Townsquare Media Bolsters Management Team and Re-Launches Over 30 Digital Properties
Greenwich, CT - December 13, 2010 - Townsquare Media, LLC announced today that Sun Sachs, Jared Willig, Pete Schiecke, Stephen Lenz and seven other leading digital executives have joined the Company's management team. Messrs. Sachs, Willig and Schiecke will report to Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, who joined the Company in September.
To date in 2010, the Company has re-launched over 30 digital properties for its local radio station brands across six of the Company's 36 markets. The Company intends to re-launch all its local radio stations' digital properties by the end of Q1 2011. The new digital properties are comprehensive local resources for consumers with locally-produced entertainment, news and information content which is current and relevant to the communities they serve.
In addition, given Townsquare Media's strength in the Country music format, the Company launched a new website, Taste of Country (www.tasteofcountry.com), a Country-oriented national news and lifestyle brand. Taste of Country will be the premier destination for Country music fans, delivering relevant and current music news, exclusive interviews, photo galleries, music videos, new song features and much more. Taste of Country's content will also be fully integrated into the websites of Townsquare Media's 37 market-leading Country radio stations.
"In addition to beginning my collaboration with the Company's talented in-market employees, I have spent my first two months building an exceptional digital media team," said Mr. Wilson. "Today I am honored and excited to announce that eleven extremely talented and passionate individuals have joined Townsquare Media. They will be instrumental in delivering world-class consumer experiences across multiple platforms. With the reach and scale of our 171 radio stations across the country, Townsquare Media is in a powerful position to deliver innovative media products, beginning with TasteOfCountry.com and over 30 new radio brand websites, to engaged audiences and trusted advertisers at both hyper-local and national levels."
"These terrific additions to our team will help reshape and transform Townsquare Media," said Steven Price, Chairman and CEO. "We already have a stellar group of radio executives in our local markets and now we are supporting them with a world class digital team, led by Bill Wilson. We are excited about our future."
Together, the eleven recent digital management additions join an existing team which includes Lauren Allison, Manager, Digital Strategy & Creative Services, Meghan Due, Project Manager and Heather Rock, Developer.
Mr. Sachs, 39, joins the Company as Vice President, Product, Design & Engineering from AOL where he spent the past six years, most recently as Vice President Design and Product for AOL Media. During his tenure at AOL Mr. Sachs oversaw the creative direction and user experience for AOL.com homepages, product management of all third party social network integration and community products, custom rich media advertising, mobile content applications and scaled interactive products for all of AOL's web properties. Mr. Sachs has been awarded numerous industry awards during his 15 year career including a technology Emmy nomination for his work on an interactive video show for AOL Music. Mr. Sachs received a B.A. in anthropology with honors from University of Washington.
Mr. Willig, 31, joins the Company as Vice President, Digital Strategy & Operations from AOL where he spent almost ten years, most recently as Vice President and General Manager of Moviefone, AOL TV and PopEater, and the founder of Asylum.com. Previously, Mr. Willig was Managing Director of AOL Music and AOL Radio. Prior to joining AOL in 2001, Mr. Willig worked in online marketing at BMG Entertainment and is a former club and radio DJ in New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Mr. Willig attended Princeton University.
Mr. Schiecke, 34, joins the Company as Director, Digital Media from AOL where he spent the past six years as the Programming Director at AOL Radio, overseeing AOL Radio including its 250 online radio stations as well as the AOL Radio Blog. Mr. Schiecke also served as the search engine optimization leader for the AOL Music network. Prior to joining AOL, Mr. Schiecke spent eight years in the radio broadcasting business as an on-air host and Music Director. Mr. Schiecke received a B.A. in speech communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mr. Lenz, 39, joins the Company as Editorial Director after working in several roles at AOL over the past ten years, including Senior Editor of national feature content for AOL City Guide and establishing social media strategies for AOL's entertainment web properties. Most recently, Mr. Lenz founded the popular web trends blog Urlesque.com and was Editor-in-Chief of Moviefone. Mr. Lenz received a B.A. in film studies and communications from Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada.
Juan Sarria, 41, joins the Company as Director of Engineering. For the past five years Mr. Sarria managed the engineering and tool development for a variety of digital content products at AOL Media. Prior to that Mr. Sarria served as a lead developer at Multimedia Solutions where he managed engineering projects for corporations including Dow Jones Newswires, Brother USA and Allen & Co. Mr. Sarria also served as Chief of Engineering and Software Development for a number of companies in his native Colombia.
Jon Gamel, 35, joins the Company as Art Director. Most recently Mr. Gamel served as an art director at AOL Media where he was a key leader in the re-designing AOL Media's top brands. Prior to that, Mr. Gamel worked at Reuters developing design strategies for Reuters.com. Mr. Gamel has also worked as an independent contractor. Mr. Gamel received a received a B.S. in art and design from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Eric Tsuei, 28, joins the Company as Senior Developer. Most recently Mr. Tsuei served as a senior front-end engineer at AOL Media where he played an integral role in advancing its content management system and optimizing site performance. Prior to joining AOL, Mr. Tsuei worked as a senior engineer at Barneys New York and Hertz Corporation. Mr. Tsuei received a B.S. in computer science from Rutgers University.
Ashley Iasimone, 24, joins the Company as a Deputy Editor. Ms. Iasimone served on the editorial team at AOL Music for almost three years and previously was an editorial intern at Spin Magazine. Ms. Iasimone received a B.A. in journalism and music business from New York University.
Andrea Rosen, 24, joins the Company as Digital Content Manager from web video pioneer Rocketboom, where she served as Director of Marketing and Business Development Associate and oversaw strategic partnerships with companies like Google and Apple. Prior to Rocketboom, Ms. Rosen worked as Digital Marketing Manager and a contributing writer for alternative weekly The L Magazine, as well as a marketing consultant for web companies and events in New York City. Ms. Rosen attended Emerson College.
Matthew Wilkening, 40, joins the Company as a Deputy Editor. After seventeen years working at an independent record label, Mr. Wilkening began writing professionally in 2009, contributing to several publications including the AOL Radio Blog, the Cleveland Scene and Spinner. Mr. Wilkening received a B.S. in business administration from Nazareth College.
Sara D. Anderson, 29, joins the Company as a Deputy Editor. For the past year Ms. Anderson served as the editor-in-chief of the AOL Radio Blog. Ms. Anderson graduated with a B.A. in English literature from the University of Colorado.
The Company's digital properties which have been re-launched to date include the following:
Buffalo
Grand Rapids
Lafayette
Flint
Peoria
Bozeman
About Townsquare Media
Townsquare Media, LLC, is a local media company focused on acquiring, developing and operating radio stations and digital properties in mid-sized markets. Townsquare Media owns and operates 171 radio stations and associated digital assets in market-leading clusters in 36 U.S. cities. The Company's majority shareholder is a fund managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. www.townsquaremedia.com
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