Goom Radio Gets $16M In Funding

Live From Jersey City

GOOM RADIO (goomradio.com), a newly founded NEW YORK-based online radio company, has secured approximately $16 million (12.2 million Euros) in funding from WELLINGTON PARTNERS VENTURE CAPITAL, ELAIA PARTNERS and PARTECH INTERNATIONAL in its Series A round. The company plans to launch its U.S. service later this year.

"We see something fundamentally disruptive in GOOM RADIO; the company is evolving one of the few remaining mediums that hasn’t been over-hauled by the web. Printed news, television, music and movies have been transformed by the web and now it is radio’s turn," said WELLINGTON PARTNERS General Partner ERIC ARCHAMBEAU. "This combined with the stellar executive team put together by ROB WILLIAMS, and a promising business model make the timing right for the evolution of the radio industry online."

GOOM RADIO U.S. was launched in MARCH 2009 and operates from the historic former CLEAR CHANNEL Z100 studios in JERSEY CITY. The company is led by WILLIAMS, former Pres./Market Manager for CLEAR CHANNEL/NEW YORK, and Chief Sales Officer DREW HILLES, who led DMARC BROADCASTING through an acquisition by GOOGLE, where he served as a director for four years.

"GOOM RADIO has set out to change the way radio is perceived by creating a unique alternative to what is currently available in the world of radio both online and off," said WILLIAMS. "Receiving the support of WELLINGTON PARTNERS, PARTECH and ELAIA, all of which have strong experience in this space, validates our belief that there is tremendous potential for this offering."

GOOM RADIO CEO ROB WILLIAMS spoke to ALL ACCESS about the funding: "We're very happy about the money and our three partners, WELLINGTON PARTNERS VENTURE CAPITAL, ELAIA PARTNERS and PARTECH INTERNATIONAL. We work very closely with them for all phases of this operation.

"Yes, GOOM RADIO is an advertiser-supported strategy that we are developing. We have had a successful launch in FRANCE (OCTOBER 2008) and we are looking at launch in GERMANY in the SPRING of this year, and here in JULY.

"We currently have six full-time programmers, headed by TIM HERBSTER, and once fully staffed there will be around 50 of us, both full and part-time in programming, sales, marketing and support. We are starting to aggressively interview and hire. For programming, send the resumes to TIM at tim@goomradio.com, and for all other posts, send the resumes to Chief Sales Officer DREW HILLES at drew@goomradio.com."

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