About Mr. Rich
Born a while back in Brooklyn, NY, Rich was always in tune with music. Piano at five, bands by 13, picked up guitar and some other instruments along the way, studied a variety of styles and genres. You know.
But then Reggae came along and it changed everything. Rich discovered Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff....a friend went to Jamaica and brought back “Dry and Heavy” by Burning Spear and an old Big Youth album. “They were the first reggae records I heard in their entirety,” he says. From there, (as a DJ at a popular Florida radio station), Rich started a reggae program, began getting product shipped in and the rest is history: Moved to California, interned on The Reggae Beat, on KCRW in Santa Monica, CA (hosted by Reggae aficionados Roger Steffens and Hank Holmes), produced of several fine radio programs in LA, is an alumnus in good standing of the Groundling’s Theatre and general all round nice guy. With a journalism and communications major from U/F, tons of experience in production and a good attitude, Rich started Reggae TV in 2006. “I’m planning to interview every person in reggae. It’s an eternal process and it will never get completely done, so why not just go for it and enjoy the ride!”
About Stan Michelsen
Stan Michelsen was a disc jockey in Gainesville, Fl. through the 1980s at one of (if not the first) cable radio stations in the country, FM-98.6. He was a copywriter of radio and TV commercials as well as the morning DJ.
When that ended in 1983, Stan headed to Jamaica and bought a villa up in the hills above Montego Bay to raise his kids. Along the way, he was in eight episodes of Disney's Return to Treasure Island as pirate Jack Jones. He also acted along side Charlton Heston in TNT's Treasure Island and had rolls in Passion in Paradise with Armand Asante and Catherine Mary Stewart; and Harold Ramis’s Club Paradise with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole.
Stan also shows up in Cocktail with Tom Cruise and Popcorn with Tom Villard. Stan thought that was it, until his son, Sean, reminded him that he was also in The Wide Sargasso Sea with Rachel Ward and Michael York; in the TV Movie Scam with Christopher Walken and Lorraine Brocco (from The Sopranos); Prelude to a Kiss starring Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan and he ended his career as an actor with a wonderful part as a slave owner that gets hacked to death in Sankofa (with Mutabaruka and Kofi Ghanada, written and directed by Haile Gerima).
After he discovered that he couldn't act, Stan turned to music. His first single, The Shuttle Song was recorded at Music Mountain in Kingston, Jamaica. Stan had been writing since he returned from Viet Nam in Oct.1970 when he returned to the US. In 1992, after living in Jamaica, he set out to find his buddy, Rich Demaio and start this new venture. “We finally got back together in 2000 and we have been writing and producing music for the new decade.” Now, Stan joins Producer/Director Rich Demaio in ReggaeTV as Executive Producer pulling together all his background skills to get the show out to television stations throughout the US. “Rich is my “brother for life“ kind of friend. We’ve been working together for a long time, with plenty more to come!”