Musical Chairs: June 23
MOLLOY, KENNEDY, SNARE TRIPLE M DRIVE
After months of speculation, Mick Molly and Jane Kennedy are confirmed to host Triple M’s national drive show. It starts in Melbourne in October and the rest of the country in January.
The pair worked together on Triple M’s The D Generation and on ABC-TV’s The Late Show.
Molloy has spent the last seven years on Melbourne’s The Hot Breakfast.
RICHARD MOFFAT, CHELSEA WILSON, JOIN MUSIC VICTORIA BOARD
Richard Moffat and Chelsea Wilson have joined the Music Victoria board, as Chrissie Vincent and Cat McGauran finish off their terms.
Moffat has booked venues including The Punters Club, The Corner Hotel, 170 Russell, Shebeen and Sydney’s Newtown Social Club.
He’s also curated festivals, presents breakfast on Triple R, founded record label Way Over There and edited music monthly Form Guide.
Wilson is a singer, DJ and producer who’s also served as a presenter on Melbourne’s 3PBS and London’s Mi-Soul London.
Her other stints include Concert and Events Licensing Representative at APRA|AMCOS, Music Manager at PBS and currently Artistic Director of Stonnington Jazz Festival and Music Programmer of Brunswick Music Festival.
She also curates the ’Women of Soul’ performance series and chairs the Musicians Advisory Panel for Music Victoria.
LOCHLAN WATT NEW EVP RECORDINGS A&R, LABEL MANAGER
Lochlan Watt, long time host of Triple R’s The Racket, is new Label Manager/A&R for EVP Recordings. The metal imprint is part of Melbourne label services and distribution company Rocket, and home to Behemoth, King Parrot and Psycroptic.
Watt’s first signing to the label is Melbourne rock & roll outfit Pagan, winners of this year’s triple j Unearthed UNIFY competition. Their debut album, produced by Mike Deslandes (High Tension, The Nation Blue) is due early 2018.
Watt will also work with recent local Rocket label acquisition Human Warfare and their debut release of the forthcoming Thy Art Is Murder album –a band he is no stranger to, having toured the world with them on vocal duties in 2016.
BEN LATIMER TAKES ON SMOOTHFM PD DUTIES
NOVA Entertainment has brought in Ben Latimer(right) as smoothfm’s Program Director while Georgie Page is away on maternity leave from July 21.
He held EP and CD roles for Australian Radio Network in Sydney and Adelaide. He worked with Nova in TV gigs including Group Program Manager for Max and smoothfm TV.
Most recently, Latimer was Head of On-Demand at Foxtel, where he was responsible for all on-demand content on the platform and oversaw editorial on all devices for almost three years.
UK’S AIM GETS NEW CHAIR
18-year-old UK trade body the Association of Independent Music (AIM) appointed Tim Dellow as its Chairperson. Dellow is co-founder of Transgressive Records.
A new management group is also set up to help Dellow and CEO Paul Pacifico in their roles.
The board includes Martin Mills of Beggars Group, Peter Quicke of Ninja Tune, Jane Third of Because Music and Hannah Overton of Secretly Group.
SCA’S SARAH MICHAEL LEAVES AFTER SIX WEEKS
Southern Cross Austereo’s move to introduce a digital news strategy in its newsrooms by bringing in Sarah Michael as Digital News Editor had a problem.
Six weeks into the appointment, the one-time Daily Mail Deputy Editor quit and went to Yahoo.
HOPPER EXITS MTV
Veteran music journo Jessica Hopper has exited MTV News, where she was editorial director for music, and joined the team at Spotify Originals as a senior producer.
BMI PROMOTES TWO
As part of a restructuring of its writer/publisher department, BMI elevated Alison Smith to EVP of distribution, publisher relations and administration services and Mike Steinberg to EVP of creative and licensing.
WILCO TAKES VOICE TO CANBERRA MIX
Neil ’Wilco’ Wilcock is new breakfast co-announcer at MIX 106.3 Canberra. He starts alongside Kristen Henry on Monday June 28.
Wilcock is voiceover man for Seven, Ten and 9Go! and replaces Rod Cuddihy, who is now Content Director of Hit 104.7 and MIX 106.3, and nominated him for the job.
Born in Newcastle, Wilcock started at 17 in radio in Alice Springs and went on to work in Adelaide, the Gold Coast and the NSW Central Coast.
E7LG EXPANDS TO UK, EUROPE
Hard rock label Eleven Seven Label Group (E7LG) has expanded to offices in the UK (under Dan Waite) and Germany (under Victor Lang and Isabel Schwankl).
E7LG is home to Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach, Nothing More, Escape The Fate, Sixx:A.M. and HELLYEAH as well as Five Finger Death Punch outside of the U.S.
CHANGES AT NOVA MELBOURNE
After five years at Nova Melbourne’s newsroom, Matt Smithson has moved out to City of Melbourne in a media and communications role.
Ashleigh Gardner moves from drive to breakfast, while one-time SEN News Director James Royce returns from a stint on the Gold Coast for SCA.
CHANGE OF CHAIR AT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL
Deanne Weir is new Chair of Sydney Film Festival, replacing Chris Freeland who stepped down from the role after eight years. A partner at Baker McKenzie, he remains on the board.
Weir has 25 years’ experience in media and communications and is Foxtel’s Managing Director, Content Aggregation and Wholesale. She is also a television producer and philanthropist whose passion is to support the advancement of women in the community.
This year the festival set a new attendance record, drawing almost 185,000 and averaging a 72% capacity in all sessions.
STOTT TO JUNKEE MEDIA
Junkee Media appointed BuzzFeed News Editor of the past two years, Rob Stott, as Managing Editor of Junkee and new Gen Z-focused titlePunkee.
His predecessor,Darren Levin, left Junkee Media after 8 ½ years, including stints as editor of Mess+Noise and FasterLouder (now Music Junkee).
RED FM NEW BREKKIE CO-PRESENTER
Red FM launches its new breakfast team on July 19, with Robbie Klitzing joined by Alana McLean who had that shift at Star 1063 Townsville.
COFFEE O’CLOCK ON HIATUS
After 4 ½ years as drive show on Life FM Adelaide, The Coffee O’Clock team is being rested. Sharon Smith has left the station, while with Jayne Lochert has an afternoon on-air role and also does promotions.
THREE VETERANS JOIN ROYALTY BOARD
US-based online music rights marketplace Royalty Exchange, which has just got $6.4 million funding as part of its expansion, has brought in three industry vets to its board.
They are Jeff King (COO, SOCAN) high profile artist manager Bill Silva and songwriter Travis Hill, who’s penned hits for Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney.
EDITORIAL CHANGES AT MUMBRELLA
Media and marketing title Mumbrella has gone through an editorial shuffle.
Technology commentator Paul Wallbank is new News Editor and Josie Tutty is Features Editor.
Alex Hayes, head of Mumbrella’s paid content arm Bespoke, will take on the expanded role of Publisher – Live and Bespoke. He also oversees content for Mumbrella’s conferences and awards.
The company is scouting a new Head of Event Content and a new Bespoke Editor.
NOWAK AT NETS
Curator and gallery manager Mardi Nowak has landed the role of Director at National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria.
NEW EXECUTIVE FOR QSO
Come Monday July 10, Matthew Hodge starts as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
SEAN PARKER EXITS SPOTIFY BOARD AFTER SEVEN YEARS
Napster co-founder and former Facebook President, Sean Parker, has left the Spotify board. He came on in 2010 when he invested US$15 million for a 5% stake.
Joining the board are former Disney COO Tom Staggs; former YouTube product head Shishir Mehrotra; Cristina Stenbeck, owner of the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik; and Padmasree Warrior, who heads the US office of Chinese electric carmaker NextEV.
All these changes are assumed to be one step closer to Spotify’s listing on the New York stock exchange. It is valued at $3.3 billion. Last week, it was revealed that the Swedish company generated revenues of $3. 3 billion in 2016, but recorded a net loss of nearly $600 million.