Musical Chairs: January 20

Hazel Savage relocates to Singapore for Guvera

10-year veteran of the digital music industryHazel Savage, previously of Shazam, Pandora, Universal and The X Studio, has relocated to Singapore to take up a role with Guvera.

After four-and-a-half years in Australia Savage is now the Gold Coast-founded streaming service’s Head Of Marketing Asia, working across six territories: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong & Vietnam.

Savage told TMN: “I am excited to be working in music streaming in some phenomenal emerging markets – the opportunities in this region for Guvera are what drew me to the role.”

Savage’s roles in Australia includeMarketing Manager/Music Industry Relations Managerat Pandora andContent Manager/Online Producerat Universal Music.

Executive sales changes at SCA …

At Southern Cross Austereo, Ivan Curic joined as Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations from Nine Entertainment Sydney where he was Sales Director.

Andrea Salmon takes over as Head of Radio Sales in March, Melbourne, bringing 20 years print media experience including ACP (now Bauer Media Group) and Murdoch Magazines/ Pacific Magazines.

… and at ARN

Dave La Pouple is new Sydney Sales Director – Direct with Australian Radio Network. He was previously its Account Manager, Sales Manager and General Sales Manager for WSFM, and has also worked in newspapers at News Ltd and as General Manager of regional radio sales company TRSN.

Changes at Triple M Brisbane

Content Director Corey Kay will depart Triple M Brisbane. He’s headed to the Gold Coast to take up a role as Content Director of both Sea FM and Gold FM.

Andrew Very will continue at the Gold Coast Media Centre, as Assistant Content Director/Music Director of Gold FM.

Stepping into Kay’s role is David Rymer, who will be returning to Triple M after many years and, most recently, programmingHot Tomato on the GC. Rymer’s history with Southern Cross Austereo began at the conversion of 4BK to B105 in 1990 and thenagain to re-launch Triple M Brisbane in 2005.He’s also worked previously at Triple M Sydney, Fox FM, 2Day FM, 92.9 and FM104.7 in Canberra.

Rymer will start late February.

The Weeknd’s co-managers join Maverick

The Weeknd’s co-managers Tony Sal and Amir Esmailian of Toronto-based XO joined Live Nation’s management consortium Maverick. It is headed by U2 and Madonna manager Guy Oseary. Billboard heard Maverick co-founder Gee Roberson, who looks after Nicki Minaj, was instrumental in bringing the pair in.

Star A&R talent Nick Huggett at Parlophone

Nick Huggett, the A&R chief who signed Adele, M.I.A and Dizzee Rascal, is now Senior A&R Manager at Parlophone UK, part of the Warner Group. Huggett was working in a London record store when he met James Lavelle, head of electronica/hip-hop label Mo’Wax who gave him a gig in its A&R department. When it closed in 2002, he moved to sister label XL where he inked the above named artists. After two years at Columbia, he shifted to Island UK which created a special A&R role for him in 2009 and where he discovered Rizzle Kicks, Alex Clare and Elli Ingram.

Rob Scott joins Music Sales

Radio veteran and Source Music founder Rob Scott has joined Music Sales Australia & New Zealand as its Creative Manager. Scott will head up the company’s Rights division, developing new local publishing entity, Embassy Music Publishing.

Managing Director of Music Sales/Embassy Music Publishing, Jane English, said: “I have regularly bumped into Rob at music festivals, music conferences and other music events over the years. We always talk music, artists, songwriters and the music business. Rob is the perfect person to head up the Rights division of the company: experienced, passionate, knowledgeable, entrepreneurial, connected, respected.”

New A&R chief at Capitol Music Group

Capitol Music Group appointed Nate Albert as new Executive Vice President of A&R. Albert was guitarist with Boston ska band Mighty Mighty Bosstones, best known for 1997’s hit The Impression That I Get. He was also a long time exec at Republic Records, where his signings included Canada’s The Weeknd.

New Friday show for ABC Melbourne

774 ABC Melbourne’s latest program is The Friday Revue, presented by Richelle Hunt & Brian Nankervis each Friday from 1-3pm. It debuts on January 29, looking back at the week and at the weekend ahead with chats, guests, live music, comedy and news snippets. Given RocKwiz identity Nankervis’ status as top quizmaster, there’ll also be a quiz but with a difference, we are assured.

Thornback fills in at triple j

Inertia’s Marketing Director Pam Thornback is heading to triple j, filling in when Marketing Manager Fiona Lake goes on 12 months’ maternity leave from March.

David McClung back at Nova 937 Perth

David McClung was back at Nova 937 Perth this week, again as Music Director, replacing Josh McCabe. A new Assistant Music Director is announced soon.

New names at AdNews

AdNews expanded its four-person editorial team with two appointments. Arvind Hickman will focus on media and work across online and print. He spent eight years in the UK working in the trade media as journalist and editor.

Lindsay Bennett a recent graduate from Macquarie University, joined as cadet journalist and editorial coordinator.

Chrissy Arthur at top job at ABC Capricornia

Chrissy Arthur is new Chief of Staff for ABC Capricornia and also heard on air on weekdays from 10 am to 11 am.

Wolfgram heads to Townsville

Jason Wolfgram moves to Townsville to take over on January 27 as Content Director of Grants Broadcasters’ stations 1063 and Zinc 100.7. He was at 4CC in Gladstone, Central Queensland, until January 15.

Rehage out at Live Nation

Steve Rehage is no longer at Live Nation where he was President of North American festivals. He assumed the role after selling Live Nation in 2013 a majority 51% share in New Orleans’ Voodoo Music Experience festival which he founded 17 years ago. He’s still involved in the festival.

Lizzy King quits radio for turf

Lizzy King quit 4GR Toowoomba where she co-hosted breakfast for five years, to become Business Development Manager at the Toowoomba Turf Club.

Bezyan, Duncan, helm Comedy Central website

Viacom International Media Networks, which operates MTV and Nickelodeon in Australia, has launched a local version of the US brand Comedy Central. It will broadcast US content and also commission local productions.

Helming comedycentral.com.au from VIMN headquarters in East Sydney is Digital Editor Cyrus Bezyan, a Sydney comedian who was part of the ABC’s Fresh Blood comedy initiative and a finalist in the 2014 Raw Comedy competition. Joshua Duncan is Comedy Central Digital Manager. Both report to Simon Bates, Head of MTV & Comedy Central, Australia & New Zealand.

New CD for Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival

High profile indigenous arts figure – dancer, choreographer, puppeteer and playwright Jacob Boehme – will be Creative Director of the 2017 Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival. The Melbourne-born and based artist is a descendant of the Narangga and Kaurna nations of South Australia.

TV Week’s Erin McWhirter at Foxtel magazine

Former Acting Editor of TV Week, TV and entertainment journalist Erin McWhirter now edits Foxtel magazine which has a readership of 800,000. As film and TV Editor at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, McWhirter relaunched the weekly film lift-out and led the redesign of the Switched On TV guide.

New Communications Director for Netflix

US video streaming service Netflix hired its first Communications Director, Jessica Lee, for the Asia Pacific region, including Australian and New Zealand. Currently holding that role at McDonalds in China, Lee returns to her home country Singapore for her new responsibilities.

Netflix is expanding into 130 new territories and will add Arabic, Korean, and simplified and traditional Chinese characters to the 17 languages the service already supports. Netflix launched in March 2015, and has an estimated 2.7 million Australian users.

Tony Bartlett settles in at Hot Tomato

Tony Bartlett began as News Director at Hot Tomato Gold Coast earlier this month. He was previously with AAP in Sydney and Brisbane, and worked as News Director on the Gold Coast. Last year Hot Tomato won all three ratings and Executive Chairman Hans Torv emailed staff just before Christmas to say, “The sales team has just delivered a record revenue month for December.”