Founder, AfterPlay Entertainment, Inc. 

 Throughout his celebrated career, the path Les Garland blazed was fueled by his love of music and entertainment. His path continues to burn forward. As co-founder of groundbreaking networks including MTV: Music Television, VH1, The Box Television Network, and College Television Networks, his experience is all encompassing including his infamous DJ voice heard by millions around the world which is on a global smash hit number one song. Garland’s decades long storied career of expansive and diverse accomplishments was acknowledged when he became the recipient of the Emmy’s prestigious Governor’s Award for his lifetime achievements. The rare Emmy Award was presented to him by longtime friend and Eagle, Mr. Glenn Frey. Garland has worn many hats including Radio Personality; Radio Program Director; Record Company Executive; Event Producer; Music Talent Manager; Executive Producer; Brand Marketer; Public Speaker; and Entertainment Industry Consultant. An award-winning talent who has been featured in magazines, newspapers, on radio, television, and the net, Garland resides at the height of pop culture since the beginning of his career. His legacy has left an imprint on radio, television, the music industry, and advertising which has played witness to his innovations and expertise in consumer engagement.

Prior to his years as a cable television pioneer, he cut his chops as Program Director of historic major market radio stations including K-100 Los Angeles, CKLW Detroit, WRKO Boston, and KFRC San Francisco, all during contemporary music’s prime. Discovered by radio legends Bill Drake and Paul Drew, Garland’s storied radio career landed him in Rolling Stone magazine’s coveted list of the “Music Industry Heavy 100.”

As Garland says, “the audience always comes first.” At KFRC, San Francisco he achieved groundbreaking accomplishments in radio – taking the station to new heights as the top-rated station in the northern California market. Legendary KFRC was named Radio Station of the Year no less than four times while Garland was being voted Program Director of the Year by his peers. Channeling Orson Welles, he created a KFRC promotional spot that has since become a part of radio history. It also netted him a Clio. The award-winning promo, titled “Close Encounters”, stunned listeners by announcing that the station would go silent to communicate with extraterrestrials.  

On the heels of his distinguished stint in radio, Garland was hand-picked by elite label founder Ahmet Ertegun and label chief, Doug Morris, to leap from radio to records, managing West Coast operations for the most venerable brand in music, Atlantic Records. Atlantic was home to many of the most popular artists in history, including Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Abba, Aretha Franklin, Foreigner, The Spinners, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and AC/DC.

Garland was one of the original influencers of 80’s culture, bringing about the game-changing development of music television as co-founder of the iconic MTV and VH1. MTV, the world’s first 24-hour music channel, was home to the anthemic “I Want My MTV” marketing hook, which Garland played a key role in developing. Along with co-founder, Robert Pittman, serving as MTV Networks Senior Executive Vice President, Garland was Executive Producer of the first six MTV Video Music Awards and oversaw all elements of the music channel’s innovative programming. He was on the lead team that globalized the MTV brand with distribution into UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia. During his tenure at MTV, his humorous and witty nature shined through when he was asked to be the DJ voice embedded in the classic hit “We Built This City On Rock & Roll” by Jefferson Starship. The impromptu stunt immortalized his voice as the things DJ dreams are made of - while Garland, with a smile calls it “his first number one song.”

Following his extremely successful and innovative MTV years, Garland and Pittman co-founded Quantum Media, launching popular television shows “The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” “Streets” (TV’s first reality cop show), and the legendary Marvin Hagler / Sugar Ray Leonard title fight. 

After Quantum Media, he returned to music and television orchestrating a wide national roll-out of The Box Television Network – the world’s first interactive, on-demand music channel. Entering the 90’s, Garland envisioned an “on-demand” world. His intuition knew that audiences would want control of their viewing habits, making The Box the first network to offer audiences what they wanted, when they wanted it. The channels slogan captured this as “The Box: Music Television YOU control.” As Senior Executive Vice President, Garland played an essential role in the channel’s domestic and global rollout, handling programming, promotion, sales, and marketing, while simultaneously growing the channel to more than 50 million homes worldwide.

Garland moved on to found digital music platform sputnik7.com with music icon Chris Blackwell.  While Garland served as the company’s President, the channel won multiple awards, including a Webby for digital innovation. He also participated in the launch and roll-out of the College Television Network (CTN) that was ultimately acquired by MTV Networks and later became mtvU. Garland’s entertainment escapade then took him on to produce Pepsi’s multi-format radio campaign, enlisting a superstar line-up including Naughty by Nature, Luscious Jackson, Notorious B.I.G., PM Dawn, Digable Planets and The Rembrandts.

Today, Les Garland continues to lead mass media entertainment at the helm of his company AfterPlayEntertainment, a boutique, multi-disciplinary consulting practice. Internationally, AfterPlay has contributed to the development of music initiatives for Bacardi International. He also orchestrated a unique relationship between superstar artist Pitbull and Zumba Fitness. Garland executive produced and was the voice of the 2011 Tom Petty Tour radio, television, and media commercials, along with national commercial campaigns for Krystal restaurants.

Despite his success in other arenas, music and screens remain Garland’s passion. Recently, Garland co-founded and participated in the international launch of a new television programming service, called QYou,with longtime friend, award-winning music video producer, and former President of Lionsgate Digital, Curt Marvis. Best recognized as the CEO of an LA-based production company known as The Company, Marvis was the king of music video production, having produced MTV’s most popular rock videos between 1984 and 1994 with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Bon Jovi.

Having held several executive management positions in the music, radio, music television, and new media industries, Garland is frequently sought out for speaking engagements. He has appeared at college symposia including engagements at Brown University alongside Hunter S. Thompson and Walter Cronkite and has been a featured speaker at the Billboard International Music Confab, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Australian Radio Broadcasters, the New Music Seminar, the International Music & Media Conference,and Austin’s famed SXSW Conference. He also keynoted the ESPN Sports Radio Convention and was guest lecturer at the Electronic Arts worldwide marketing conference. Garland received the first of four invitations to appear in a unique internet lecture on the subject of "Sex, Race, and Rock in the USA" in a class taught by Professor Rebecca Sheehan at Australia’s prestigious University of Sydney.

Garland has appeared in numerous publications including Vanity Fair, Time Magazine, GQ, People, USA Today, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Forbes, The Washington Post (May 22, 2016), Rolling Stone (May 1, 2016), Thrillist (Aug 12, 2016), and was featured in Billboard Magazine’s Power 100 List (Feb 18, 2017). Television exposure has included The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, Entertainment Tonight, and even a humorous cameo with Eddie Murphy on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Garland comes with more than four decades of music and entertainment related experience keeping himself at the forefront of numerous industries by working with bold face name artists spanning the alphabet from Aretha to ZZ Top. In a heartfelt ode to the meaning of family, Garland supports entrepreneur and author Rebecca Wilson Macsovits with children’s book and song Guion The Lion in support of diversity and Down Syndrome awareness. Garland is helping drive distribution across a myriad of platforms and spread the story and song worldwide.

He still finds time for another personal passion that nearly equals his love of music: the game of golf. Additionally, he has scored seven amateur career hole-in-one. His love for the golf course has translated into his love for the community. He has been a guest celebrity for multiple years in the Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament in Palm Springs, the #1 golf tournament in the country that raises record-breaking funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Garland is also a celebrity guest player at Olympian, Michael Phelps’ annual golf tournament in which raises funds for Adult Drowning Awareness and Mental Health via The Michael Phelps Foundation. Alongside those two, Garland is also a supporter of Jason Day’s Brighter Days Foundation tournament – founded by PGA Tour player, Jason Day; the foundation works to end child hunger in Ohio.

Garland has also appeared on Golf Channel’s Travel Insider with respected expert in the sport, Matt Ginella. On the show, he discusses some of the best golf courses in the Ozarks owned by Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops and owner of Big Cedar Lodge. Additionally, for the pure fun of it, Garland briefly caddied on the PGA Pro circuit for PGA Pro Tommy Armour III. As a former member of the Miami Beach community, he helped oversee the renovation of Miami Beach’s two public golf courses, the Miami Beach Golf Club and Normandy Shores, appointed by the City of Miami Beach in the early 2000’s.