Musical Chairs: September 14

POLLY GOODCHILD JOINS SMOOTHFM

NOVA Entertainment appointed Polly Goodchild as Integration & Marketing Director for Smoothfm Sydney effective October 4. Her brief is to build and develop “collaborative relationships with all stakeholders, delivering effective and innovative integrated promotions and marketing solutions for clients and the station, and assisting smoothfm to achieve revenue and ratings goals.”

With 14 years’ media experience, Goodchild was most recently Integration Manager at Australian Radio Network, leading the Sydney and Brisbane teams.

NEW MD FOR UNIVERSAL’S COMMERCIAL DIVISION

David Hawkes, who was 14 years at Island Records, most recently as its GM, is the new head of Universal Music UK’s Commercial division. He replaces Brian Rose who moved to Apple.

Since 2014 Hawkes has also been Group Director of e-commerce. This promotion sees him add sales, central digital and audience research and planning to his responsibilities.

SCA MAKES CHANGES TO REGIONAL MANAGEMENT

Southern Cross Austereo’s Head of Regional Media, Rick Lenarcic, has made some changes to the network’s regional operations.

NSW Regional General Manager Ashley Myatt will also be responsible for the Northern NSW television and radio markets. The move places a greater focus on Newcastle and Gosford, SCA’s second and third largest regional radio revenue markets.

Rod Winner, who oversees Victoria and South Australia, becomes Southern Regional General Manager which includes the Southern NSW region.

In Victoria, Jason Priestley becomes GM Central and Western Victoria, handling Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton. Additionally, Steve Hetherton becomes Sales Director in Shepparton.

Queensland Regional Manager Tim Davenport takes on extra duties managing the Gold Coast hub. Former APN South East Queensland Manager Ken Wood moves over to SCA as North Queensland GM overseeing Cairns, Townsville and Mackay.

DEEZER EXPANDS UK, IRELAND, CONTENT

Deezer, which TMN reported earlier this week has moved ownership from France to UK-based Access Industries, is expanding in that part of the world. It created the new role of Head of Content & Editorial UK & Ireland, and brought in Time Out London’s Head of Digital Content, Roman Tagoe, to fill it. He will focus on making Deezer’s music, talk and live content more unique than its rivals.

DIGITAL OFFICER FOR AEG LIVE

AEG Live, one of the largest live music companies in the world and has a presence in Australia, tapped Brooke Kain to serve in the newly created position of Chief Digital Officer. His heading of its digital operations “ensure that the company has a coordinated digital media strategy across its many music brands, events and properties.”

DOLLY DIAMOND TO AD MELBOURNE CABARET FEST

High profile cabaret performer and drag queen Dolly Diamond is the Artistic Director for the 2017 Melbourne Cabaret Festival (June 20 to July 2). “What a long overdue honour,” she exclaimed. UK-born Diamond has been involved as an artist with the festival since her arrival in Australia in 2009, and says part of her vision is to unearth a lot of new acts from the cabaret underground.

FIRST COO FOR BPI

The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has created a role of Chief Operating Officer to develop its commercial activities and to be responsible for its day-to-day operational and financial affairs.

MJ Olaore, COO at market research company Firefish for the past five years, takes over that position from November 1.

TOM FUREY EXITS 2PK

Tom Furey has presented his last radio show at 2PK/ROK FM Parkes in NSW. He also worked at Hill FM/2BH in Broken Hill and Flow FM in South Australia.

SHARAV D’SILVA HEADS NEW WARNER IMPRINT 2TE

UK A&R executive Shaurav D’Silva will head up 2TE, a new imprint set up by Warner Music UK’s President Phil Christie to go live in January. D’Silva was previously at 3Beat, where he signed Sigma and Fuse ODG. He will continue to run 2-Tone Entertainment, a management company which represents writers and producers such as Diztortion, Eyelar and Pantha.

LIVE NATION EXPANDS TO SOUTH AMERICA

Live Nation has a new Head of Business Development for South America, Rafael Lazarini, who is based in Rio, Brazil. He had the same role at Rock World, holding company for South America’s largest music festival, Rock In Rio.

SOUNDCLOUD APPOINTS FIRST CFO

Streaming platform SoundCloud has got around to appointing its first Chief Financial Officer to maintain its financial health and identify new opportunities for growth. Coming from senior executive roles at Google, Holly Lim will split her time between SoundCloud HQ in Berlin and its New York City office.

STEVE FONTANOT TAKES ROLE AT RED GUERILLA

PR, social and experiential agency Red Agency and Havas Village appointed Steve Fontanot as GM of its experiential division Red Guerilla. He was founder of Chieftain Communications eight years ago.

A key element of his brief is to build the brand and activation of the Havas Village, which, aside from Red Agency, incljudes Havas Media, Havas Worldwide and Havas Sports & Entertainment (HS&E).

He will work closely with former artist manager Francis Coady, who recently took over as GM of the recently launched HS&E business, to build revenue streams.