Staff
The Planetary Group staff is a blend of people who all bring their unique experiences and talents to the table. In fact, our staff is just unique as your music. No matter your style or genre you will find that you will feel right at home working with our high energy and dynamic team.
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Adam Lewis
Founder
One of Planetary’s founding members, Adam Lewis has demonstrated commitment to music promotion from the get-go. While at college, Adam acted as the Chairman of the Activities Board, as well as the Music Director & Arts Editor of the radio station and newspaper. Adam also produced and promoted an independent EP, which charted on CMJ for 9 weeks.
The Summer of 1990 found Adam with yet another task — tour managing the Aquanettas (IRS) on their North American tour opening for Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto. Upon graduating he worked for Harris Goldberg at Concert Ideas in Woodstock, NY, and opened a satellite office of Concert Ideas here in Boston. In between the move from Woodstock to Boston, Adam hit the road again — this time as Tour Manager for Alien Sex Fiend (Mechanic).
So, what’s Adam been up to these days? Besides leading Planetary into the new millennium, he spent five years as the New England Sales Manager for TVT Records, where he played an integral part in the promotion of such acts as Sevendust, Guided By Voices, and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Adam also does all of the publicity, promotion, and media buying for Great Northeast Productions. Great Northeast produces over 50 (club level to stadium-sized) shows a year throughout New England. They have also been responsible for all of the large-scale Phish shows for the last few years, including The Clifford Ball, The Great Went, Lemonwheel, Oswego, It, Coventry, and the 2000 New Year’s Eve show in Florida, which was the largest millennium rock show in the world. For several years, Adam also managed Blackbird/Atlantic recording artists, Angry Salad.
Luke Phillips
Radio Promoter
Luke “Diamond” Phillips was born and raised in and around Flint, Michigan. As a youth, he voraciously consumed all of the pop culture and random history he could possibly handle, which makes him great at trivia. All of that obsession finally culminated when, at 16, Luke read Our Band Could Be Your Life for the first time. That settled it — young LDP was now obsessed with music culture almost exclusively.
Our hero attended Oakland University in Auburn Hills, MI, where in his first week he stepped inside the doors of WXOU Radio. Thereafter, he pretty much never left the station’s walls until graduation, becoming a student DJ in the process. Fellow DJs and staffers soon took notice of Luke’s wide-ranging, all-encompassing, super-inclusive taste, encyclopedic knowledge of bands and artists, and willingness to animatedly discuss these and various other subjects with anyone and everyone.
Freshly graduated, Luke has transplanted to LA, where he’s joined the radio department at Planetary. He’s just as excited to talk to YOU about records and the minutiae of life as he is everyone else.
Cristina Ramirez
Office/Project Manager
Cristina Ramirez is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist and music enthusiast, originally from Pearblossom, CA. After moving to LA in 2009 to attend Loyola Marymount University, Cristina began volunteering at the on campus radio station, KXLU 88.9 FM, as part of the video crew filming and editing live performances. Her creative endeavors extended to DJing a weekly show and handling promotions and publicity for the radio station. She graduated in 2012 with a BA in Studio Arts with an emphasis in Screen Printing.
Cristina currently works as a Project Manager for The Planetary Group, manages several LA musical groups, and exhibits her artwork and zines in local art spaces and galleries. Her interests include petting cats, using Domino’s Pizza Tracker, and watching Bob’s Burgers.
Ben Zalman
Director of Promotion
As a music industry professional and attorney with over 15 years of experience in the music and entertainment industries, Ben started off as the music director at WMVL Radio. Soon after, Ben joined the Planetary Group and has led successful campaigns with artists including The Decemberists, Interpol, Bob Mould, Passion Pit, Gogol Bordello, Kings of Leon, Sun Kil Moon, Gaslight Anthem, DeVotchKa, and many others. Ben is passionate about developing new artists and creating opportunities for them to thrive.
Ben is also passionate about National League Baseball, craft beer, the intersection of music and the law, 90’s emo and punk rock, all things Larry David, Point Break, Spaceballs, and, of course, making themed playlists.
Rusty Roberts
Radio Promoter
Rusty Roberts is currently on his second tour of duty with the Planetary Group in their radio department. After his first run ended in 2009, he left the industry altogether and ended up in retail management for several years while still having the itch to be in the game. He started his own tiny little side gig called Locale Music, offering up tour and band management services, publicity and other industry-related consulting. He also missed being involved in radio from his college days where he was General Manager and Music Director of WSYC at Shippensburg University in Central Pennsylvania. He returned to the airwaves in January 2016 with This Is Not A Show, a weekly program on WERA featuring the best new music and sessions with some of the best up and coming acts in the independent music scene while also assisting with the overall music programming of the Arlington based low power FM station. Rusty returned to Planetary in 2018 who he now works for from outside of Washington, DC where he resides with his partner and their four-legged child, Gracie J. Puppy Dog.
Max Datner
Radio Promoter
Max Datner grew up in Philadelphia, where the culture of music and broadcasting has as rich a history as throwing objects at professional athletes. Max chose to be passionate about two of these things, starting his first radio show at his high-school station, WHHS, and interning as a production assistant on NPR’s World Cafe radio show.
At WPTS Radio in Pittsburgh, he hosted programs that featured music from Spanish and Portuguese speaking parts of the world, new music releases, and commentary on current events. Max spent a year as the Music Director at WPTS, the highlight of which was talking on the phone with the promoters at Planetary.
Now that he is on the other side of those calls, Max is working to make musicians’ dreams come true. Among his other LA endeavors are recording his own music as a singer-songwriter and growing his Top 200 Burger Chart.
Jasmine Muldrow
Press
A New Jersey native, Jasmine’s obsession with music started at a young age. Learning the piano, flute and then guitar, she credits Jimi Hendrix, early T-Swift and Rock Band for PS2 as major inspirations. As a kid, she collaborated with friends making early YouTube covers of songs by bands such as Alkaline Trio, Paramore, and Green Day (her personal fave.)
After her family’s sudden move to Tuscon, AZ, Jasmine found her first opportunity to work in music. At 18 years old, she was hired by the promotions department at KFMA/KLPX, local rock and classic rock stations, while attending Pima Community College. Her desire to learn and find her place in the music industry inspired her to transfer to Columbia College Chicago where she majored in Music Business, soon after picking up a minor in Public Relations. While working in fashion retail full-time as a manager/stylist for multiple brands, Jasmine immersed herself in the vibrant music scene in Chicago, helping to promote local musicians and artists, notable acts being Grace Weber and members of rap collective, Pivot Gang.
Trading Chicago for LA in the summer of 2019, Jasmine dabbled in the fashion PR world while also working in music PR, interning and freelancing throughout quarantine until finally finding a home here at Planetary as a full-time Music Publicist. In her free time, you can find her listening to her growing vinyl collection, playing Sims 4, binging classic teen movies from the 80’s and 90’s, or switching up her hairstyle in her Koreatown apartment.
Tim Gagnon
Press
Tim Gagnon is a recent transplant to the radio team and Los Angeles at large after spending his initial post-college years dabbling in every career path the East Coast has to offer in the music industry. Starting off as a general manager of WKNH at Keene State, Tim eventually relocated down to Boston, where he found himself covering Pile, Krill, Guerilla Toss, and many DJ sets for Allston Pudding. He eventually started working at a few venues and quickly earned the title of Least Intimidating Door Guy/Security Guard in Boston™, all while serving as a staff writer for Scout Magazines and writing for Noisey, Consequence of Sound, and Vinyl Me, Please.
Karolyn Jaranilla
Press
Born in LA and raised just outside it, Karolyn first discovered her passion for music when her dad bought the family’s first satellite radio. Scanning through hundreds of stations ignited her addiction for finding new music. It wasn’t until the end of her second year at UC Riverside when she started actively pursuing her passion. She first joined KUCR as a DJ and later became their Music Director.
After graduating in 2017 with a degree in Media and Cultural Studies, Karolyn interned for Planetary Group in their Radio Department and experienced college promotion from the other side. Now she’s learning the ropes of publicity and living the dream sharing all types of music.
In her spare time, Karolyn lurks on Reddit, solves Rubik’s cubes and compiles a weekly playlist of recently discovered music to share with anyone willing to sit through her excessive Instagram stories.
Shane Greenberg
Publicist
Shane Greenberg was born in the San Fernando Valley in 1990, and was raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. He became obsessed with music as a child, and once he inherited his father’s vinyl collection when he turned 15, he was off to the races, as his obsession began to take hold. After graduating from Valencia High School in 2008, he went off to college. A lot of different colleges, in fact. One year at the University of Arizona, one year at Humboldt State University, a summer at UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, two years at the University of Oregon where he received a B.A. in the Humanities, and a summer abroad at Universita del Salento in Lecce, Italy. All in four years!
Upon returning home after his studies, he began his career in 2013 at Los Angeles-based independent record label/boutique PR agency Friends of Friends. In 2014, he began interning at Motormouthmedia. In 2017, he moved over to Grandstand Media. Shane quickly began to work with a healthy roster of some of the most innovative artists on the scene, including Tame Impala, A$AP Ferg, Perfume Genius, Phoebe Bridgers, Hatchie, Liz Phair, Johnny Marr, Melody’s Echo Chamber, The Radio Dept., Tenacious D, Devendra Banhart and many more. In 2018, Shane married the love of his life, Lauren, and they reside in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles with their dear dog Dottie.
Shane joined Planetary Group in June of 2021, as the newest member of the press team.
Devin Castaño
Radio Team
Devin Castaño developed a love for punk rock while growing up in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts a few T stops away from the greatest venues in town. She took her obsession to Los Angeles when she went to Loyola Marymount University for film school. Starting her own rock show on KXLU in 2018 was a quick way for her to get immersed in the LA music scene, and later on, Devin served as KXLU’s Music Director during her senior year. When she’s not working with the Planetary radio team or scoping yard sales for vinyl, Devin is walking her very mean chihuahua in Silverlake.
Matty Monroe
Radio/Digital Team
Born and raised in southern Illinois just outside of St. Louis, MO, Matty’s love of music formed when he was young listening to classic rock and pop radio, eventually translating over to hip hop and indie music in his teenage years. While in high school, he founded the Indieheads Podcast in 2014 and a year later, joined the radio broadcasting program at Lewis and Clark Community College, where he eventually 89.9 WLCA’s Assistant Program/Promotions Director from 2016 until his graduation in 2017.
In late 2016, he joined the moderation team at Reddit’s r/indieheads subreddit, eventually heading up their AMA (ask me anything) and social media teams, along with editorial duties as the founder and editor of the r/indieheads Album of the Year Write-Up series. In his spare time, he’s a writer with bylines in Paste, Merry-Go-Round, and Opinion Police, along with heading up Soft Sounds, the weekly newsletter of the Indieheads Podcast.
Sofia Loporcaro
Social/Digital Manager
When it comes to supporting new music, Sofia Loporcaro is a lot like a proud soccer mom. Whether she’s spamming her Instagram followers with new music or sneaking emerging artists into her friends’ playlists, she is constantly working to get new ears onto the music she believes in. It’s this very pride & passion that dictates her career, & has forged her path in the music industry.
In addition to joining the team here at Planetary, Sofia is the hard-working, team-of-one behind two podcasts: Before the Chorus, a deep dive music interview podcast, & SoLo Sounds, a new music show on Spotify. Before that, she hosted a show on Amazing Radio for three years, volunteered with Sofar Sounds London & Dallas/ Fort Worth, & worked on projects for The Economist podcast, BBC Radio 2, Green Man Festival, & more. Over the years, she has interviewed the likes of alt-J, Glass Animals, clipping., & Japanese Breakfast, even managing to win three major awards for her work.
Outside of the office, you can find Sofia making pasta sauce for her friends (she is the proud grandchild of four Italian immigrants), hoarding ceramics, building her dream apartment in The Sims 4, or testing out a new hiking trail.
Ted Davis
Radio Team