Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

I didn’t know her personally but Ria was a powerful partner.

Ria Denver was co-founder of radio and record’s most dominant publication All Access.

As a one-time trade publisher let me tell you just how significant what she and Joel did.

Today All Access looks like a natural thing.

But Joel left Radio & Records and in the mid-90’s he and Ria had the foresight to see the promise of the Internet. Back then most trade publishers were still printing and faxing. I know, I was one of them.

They turned All Access into a huge tent in which all types of entertainment business people were not only welcomed but also encouraged.

Their All Access carried everyone’s story and Joel and Ria where only too happy to help people in this business succeed. They were unabashed lovers of radio and the music industry.

Ria passed away Thursday morning in Santa Monica at 60 of an apparent heart attack.

In her obituary on All Access grieving staffers praised her for many things but emphasized that she was a friend, mentor and confidant to them:

“It was in this capacity as a one-woman support system for each member of her ALL ACCESS family that RIA found her greatest joy at the company, and it is in this capacity that everyone here at ALL ACCESS will miss her the most”.

On a personal level such loss is unimaginable. My friend Jim Carnegie lost his beautiful wife, Cathy (and Radio Business Report business partner) several years ago – suddenly, the victim of a brain aneurysm.

Radio is a mom and pop business.

A great mom and pop business founded by unique people who believed and willed it to success.

One year after All Access was started the Communications Act of 1996 was passed which carried a provision that opened the door to radio consolidation.

But most people didn’t even have email back then and when they did it was through AOL.

All Access arrived first with only the belief that an Internet-only trade publication could be successful.

Today it’s a no brainer but back then it was a strategy that Ria and Joel followed right into the present.

Most marriages would be considered successful if the two partners built a meaningful life together.

But Ria and Joel Denver also built a virtual meeting place for everyone who loved the music and radio business.

The love that they showed to the industry is surely being returned to Joel today in his time of great loss.