Howie Klein

Howie Klein is an American DJ, music producer, record label founder, record label executive, and political blogger, who was president of Reprise Records from 1989 to 2001.

Born in Brooklyn, Klein was the founder of San Francisco independent label 415 Records and discovered Romeo Void, Translator and Wire Train among others. When he lived in San Francisco, he hosted a long-running Sunday night program on KUSF. He joined Sire Records in 1987 and was president of Reprise/Warner Bros. Records between 1989 and 2001. During his tenure he attracted artists such as Lou Reed, with whom he had worked while at Sire, to the upscale label. [cite news
url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5926786/lou_reed_signs_with_reprise/print
title=Lou Reed Signs With Reprise
publisher=Rolling Stone
accessdate=2007-09-09] After the Time Warner merger with AOL, Klein accepted a buyout. [cite news
url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=245564
title='A rock & roll swindle'
author=Greg Kot
date=July 24 2004
publisher=Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
accessdate=2007-09-09] As it happened, the day he retired was the day that the Reprise band Wilco turned in its disputed album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", which the "Washington Post" observed marked a "seismic shift" from the label's former "artist-friendly" reputation. [cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59385-2002Aug8
title=And the Band Played On
author=Richard Harrington
date=August 9 2002
publisher=The Washington Post
accessdate=2007-09-09]

Klein received a Spirit of Liberty Award in 1999 from People for the American Way for his anti-censorship efforts. [cite news
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/09/PK51967.DTL
title=Reprise's Klein Fights Censorship
author=James Sullivan
date=January 9 2000
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
accessdate=2007-09-09] Klein was honored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California "Bill of Rights Award" for his activism in the area of free speech.Warner Bros. Records. " [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-18-2000/0001389315&EDATE= ACLU honors Reprise president Howie Klein] ". URL accessed February 10 2007.]

Klein now lives in Los Angeles, where he writes the progressive political blog, DownWithTyranny! and regularly guest blogs on Crooks and Liars.com's Late Night Music Club feature.

References

External links

* [http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/34/11/klein/ McGill Reporter article on a talk of Klein's]
* [http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/ DownWithTyranny!]