End Of A Era: All Access Closing
• Feels like there’s been a death in the family… and in many ways, it is. Our industry sustained a major gut-punch on Friday afternoon when we received the sad and unexpected news that All Access, an invaluable music industry resource for nearly three decades, was shutting its doors, effective Tuesday, August 15, “due to a marked decrease in revenues that makes moving forward impossible.”
“This is, without question, the saddest and most heartbreaking moment of my professional life to have to tell you that AllAccess.com will cease publishing and will be going out of business,” said Joel Denver, All Access Founder, President/Publisher. Denver added, “This was not a decision that was reached lightly nor without earnest tries to find a path forward. It comes on the heels of major changes in the music industry announced in January of this year. These strong financial headwinds also extend to our non-music partners as well. Both downturns have greatly affected how All Access operates. The dollars are just not there to support our operation and staff any longer.”
Denver continued, “All Access began nearly 28 years ago and with the help of an amazing staff of professionals, the best in the business. We’ve weathered many changes and obstacles in the industry over these years. We’ve carved an incredible path and have taken each part of our operation to amazing levels of success through honesty, hard work, and passion for the radio industry, the music, the artists and our many readers, marketing partners, clients and our many contributing editors. Thank you all so much — we could not have done any of this without you.” Your thanks and best wishes can be personally shared with Joel at jdenver@allaccess.com, and a list of the newly available All Access staffers can be found here
[Ed. note:] Joel Denver has been a personal friend and valued colleague for more than three decades. During my radio career, I had the chance to stop by the R&R office in Century City several times over the years, and Joel always took the time to meet with me… never dreaming, at the time, that a dozen or so years later, I would occupy that same office as R&R‘s CHR Editor. And while we have comfortably co-existed as “cordial competitors” for many years, our interactions at various industry events — including his successful Worldwide Radio Summits — have always been genuinely enjoyable, and his company’s impact on all of us has been immeasurable.
The news of yet another beloved industry institution going away — leaving many very talented professionals newly unemployed — brings back similar shocking memories for Steve Resnik and I, who experienced a similar situation in 2002, when The Gavin Report shut down, and again on that fateful day in June 2009 — Steve’s birthday — when we were informed that the venerable R&R was closing its doors that very day. Temporarily unmoored from our formerly solid foundations, we somehow managed to pull ourselves out of what felt like a bottomless black hole and reinvent ourselves to launch RAMP.
It is in that spirit of future possibilities that that we would like to take this opportunity to salute Joel and his talented staff for their many years of unparalleled service to our industry, and wish them all the very best as life’s next chapter unfolds, as it inevitably does. — Kevin Carter
