Nic Harcourt

Nic Harcourt (born September 23, 1957) was, most recently, the Music Director for Santa Monica, California-based radio station KCRW. Before joining KCRW, Harcourt worked for eight years as a news director and music director at radio station WDST in Woodstock, New York. Harcourt is currently at KCSN in Northridge, California.

Early life

Born in Birmingham, England, Harcourt lived in Lichfield, England and Australia before coming to the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Upon joining KCRW in 1998, Harcourt hosted and edited the daily radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic. A weekly version of the show called Sounds Eclectic, launched in 2000, was broadcast on several other stations in cooperation with PRI. The shows, recorded from The Village Studios in Los Angeles often featured live performances by artists, both popular and obscure.

Artists including Dido and Travis have credited Harcourt for recognizing them early in their career. Harcourt was also credited with helping to launch Coldplay's career as well as those of Norah Jones, Pete Yorn, and David Gray.^{[citation needed]} He played a demo CD by Jem which launched her singing career, and was the first DJ in America to play Franz Ferdinand. He has been described by music writer Mark Weingarten as "the most influential DJ in America."^[1]

Harcourt recently published Music Lust, a book of "recommended listening for every mood, moment and reason." He has also worked as music consultant/supervisor for several television shows and movies, including: Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone (2007), Love Monkey, The Dukes of Hazzard, Life As We Know It, Igby Goes Down, and most recently the new teen drama 90210 (TV series). Harcourt is also the American national voice of the current Land Rover advertising campaign.

On November 10, 2008, Harcourt announced that he would leave his role with Morning Becomes Eclectic and resign as music director for KCRW as of November 30, 2008,^[2][3] while offering a new show on Sundays. Jason Bentley was selected by KCRW management to replace Harcourt on both Morning Becomes Eclectic and as music director.^[4]

Upon stepping down from the music director position at KCRW, Harcourt founded his own company, SamLuna Media Inc., to develop TV and movie projects. Harcourt continued to do his Sunday show at KCRW until June 2011, when he left KCRW for deciding to do a new show on KCSN called Connections with Nic Harcourt ^[5] Harcourt was hoping that he could have done his shows on both stations as he was not getting paid by KCSN.^[5] Harcourt also became Music Supervisor in residence for MTV in March 2011 and many thought he left KCRW for this reason due to a press release from KCRW mentioning his new job.^[5] Harcourt denied this in an interview with the Los Angeles Times and said the real reason he had to leave KCRW was because of his new show on KCSN and that KCRW management would not let him do shows on both stations.^[5] Harcourt's new show, Connections with Nic Harcourt, airs on Saturday afternoons from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on KCSN.

Harcourt is also currently Editor at Large: Music and Culture for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and is the host and interviewer for DirecTV's Guitar Center Sessions^[6]

Notes

1. ^ "Nic Harcourt to join KCSN/Los Angeles – Newsroom – California State University, Northridge". Blogs.csun.edu. 2011-06-17. http://blogs.csun.edu/news/2011/06/nic-harcourt/. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 
2. ^ "KCRW's Harcourt To Step Down", FMQB magazine, November 10, 2008
3. ^ Roberts, Randall, "Nic Harcourt Leaving KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, Resigning as Music Director", LA Weekly, November 10, 2008
4. ^ "KCRW names Jason Bentley music director, 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' host". Latimes.com. 2008-11-18. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-kcrw18-2008nov18,0,6167310.story. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} "Nic Harcourt: Nic Harcourt says KCRW 'misrepresented' his departure - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 1986-04-07. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/18/entertainment/la-et-nic-harcourt-20110618. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 
6. ^ "Guitar Center Sessions on DIRECTV". Gc.guitarcenter.com. http://gc.guitarcenter.com/sessions. Retrieved 2011-08-24. 

References

• "KCRW — A Tradition of Excellence", Santa Monica College, Profiles, 2002, cover story. Cf. part on Nic Harcourt and Morning Becomes Eclectic.
• "The Star Maker of the Semipopular", NYT Magazines, 2005.
• Nic Harcourt: Turn it Up at Los Angeles Times Magazine

External links

• Sounds Eclectic website
• Nic Harcourt at IMDB

Persondata
Name	Harcourt, Nic
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1957-09-23
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death