Swedish “Rock Watchman” holds key to U.S. relaunch
Written by Lars-Erik_Olson on April 30, 2001 to Music Business.
In a lengthy interview published in Saturday’s Dagens Industri, Per Öqvist asked the following question of Tomas Johansson, who heads EMA Telstar (worldwide booking agents for Roxette):
Roxette has had three #1’s and a #2 on the American Billboard list. How can you get them to hit in the USA one more time?
“I’m going to talk with my owners that have 1,200 radio stations across the USA and ask them to play the new record,” Johansson replied. “It’s absolutely good enough to hit in the USA, it only depends on the right launch.”
Tomas Johansson, who was called the “rock watchman” in the story’s headline, is talking about Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel, headquarted in Texas, acquired New York-based SFX Entertainment last year, the world’s largest promoter and producer of live entertainment events, including concerts, theatre and sporting events. SFX, in turn, had recently purchased EMA Telstar in Sweden.
SFX owns 120 live entertainment venues in 31 of the top 50 worldwide markets, including 16 owned and operated amphitheaters in the top 10 markets.
The opportunities for synergies among all these Clear Channel divisions are just beginning to be exploited, and Johansson intends to use this leverage on behalf of Roxette. He described himself in the article as being stubborn, goal-oriented and quick.
Reaching over 110 million listeners in the U.S. every week, Clear Channel has stations taking to the airwaves in all 50 states including 47 of top 50 markets.
Photo ©2001 Dagens Industri. Used with permission.
- Dagens Industri article (In Swedish)
- EMA Telstar (In Swedish)
- Clear Channel Communications
Other articles with the same topic
- Billboard mentions Roxette (February 26, 2011)
- Citigroup takes control of EMI (February 1, 2011)
- Kobalt signs Roxette in North America (January 13, 2011)
- Record "The Look" and win $5,000 shopping spree (August 11, 2010)
- EMI Music triples full-year earnings (May 8, 2009)
12 comments
royalball said on April 30, 2001 19:35:
This is the contact company I wanted the fans to contact for requests for Roxette, and hopefully this will shed some new light for P & M.
Ferdan said on April 30, 2001 20:06:
“It’s absolutely good enough to hit in the USA”
It seems HAND wasn´t good enough for him, that´s why he didn´t bother doing all this with HAND.
He´s a real “ROCK watchman”!
alchemiste said on May 1, 2001 05:30:
Of course HAND was good nuff as well but when HAND came out Clear Channel didn´t own EMA Telstar so the above mentioned trick couldn´t be done.
Steffan.
kixx said on May 2, 2001 06:56:
is the moment to inclouding a new n#1 on billboard, Marie & Per knows Bush loves to play “Real Sugar” when the doughters come white house.
be afraid britney, here comes the better duo in the world, 4 n#1 when you got 5 years, sorry but marie knows better than you how to move on a concert.
jnavleris said on May 2, 2001 07:04:
It would be nice to walk into a record store here in the US and see copies of “Room Service” all over the rack. But hey, if it doesn’t work out, there’s always Amazon.com for the U.S. fans
LittleSpooky said on April 30, 2001 16:08:
Dayum! Could it be that someone has finally decided that the US is actually WORTH something?! Killer beans! Utah’s got a couple of Clear Channel Comm stations here :o)