Alan Cross.
Program Director, 102.1 the edge.
The ongoing history of new music.
Jeezus, are people really interested in this guy to actually want to read his life story?
All right. If we must.
Alan started in radio with a one-hour show at the University of Winnipeg's closed circuit station, CKUW, in 1980. At the time, the station was so tiny that its entire broadcast range was limited to one hallway and one cafeteria. No one heard his show because it ran from 8:30-9:30 Friday mornings when all right-minded students had already cut out for the weekend.
From there, it was off to CFQX-FM in Selkirk, Manitoba, a tiny elevator music (!!!) station that was (a) literally out in the middle of a wheat field and (b) across the street from Manitoba's largest mental hospital.
Upon graduation, Alan moved to CJRL in Kenora, Ontario, where he spent 23 days as the news director. His next jobs took him to a pretty cool little rock station in Brandon, Manitoba, called KX-96 and then to Q94FM in Winnipeg.
Alan first walked into the Edge on October 3, 1986, to take over the all-night show-and he's been here pretty much ever since-except for that stint between January 2001 and January 2004 when he was transferred out to Hamilton to be the program director of Corus brother station, Y108. Alan is now back at 102.1 The Edge in Toronto-only this time, he's running the joint.
The Ongoing History of New Music debuted in February 1993 and since then, there have been more than 525 episodes, all researched, written and produced by Alan. The show is now heard on close to a dozen stations across Canada and has spun off four books and more than a dozen CD compilations.
And there's more. Over the years, Alan has produced in-flight audio programming for Air Canada, written trivia questions for the Microsoft Network, appeared as a guest on various TV and radio shows, written official biographies for a variety of rock bands, narrated TV shows, documentaries and informercials, and written articles for both newspapers and magazines.
Best albums: Pretty Hate Machine/Nine Inch Nails and Unknown Pleasures/Joy Division
Most underrated album: Noise/Archive
Best live act I've ever seen: Peter Gabriel back in the 80s and early 90s.
Best music book: Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge by Clinton Heylin
Favourite music movie: 24 Hour Party People
Favourite music magazines: Mojo and Record Collector
