Alan Cross is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music. Formerly the host of 102.1 The Edge's program The Ongoing History of New Music and the ExploreMusic radio show and the curator of the ExploreMusic website, he also served as program director of the station from 2004 to 2008. Alan now works for Astral on his new show The Secret History of Rock and can be heard in Edmonton, Fredericton, Halifax, Kingston, London, Ottawa-Hull, St. Catharines, Toronto, Victoria and Winnipeg.
Originally from the small prairie town of Stonewall, Manitoba, Cross began his radio career with the University of Winnipeg's campus radio station, CKUW, in 1980. He subsequently joined radio stations in Selkirk, Kenora and Brandon before returning to Winnipeg's CHIQ. He then joined CFNY on October 3, 1986 as an overnight announcer. Cross had always wanted to work at CFNY and says on his website that he had, “first heard about through Rush’s “Spirit of Radio” when I was still in high school and remember thinking to myself ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to work there one day?’”
In 1989, Cross became the station's afternoon drive time host. 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 which has been running continuously ever since.
Cross left CFNY in 2001 to become program director of CJXY in Hamilton where he oversaw the station switch frequencies and 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 when Cross was no longer employed by Corus Entertainment.
Cross was fired from Corus Entertainment in early July 2011, after the company restructured their online content department that he was in charge of. In an interview with Toronto newspaper, The Toronto Star Cross said that there was no ill will between himself and Corus. In the same interview with The Toronto Star Cross said, “t's too bad, it's sad. Half my life has been associated with either that station or the companies that have owned it. It feels like the end of an era for me.” Cross’ departure effectively brought an end to The Ongoing History of New Music because Corus Entertainment owned the show. In total there were 691 episodes of The Ongoing History of New Music, and currently there are no plans to release the recordings in any capacity.
He also hosted the television program Explore Music on aux.tv. Alan now concentrates his efforts on The Secret History of Rock, www.AlanCross.ca and speaking engagements and appearances. In addition to his work for Astral, and his website Cross is the president of Brain Dead Dog Productions.
Cross is married to Mary Ellen Beninger, whom he met at CFNY in 1990. She is currently a morning newscaster at CFTR in Toronto.
Read more about Alan Cross: The Secret History of Rock, Alancross.ca, Live Appearances, Books, Television
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—A.P. (Sir Alan Patrick)
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