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Froggy & His Virginia Records Partners

Joseph C. Messina- Joe Messina is President of Virginia Records and is an attorney in private practice in Mamaroneck, New York. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1977, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1983. He is a member of the New York State, Westchester County, and American Bar Associations.

While his office is engaged in the general practice of law, Messina has extensive experience in representing recording and performing artists, record producers, recording studios, agents, film directors and writers, and music publishers and distributors. Over the years, he has also managed recording and performing artists, has worked closely with many industry greats such as Bill Cosby and has extensive experience with press agents, booking agents and public relations specialists. He received a gold record for his management of the artist Steam and their highly successful record “NA NA, HEY, HEY, KISS HIM GOODBYE.” The song produced sales in excess of six million copies in the early 1970’s. He also received a Grammy nomination in 1992 as project attorney on a jazz album which included the last recorded performance by jazz legend Art Blakey.

Messina is also an accomplished musician and has been involved in writing, arranging and producing records for several artists. He also served as music director for many artists in the 1970’s and 1980's.

He serves in a general management capacity at Virginia Records while maintaining in-house counsel duties. Messina holds a Masters from Yale and a J.D. from Fordham Law School. He resides in Larchmont, New York with his wife and children.

William Hanff M.D.- By the time he was twelve years old, “Doctor Bill Hanff” was singing and playing guitar and piano with his own band. He received his first recording contract at age 18 from ABC Paramount. He continued playing and recording throughout college, but his interest in books, learning and people soon took over and he entered Georgetown University School of Medicine. Music continued to be a big part of his life while he earned his M.D. degree and then subsequent specialty training in orthopaedic surgery. His taste in music broadened beyond rock and roll, which was the focus of his early years, to include classical, pop, jazz and country music.

Hanff practices medicine and raised a family along the banks of the Potomac River in the town of Alexandria, Virginia. He is on staff in several hospitals in the Northern Virginia area and maintains an active practice of orthopaedic medicine.

As he became more and more influenced by country music, Hanff went back to the studio to record again, this time to express his talents as a country artist and writer.

Hearing the pure sounds of Hanff’s voice on the demos impressed a number of record producers in Nashville and convinced him to “get serious,” and come to Nashville and record an album. That initial album “Patience,” has blossomed into a major musical event and paved the way for music video productions and further albums.

During the production of his second album, Hanff’s Nashville contacts suggested that Hanff drop the “doctor” moniker so that people could appreciate his pure, vocal talent. That second album, “In The Zone” launched last year took the dance clubs by a storm prompting Hanff to go on the road to perform at various dance clubs throughout the country.

Bruce Shindler- Virginia Records Inc. couldn’t have hooked up with a better-connected Nashville insider for Froggy’s Country Storybook. Bruce Shindler, former co-owner of Shindler-Turner & Associates, a prominent national record promotion company, is now Head of Promotion for DreamWorks-Nashville. Shindler has a wealth of promotion and record company experience, and is also a co-creator of Froggy’s Country Storybook.

Shindler’s role with the Froggy’s Country Storybook project, since helping to conceptualize the series, is as Nashville liaison between the artists’ managers and executive producer, and the corporate and marketing team; part talent wrangler; part adjunct to the board of directors. It is because of the trust that Shindler has earned from today’s top country artists and artists’ managers that Bryan White, Pam Tillis, Terri Clark and several other of country music’s most recognizable names are on board as narrators of the classic Children’s tales embodied in the 20-minute tapes.

“These stories are classic, grass roots stories,” he says. “They have universal themes that are adaptable to a rural American interpretation. And we try to pick stories with a moral at the end. Our Writers simplify the message and we also try to keep it positive and family-oriented,” Shindler adds.

As a promotion man, Shindler has a wide breadth of experience that has carried him from New York to California to Tennessee. Schooled at the RCA Institute and the New York Institute of Technology in multi-disciplinary communications studies in radio, television and film production, he started out as a disc jockey at the college radio station. After college, he gravitated to the record business, where he soon got involved in record promotion at Buddha, Elektra, Asylum, and Infinity.

The industry recognized Shindler’s quality and commitment early. He was named Promotion Person of the Year by BILLBOARD Magazine in 1978. Shindler’s first country promotion job was with Lifesong Records. By 1980, he attained the rank of national promotion director at Main Street Records in New York.

When Shindler moved to Nashville to work for Paradise, MTM, RCA and Mercury during that decade, he was always one of the top people in promotion. In 1991, he founded his own promotion company, Shindler-Turner and Associates, Inc, with partner Susan Turner, before joining DreamWorks-Nashville in 1997. His former clients at Shindler-Turner included Warner Bros., MCA, the Sony Music Group, Arista, Curb, Mercury, Polygram Music, Sony/Tree Publishing and numerous individual artists through their management, including top talents such as Alan Jackson, George Strait, Reba McEntire, and Brooks & Dunn.

Harvey Cooper- Not many people can say they have worked with industry greats such as Elvis Presley, Jefferson Starship, John Denver, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Stephanie Mills, Glen Campbell and Henry Mancini. Not many more can say that they’ve received upwards of 40 Gold and Platinum Records. Yet, Harvey Cooper is one of those few people who can actually say that and it means something in the industry.

Cooper has been in the record business for three decades. He’s served in positions ranging from Promotions Manager to Senior Vice President of Promotions and Artist and Repertoire for 20th Century Fox Records. His experience has ranged from managing promotional staffs to arranging artist tours to negotiating and coordinating all sales and marketing programs for Fox and other record labels including: Bell, Haven and RCA Records.

The founder of his own consulting company that specializes in artist development, promotion, and management, Cooper is a co-creator of FROGGY’S COUNTRY STORYBOOK. His clients include Marchese Communications, Dennis Lambert, DJM Records and Babylon Records. He is also a music consultant to law firms Arnold/Porter in Los Angeles and Kimball/Parr in Salt Lake City.

Cooper’s marketing talents and sales experience have been invaluable to the Froggy project. It is through his persistent and diligent work that Froggy has made it into the hands of thousands of children throughout the country.

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