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BY KURT HANSON
XM Radio announced the
hiring of 15 radio programmers yesterday, as it builds the team
that will be responsible for  launching
100 channels digital-quality satellite radio next spring.
The programming team will be based in XM's Washington, DC,
headquarters and programming center, which features 82 interconnected
end-to-end fiber-optic all-digital studios.
The hires announced by Lee Abrams, XM's Chief Programming
Officer, yesterday include Director of Talk Kevin Straley,
Director of News Irina Lallemand and Director of Channel
Production Dan Turner.
Here's an alphabetical list of the new programmers (along
with brief bios provided by XM):
| Ward
Cleaver will be the music director for XM's hard rock
channel. He comes to XM from WZTA-FM in Miami Beach, FL, where
he was an evening on-air personality on ZETA's "Red Eye Lounge." |
| Josh
Cunningham will be the music director of XM's 90s
channel. He is a former on-air personality at WNCI-FM/Columbus,
OH. Barely out of his teens, Josh is known for his encyclopedic
knowledge of 90's music. |
| Kenny
Curtis will program one of XM's children's channels.
He brings almost 10 years of experience creating radio shows
for families and children. Previously, Mr. Curtis was the host
and producer of a children's show on WBFF-TV/Baltimore, MD,
and a morning drive-time jock on WBIG-FM/Washington, DC, among
other metro-Washington, DC, radio stations. |
| Kurt
Gilchrist, who will program XM's 70s channel, has
served as director of programming, for radio stations Capstar's
Beaumont, TX, family of stations, KIOC/ KKMY/KLVI, and KYKR/Beaumont,
TX, and KHMX-FM/Houston, TX. |
| Irina
Lallemand joins XM as a Director of News Programming.
She comes to XM from one of the country's leading all-news radio
stations, New York City's WCBS-AM Newsradio 88, where she was
a News Director. |
| Rick
Lambert will program XM's classic alternative rock
channel. He was Director of Programming for OnRadio.com in Los
Angeles, CA. Prior to that, he spent seven years as Program
Director for Seattle, WA's KNDD-FM, "The End," the first and
only alternative station to achieve #1 ratings status. |
| Blake
Lawrence will oversee two of XM's dance channels.
He served as a program director at KKSF/San Francisco, CA and
is a former editor at Gavin Magazine, a commercial radio industry
publication. |
| Charlie
Logan will program one of XM's rock channels. He
was an on-air personality at WFYV-FM (Rock 105) in Jacksonville,
FL, and the web master for Cox Broadcasting's six station Jacksonville
cluster. He also worked at WLUP-FM/Chicago, IL, and has been
named Music Director of the Year three times by Billboard magazine.
|
| Mark
Parenteau will head up XM's comedy programming. He
comes to XM from New York City's WAXQ-FM "Q104" classic rock,
where he was the afternoon drive talent for two years. A well-known
Boston personality and comedy club owner, Mr. Parenteau was
the voice of afternoon drive for WBCN-FM/Boston, MA, "The Rock
of Boston" for nearly 20 years. |
| "Redbeard,"
the renowned Dallas, TX, radio personality, producer, celebrity
interviewer, will program one of XM's classic rock channels.
He is the creator, producer, writer and host for the nationally
syndicated weekly documentary In the Studio. Redbeard is featured
in The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. |
| Kevin
Straley will be XM's Director of Talk Programming.
As Program Director, he was the powerhouse who fueled Boston's
WRKO, widely known as one of America's most cutting-edge talk
stations. |
| Dan
Turner has been named Director of Channel Production.
He is responsible for production across all of XM's channels.
Mr. Turner is the former Senior Director for Programming Operations
at WorldSpace Corporation. His extensive radio operations background
includes Eastern Operations Manager and Program Director for
Children's Broadcasting Corporation in New York City and Operations
Manager for Capital Kids Radio Company/The Radio Zone in the
Washington, DC area. |
| Eddie
Webb, a well-known Chicago radio personality, will program
XM's hard rock channel. He joins XM after dominating
the afternoon drive-time on-air at rock stations WLUP-FM and
previously, WRCX-FM. He was the leading on-air rock personality
in Chicago. Matt Wolfe joins XM as a Production Director. He
was the national Production Director for Austin, TX, based GulfStar,
guiding the sound of more than 50 stations. |
| Sari
Zalesin, a classically trained pianist, will be the Music
Director and voice on one of XM's classical channels. She was
on-air talent for ABC's WXCD-FM in Chicago, IL. Previously,
she was also an on-air personality at KXPS-FM/Dallas, TX. |
XM
hopes to be available coast-to-coast for $9.95 beginning in
second quarter 2001. Its first satellite is scheduled to launch
in mid-November 2000.
 |
RAIN's
Summer interns have just added a cool "Mesasge boards"
feature to RAIN. If you're not familiar with message
board usage, click
here for a brief overview. (If you are, click here
to go directly to the boards.) |
From FMQB News: "Channel
103.1/Los Angeles (KACD-KBCD) officially launched their new
and improved  Web
site last Thursday (7/27) at L.A.’s House of Blues with a live,
streaming audio and video Webcast of the Indigo Girls.
"Meanwhile, the station has found a unique way to bypass
any Internet-only RIAA licensing issues by obtaining a terrestrial
home on KBET-AM/Thousand Oaks. The daytime-only signal can also
be heard in Calabassas and parts of Malibu. Three of the station’s
five streaming-media players are up and running at worldclassrock.com
or channel1031.com."
... |
...
This may save Clear Channel a few bucks on music licensing
rights, but I believe it's a really bad idea from a
marketing point of view.
WorldClassRock.com was going to be "the
first radio station that transitioned directly from the FM
band to become an Internet-only station."
Now it's just "a station that
got bumped from an FM
signal to an AM signal." (And like
thousands of other AM and FM stations, it happens to have
a webcast. Big deal.)
...
|
| Click
here
for last week's RAIN story on the subject. |
...
Discuss this topic on the new RAIN Message Boards!
Click here
for a brief overview on how to use them or here
to go directly to the boards.
... |
Radio, research execs form ‘Net
In Focus’
From R&R Online: Edison Media Research’s Larry Rosin
and Joe Lenski and former AMFM/Omaha  GM
Donn Seidholz created the company, which conducts in-person
focus groups to test all aspects of website usability. Seidholz
is CEO of the venture, whose current clients include CNN, the History
Channel and Delta Airlines. Seidholz says the company is in discussions
to perform focus groups for "several large radio groups exclusively."
Look
for more details on this venture later this week in RAIN!
Reprinted
from yesterday's edition:
 Read
Part Two of an insightful guest essay on how the record
industry should respond to this new era as heralded by Napster,
by RAIN reader Bob Bellin, here.
(Scroll to the top of the page to read Part One, as posted in RAIN
on Friday.)
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