Coachella Pirate Radio Launches a Revolutionary Station with an
Entirely New Approach; on-Air, Online, and on-Demand Signed and
Unsigned Artists - 5000 Songs Strong
Creatively Produced by Eric Szmanda from 'CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation'
SAN ANTONIO--(Business Wire)--
Clear Channel Radio today officially launched erockster - a vast
collection of on-air, online and on-demand content for music fans of
all genres. The collection will reach some 5000 songs over the next
month, adding 1000 songs per week. From music to blogs to a social
network and user-created content, erockster is created for 13- to
34-year-olds with hopes of appealing to music lovers of all ages.
Helmed and produced/inspired by Eric Szmanda, along with his
childhood friend and business partner Tyler Malin, erockster brings a
remarkable level of listener involvement and interaction. Listeners
can sign on to www.erockster.com, register their preferences, and
influence the content that erockster features.
"Our main focus will be on quality and we're going to give a lot
of bands that don't have a chance to be heard on the radio that
opportunity," said Szmanda, best known to audiences as Greg Sanders on
'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'. "We want to be playing everything
from indie rock to hip-hop to classic rock to soul to dance rock."
The wildly diverse group of artists already being featured include
Radiohead, the Ramones, My Morning Jacket, the Rolling Stones,
Grandmaster Flash, Johnny Cash, Hot Chip, Prince, the Beatles, T Rex,
Al Green, Jane's Addiction,, Daft Punk, Pink Floyd, the Kinks, Bjork,
the Who, Arcade Fire, Ray Charles, the Verve, Air, Otis Redding,
Pharcyde, Velvet Underground, the Clash, Pavement, the Roots, The
Police, David Bowie, and Kraftwerk.
The erockster content streams online at www.erockster.com; and
starting May 2nd, it will also stream from Los Angeles (KYSR-FM),
Washington DC (WWDC-FM) and Philadelphia (WRFF-FM) as well as
broadcast as an HD2 channel. As additional stations are added, the
show will also be syndicated as a two-hour program on FM stations.
Coachella Pirate Radio
This past weekend, erockster previewed at the Coachella music
festival, pirating independently-owned station KAJR FM 95.9 in
Indio/Palm Springs and streaming online at erockster.com. The preview
included more than 1000 songs over the three-day festival, with no
repeats and no commercial interruptions, focusing on current and past
Coachella artists. To add to the pirate theme, and to place the focus
of the broadcast on music and the festival, Szmanda used a vocoder to
disguise his voice and allowed exclusive artist and fan interviews to
tell the story of the weekend.
Artists featured for the Coachella weekend were those currently or
previously playing the festival, including Fatboy Slim, Raconteurs,
LCD Soundsystem, the Breeders, Cut Copy, Tool, Chemical Brothers,
Coldplay, NIN, the Pixies, Justice, Kanye West, Beck, Oasis,
Portishead and MGMT.
"Eric has an unparalleled love and appreciation for a vast array
of music," said Evan Harrison, executive vice president of Clear
Channel Radio and head of the company's Online Music & Radio unit.
"His talent will absolutely resonate with like-minded fans."
"Clear Channel came to me with the chance to be a kid in the candy
store," added Szmanda. "Now, erockster is giving all fans an outlet to
listen to a wide variety of music, discuss bands, concerts, and really
anything that we have an opinion or comment on that's music-related."
About Clear Channel Radio
Clear Channel Radio is a leading radio company focused on serving
local communities across the U.S. with more than 110 million listeners
choosing Clear Channel Radio programming each week. The company's
content can be heard on AM/FM stations, HD digital radio channels, on
the Internet, via iPods and cell phones and used via navigation
systems from BMW, Volvo, TomTom, Garmin and others. The company's
operations include radio broadcasting, syndication and independent
media representation. Clear Channel Radio is a division of Clear
Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE: CCU), a leading global media and
entertainment company. More information on the company can be found at
www.clearchannel.com.
Brainerd Communicators, Inc.
Scott Cianciulli, 212-986-6667
Cianciulli@braincomm.com
or
Jennifer Gery, 212-986-6667
Gery@braincomm.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
