Q&A: Actor Szmanda tunes in new role at radio station

By Antony Bruno

DENVER (Billboard) - When Clear Channel wanted to launch a format-free Internet radio station called erockster, executive VP/head of online music and radio Evan Harrison turned to his old friend Eric Szmanda for ideas. Best known for playing Greg Sanders on the hit series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," Szmanda at first seems like an unlikely choice for leading such a major initiative at the world's largest radio broadcaster.

But Szmanda's music background goes far deeper than your typical actor-turned-DJ. He's a former marketing rep at music company BMG, where he met and worked with Harrison; served as a music consultant on the movie "Life as a House"; and is a frequent club promoter through his side company Doop.

Billboard caught up with Szmanda to discuss his thoughts on Internet radio.

Q: Clear Channel isn't exactly well known for letting DJs do their own programming. Was that a concern for you when starting erockster?

Eric Szmanda: I was obviously super nervous about working for Clear Channel. If it wasn't for Evan I probably wouldn't be doing this. But I always loved the idea of working with the system to do something cool rather than just complaining about the system all the time. Even though we work with Clear Channel, we're not them. We're geared to give artists a chance to be heard, whether it be talking about music or playing live concerts or broadcasting multiple tracks off a record. It's not just playing one single.

Q: How much are you directly involved in the music programming?

Szmanda: All the music has been selected by me and our team. For the launch at Coachella (the Southern California music festival), we had three weeks to build our entire library from scratch and build out our Web site ... We didn't have any experience in radio. We don't know how the (radio) system works. Right now, we're working through some glitches because we have no idea what we're doing when it comes to programming. We don't want you to hear the same song every three hours.

Q: How is erockster different from what is heard on Clear Channel every day?