Music did not just shape my career. It saved my life.
Growing up in New York City, music was the thing that lit the way forward when not much else did. That is not a metaphor. It is the reason I have spent my entire career trying to give that feeling back to as many people as possible. Every decision I have made as a programmer, a leader, and a fan has been rooted in that simple debt I feel to music and the artists who make it.
I am a music geek. Full stop. Pre-streaming, I had 25,000 MP3s. I subscribe to multiple RSS feeds, I follow emerging artists obsessively, and in just the last year alone I have been in the crowd for Parker McCollum, George Strait, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Chris Stapleton, Jelly Roll, Dua Lipa, The Eagles, Benson Boone, Peter Gabriel, Billy Joel, Sigur Ros, The National, Dasha, Dalton Domino, Rob Baird, Them Dirty Roses, the Windy City Smoke Out, and more. I show up because I love it. That never changed.
What That Passion Looks Like In Practice
That same obsession is what I bring to every brand, every team, and every market I have worked in. As VP of Programming overseeing 33 music brands across America, including stations in New York and Los Angeles, I have had the privilege of working across every major music format. But the titles and the markets are not the story. The people and the outcomes are.
At Power 106 in LA, I personally programmed the station and oversaw the production of Powerhouse. At HOT 97 in New York, one of the most scrutinized and competitive radio environments in the world, I helped lead a team that built and sustained one of the most iconic brands in the history of urban radio. Summer Jam was not just a concert. It was a cultural event that defined what artist-driven radio could be at its very best.
Back in 2012, we put Kendrick Lamar on the headliner stage at our Power 106 SXSW event. At that point, most programmers had not caught up yet. We had, because we were paying attention.
Most recently, I returned WTMX Chicago, known as The MIX, to number one in the 25-54 demographic. The way we got there is the part I am most proud of. I hired a morning talent who had never hosted a radio show, did a complete rebrand of the station, and trusted the process. That is the kind of move that only works when you have a team that believes in the vision and leaders who are not afraid to take a swing for the right reasons.
During Lollapalooza 24, we were on the ground presenting new artist showcases featuring Dasha and Knox, because that is where the culture is being written in real time and that’s exactly where we want to be.
How I Actually Work With People
The LinkedIn recommendations are worth reading, not because of what they say about me, but because of what they reveal about how the work actually gets done. None of these wins happened alone. I have spent my career identifying talent others overlooked, coaching people who had more potential than opportunity, and building teams that trusted each other enough to do bold things in brutally competitive markets.
I am not a top-down leader. I have zero pride of authorship. If your idea is better, we use your idea. My job is to create an environment where the best thinking wins, and then to make sure we execute it better than anyone else in the market.
I have built and marketed multi-platform features like New @ 2, Leak of the Week, and The New Music Club, all hosted by top tier talent and all built around the idea that passion is what generates revenue. I have executed label-partnered events featuring Kanye and Post Malone, and release launches for Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Adele. The thread connecting all of it is the same: find what people love, find the talent who can deliver it authentically, and build something that earns loyalty in a world where attention is the scarcest resource there is.
Where I Am Now
After six great years in Chicago, my wife Julie and I made the move to New Braunfels, Texas in 2025 to be closer to our kids, Ally in Austin and Dylan in San Antonio. We landed in one of the most vibrant and underappreciated music communities in the country, and we could not be happier about it. We are out regularly catching local Texas artists like Ty Myers, Shelby Stone, Dallas Burrow, Dalton Domino, and Parker McCollum, among others.
In a world where every listener has every song in their pocket, the brands and platforms that win are the ones built on genuine connection, trusted voices, and programming that actually means something to the people consuming it. That is the problem I know how to solve, and it is the work I do. If you are building something and you need a collaborator who has seen what works at the highest level and still shows up every day as a fan first, well, that’s me…
