Alan Cross is a

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radio broadcaster and a writer on music."Alan Cross hired back by Edge 102.1"
''

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'', July 17, 2014. Based in

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, he is best known nationally and internationally as host of the syndicated radio series ''

The Ongoing History of New Music ''The Ongoing History of New Music'' is a radio program produced in Canada by Corus Entertainment and hosted by Alan Cross.National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', January 20, 2004. ''The Secret History of Rock'',"Secrets of rock history shared with Victoria". ''

Victoria Times-Colonist The ''Times Colonist'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the Sept. 2, 1980 merger of the ''Victoria Daily Times'', established in 1884, and the ''British Colonist'' (later the ''Daily C ...

'', April 19, 2013. and ''ExploreMusic''. In 2013, he started the Geeks & Beats podcast with BNN's Michael Hainsworth.

Background

Originally from the small prairie town of Stonewall,

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,"Radio sweethearts share a love of tunes and travel"
''Post City'', January 2013. Cross began his radio career with the

University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that offers undergraduate faculties of art, business and economics, education, science and kinesiology and applied health as well as gra ...

's campus radio station,

CKUW CKUW-FM (95.9 MHz) is the campus radio station at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The station broadcasts with 450 watts effective radiated power. Its transmitter and antenna are on top of #7 Evergreen Place in Osborne ...

, in 1980.'I've always been a gear head'. ''

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'', March 6, 2008. He subsequently joined radio stations in Selkirk, Kenora and

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before returning to Winnipeg's CHIQ.

Career

He joined

CFNY CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are in Downtown ...

on October 3, 1986, as an overnight announcer. In 1989, Cross became the station's afternoon

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host."Cross out: Era in new music over"
''

'', July 7, 2011. The following year, he moved to the 10 a.m.-2 p.m. slot; in 1993, he returned to afternoon drive and remained there until 2001. Beginning in February 1993, he also became host of ''The Ongoing History of New Music''."Making history, weekly; The voice of alternative rock, whatever that is, now on audiobook, too". ''

'', November 25, 2007. Cross left CFNY in 2001 to become program director of CJXY in Hamilton, where he oversaw the station's frequency switch to become Y108. During this time he continued to host ''The Ongoing History of New Music''. He subsequently returned to CFNY as program director in mid-January 2004, remaining in that role until moving to Corus Entertainment's interactive media division, Splice Media (now called Corus Interactive and Integrated Solutions), in 2008 to launch the ExploreMusic project — although CFNY still aired ''The Ongoing History of New Music'' until 2011. He also hosted the television program ''ExploreMusic'' on aux.tv."Aux gets Cross". ''

'', January 1, 2009. Cross left Corus Entertainment in early July 2011, after the company restructured their online content department. In an interview with the ''

'', Cross said that there was no ill will between himself and Corus. Cross' departure effectively brought an end to ''The Ongoing History of New Music'', because Corus Entertainment owned the show. He then began working on a different show, ''The Secret History of Rock'', for Astral Media. In 2013, he joined Rock95 Broadcasting's new CIND-FM as a music consultant and part-time on-air personality."The ongoing history of a Toronto radio career". ''

'', July 18, 2014. Throughout this era, Cross also maintained his own personal music

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, ''A Journal of Musical Things''; in 2009, he attracted international attention when he became the first music critic in the world to post an advance review of U2's new single " Get On Your Boots". In 2014, he was named as the head of music curation for

Songza Songza was a free music streaming and recommendation service for Internet users in the United States and Canada. Stating that its playlists are made by music experts, the service would recommend its users on various playlists based on time of ...

's operations in Canada, and curated a museum exhibition on the science of rock music for the

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. In the fall of that year, he returned to CFNY and relaunched ''The Ongoing History of New Music'', as well as a new weekday programming feature called ''Adventures in Vinyl''. In 2015, he formed the company Major League Mixes with colleague Dave Charles; the company currently holds the contract for game music at

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games.

Personal life

Cross is married to Mary Ellen Beninger, a journalist who has been associated with the Toronto radio stations CFNY,

CFTR Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a membrane protein and anion channel in vertebrates that is encoded by the ''CFTR'' gene. Geneticist Lap-Chee Tsui and his team identified the CFTR gene in 1989 as the gene linked wi ...

and CHFI. Beninger has also published novels under the pen name Emme Cross.

Books

* ''The Alternative Music Almanac'' (1995) * ''The Making of Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral'' (1996) * ''Over the Edge: The Revolution and Evolution of New Rock'' (1997)"Rock trivia that goes Over the Edge". '' Edmonton Journal'', December 28, 1997. * ''20th Century Rock and Roll: Alternative Rock'' (2000) * ''The History of Alternative Rock, volumes 1-4'' (audio book series)''

References

External links

Alan Cross
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Alan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian radio hosts Canadian radio executives Canadian podcasters Canadian music historians 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian music journalists People from Burlington, Ontario People from Stonewall, Manitoba Canadian bloggers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Male bloggers