Posted by Bud on December 07, 2009 at 20:19:32:
Radio exec John Gehron to work with AccuRadio.com
John Gehron, one of the radio business' savviest and most respected executives and programmers over his nearly 40 years career, has come aboard AccuRadio.com as lead management consultant.
The move, announced Monday, reunites Gehron with one-time intern Kurt Hanson, founder of the ambitious Internet radio site. Hanson had a two-year internship at WLS in Chicago in the mid-1970s when he was a student at the University of Chicago and Gehron was program director en route to becoming station boss.
AccuRadio offers hundreds of music channels primarily in categories targeting listeners in the age 25 to 54 demographic. Consumers can pause and skip individual songs, block artists they don't like and create their own blend of various channels.
?There are really only four meaningful brands of personalizable Internet radio: Pandora, Slacker, Last.fm, and AccuRadio," Gehron said in the announcement. "While the first three of those are great for early adopters and music enthusiasts, I believe there?s a big opportunity in the market for a brand like AccuRadio that?s aimed at a more mainstream, mass-appeal listener base.?
Oprah Winfrey brought in Gehron to help launch her Harpo Radio satellite pay-service, for which he served as general manager until a year ago. Before that, he oversaw Clear Channel's Chicago radio stations and was senior vice president for programming for all of Infinity/CBS Radio.
As vice president and general manager of Chicago's WNUA-FM, he nursed development of the smooth jazz format. He also left his imprint on New York's WCBS-FM, Philadelphia's old WCAU-FM and Boston's WODS-FM.
AccuRadio said it is in the process of raising cash to build up its management team, sales forces and perhaps market itself more aggressively. There are also plans to spin-off specific genre-driven brands, such as jazz and classical music. And Monday's announcement said Gehron will be leading the company's efforts to establish online personalizable versions of AM and FM stations for traditional terrestrial broadcasters.
The company has a Palm Pre application and is hoping its iPhone app will be available by the end of the month.