Nic Harcourt
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Nic Harcourt (born September 23, 1957) is an English-born American radio and television presenter, producer, and journalist best known as the former Music Director and on-air presenter for the
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,
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-based radio station
KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...
. Harcourt hosts the weekday ''More Music in the Morning with Nic and Jet'' and ''Nic at Six'' at KCSN in Northridge,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
.


Life and career

Born in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
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, Harcourt lived in
Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...
, England and Brisbane
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before coming to the
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. Before joining KCRW, Harcourt worked for eight years (1990-1998) as a news director and later morning drive show host, music director and program director at radio station
WDST WDST (100.1 Hertz, MHz), branded as "Radio Woodstock 100.1", is a commercial radio, commercial FM broadcasting, FM radio station licensed to Woodstock, New York, and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley. Radio Woodstock is known as a progressive rock, p ...
in
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, which he described as "an innovative commercial station ... renowned as a bastion of new music, always being ahead of the curve".Nic Harcourt, Liner notes for ''Air: Moon Safari'' (10th anniversary reissue), EMI Music France, February 2008. Leaving WDST after it changed owners in 1998, he joined KCRW to host and edit the daily radio show ''
Morning Becomes Eclectic ''Morning Becomes Eclectic'' (MBE) is an American three-hour adult album alternative radio program first aired in 1977 and broadcast live every weekday from KCRW in Santa Monica, California. The show's name is a play on the Eugene O'Neill t ...
.'' He later wrote, "my new job was a very different proposition from the controlled playlist of commercial radio. All of a sudden I found myself with the greatest job in radio where I was allowed to play anything I like and go as deep into an album as I wanted to." The shows, broadcast live in
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, often featured live performances by artists both popular and obscure. They included
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and Travis who 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 Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...
, Sigur Ros, David Gray,
Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...
,
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, and
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. A weekly version of the show called '' Sounds Eclectic'', launched in 2000, was broadcast on several other stations in cooperation with PRI. On November 10, 2008, Harcourt announced that he would be leaving his role with ''Morning Becomes Eclectic'' and resigning as music director for KCRW as of November 30, 2008, while taking on a new show on Sundays. KCRW management selected Jason Bentley to replace Harcourt on both ''Morning Becomes Eclectic'' and as music director. With his reduced role 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 took on a new show at KCSN called ''Connections with Nic Harcourt'' Harcourt was hoping that he could have done his shows on both stations as he was not getting paid by KCSN. On October 19, 2012 Harcourt debuted his weekday morning show on KCSN, called ''Mornings Are Electric''. Harcourt also became Music Supervisor in residence for
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
in March 2011 and many thought he left KCRW for this reason due to a press release from KCRW mentioning his new job. Harcourt denied this in an interview with the ''
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'' 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. In October 2011 he became the host of the morning (6am–11am) drive music show at KCSN (''KCSN Morning Show with Nic Harcourt''). In September 2015 his show moved to the midday (11am–3pm) time slot (''KCSN Midday Music Mix with Nic Harcourt''). In 2017 he returned to the morning show.


Other media and later career

In 2005 Harcourt 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:
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's ''
Gone Baby Gone ''Gone Baby Gone'' is a 2007 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Ben Affleck in his directorial debut. Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film star ...
'' (2007), '' Love Monkey'', ''
The Dukes of Hazzard ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' is an American action comedy television series created by Gy Waldron that aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985, with a total of seven seasons consisting of List of The Dukes of Hazzard episodes, 147 ...
'', '' Life As We Know It'', '' Igby Goes Down'', and the first season of the rebooted teen drama ''
90210 (TV series) ''90210'' is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas (writer), Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah for The CW. It originally aired from September 2, 2008, to May 13, 2013, and is the fourth series in the Beverly Hill ...
''. Harcourt was also the American national voice over talent from 2005 thru 2008 for the
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advertising campaign. Harcourt has also served as Editor at Large: Music and Culture for LA: The Los Angeles Times Magazine (2009–10). He produced and hosted a short-lived live performance music website called TheLiveBuzz in the fall of 2010 and was also the first Music Supervisor in Residence at MTV (2011-2012). He is currently the host and interviewer for
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's "Guitar Center Sessions" (2010 onwards) and also hosted a performance/interview podcast series for Guitar Center (2010-2014). He also manages Los Angeles based singer/songwriter and producer Kita Klane and has directed several music videos for her.


References


External links


Connections made by Guitar Center websiteSounds Eclectic websiteNic Harcourt
a
IMDB
NYT Magazines, 2005.
Nic Harcourt: Turn it Up
at Los Angeles Times Magazine

at Los Angeles Times {{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt, Nic American radio personalities American television personalities Living people Mass media people from Birmingham, West Midlands British expatriates in the United States 1957 births