Billy Zero

Billy Zero (born William Gallagher) is a radio personality.

Billy Zero® was born in Ft. Meade, Maryland in 1971. He performed in many bands in the 90's including Bovox Clown, Love Muffin Prowler, Mentle Gen and Naked Lunch.

Billy Zero worked at the Legendary WHFS, 99.1 FM from December 1994 through February, 2000.[1] Billy went to work for Advertising.com in February 2000. Four months later he left to start his own company - djboy.com and getbackstage.com.[2] Billy was contacted by a headhunter in July 2000 and informed that XM Satellite Radio was hiring. Billy started out as Director of Ad Sales Development, then moved to Music Director of the Unsigned Channel. Billy was made the Program Director of Unsigned when Pat Dinizio of The Smithereens left to focus on his music career.[3] Unsigned was canceled from XM's Lineup in November 2005. Billy then went to work on Fred, XM 44 for 3 months to help out, then went to Big Tracks, a channel that XM launched, and helped build the channel from scratch. Billy moved on to XMU as Program Director where he programmed and played as a DJ indie music on XM 43 until November 2008. Following the merger of Sirius and XM.

In February, 2006 Billy started a new online Record Store called Dj Boy Records online at djboy.com

On January 1, 2010, Billy Zero started an artist management company. By May 2010 He had 8 artists and 2 agents. His artists included Grammy nominated artist, Wayna, Emmy nominated Ellen Cherry, The Hint, Alfonso Velez, Derek Olds, Carolyn Malachi, The Eureka Birds, Will Rast and The Funk Ark.

As of January 2012, the Zero Management lineup shifted to focus on career artists. The lineup of managed artists include: Grammy-Nominated Christylez Bacon, Eureka Birds, Derek Olds, Monika Gaba, Rites of Ash, Tobias Russell, The Perfects, Vital and Janine Wilson. Billy is currently consulting with a number of artists and organizations and can be seen moderating panels in 2012 at MacWorld's iWorld and SXSW.

Billy shifted away from management in 2013 and focused on Dj Boy® and a number of new creative endeavors.

Billy was President of the Washington D.C. Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (N.A.R.A.S) from 2008 to 2010 and Trustee from June 2010 through May 2012. NARAS is the Organization that produces the Grammys every year.

Billy Zero Launched Dj Boy® Radio in 2015. in 2015 he also launched The Hand Made Quarterly, Juice Box Jams® 501(c)(3), Vacadio® and a music festival called Nextival® set to debut May 21st, 2016 at The Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds outside Annapolis, MD in Crownsville, MD.

References

  1. ↑ Technology Repaves Road to Stardom, The Washington Post, May 2, 2004 ("He left Washington's WHFS (99.1 FM) for XM in February 2000, after growing frustrated that the Infinity Radio station would not play enough unsigned bands to suit his tastes.")
  2. ↑ Would You Buy the Future of Radio From This Man?, Wired (magazine), October 2004 ("Billy Zero, DJ for XM's Unsigned (bands without a major contract), had left WHFS, the once-revered alternative rock station in the DC area, to start a dotcom")
  3. ↑ From local to legend, The Capital, December 9, 2005 ("Billy Zero grew up around Annapolis worked at WHFS for six years and now runs the Unsigned Bands Channel at XM Satellite Radio ..")
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