radio in Education, including spells as Head of the School of Media at the Farnborough College of Technology and Head of Radio at the University of Sunderland where he was also Station Manager at Spark.

He also ran Farnborough Airshow Radio and was a Visiting Tutor at the City of Westminster College.

In more recent months, he signed up to host shows on Radio Biscuit.

They announced his sad death today and paid tribute, saying “All of us here at Radio Biscuit are deeply saddened to hear about the loss of our friend and colleague @fredmarden in the early hours of this morning.

“He was a lovely, funny, talented, gentle man who will be sorely missed by all who knew him and our listeners. Rest easy Fred….”

His colleague and friend Peter Gordon added: “A friend to many, and, for some of us, for a long time. Both on the radio & personally. In our last conversation, just yesterday, we shared a joke. We nearly always did. He was the model of vibrancy. One of life’s contributors. Thank you Fred. Rest well chum.”

Fred also loved dogs. The photo above shows him with Bruce, an elderly rescue from Ireland who Fred delivered to his new home in France, via his friend Debbie Buxcey Bsya in London who runs a voluntary organisation dedicated to the work of rescuing and homing retired greyhounds.

Debbie also paid tribute: “In deep shock here over the passing of my friend Frederick Jude Marden. Will miss his hilarious stories on-air and his phone calls to check on the hounds. A new star will be shining brightly tonight.”

Rest in peace, Fred.