Industry vet Kevin Fleming has died after a lengthy and tumultuous battle with pancreatic cancer over the past year. He was 65. Kevin Fleming’s entertainment business experience has been vast and varied. It includes radio, records, management, and publishing. For over 20 years Kevin was the CEO and publisher of The Urban Buzz, a leading urban music and entertainment blog and newsletter.
A native of Minneapolis, Kevin attended Clark College in Atlanta, obtaining a degree in Broadcast Management and Communications. Radio career highlights include WAOK & WIGO in Atlanta and WWDM-Sumter, SC. His first major market programming job came as Program Director of KGFJ-LA.
Kevin joined the record side of the business as Regional Promotion Representative for Island Records where he was rapidly promoted to Vice President of Black Music. After a brief stint at Third Stone Records, Kevin was selected as Vice President and General Manager of Perspective Records under the ownership of mega-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
During the early 1990s, Kevin returned to radio as Operations Manager and Program Director of KACE/KRTO in Los Angeles. He also started consulting radio stations in programming and overall operations.
In 2000, he joined Gavin Magazine as its Urban Editor, expanding the magazine’s coverage of urban radio and music while maintaining his radio consulting business. In 2002 he founded The Urban Buzz information newsletter and website.
In 2006, Kevin was hired by Radio One to program the company’s flagship station KKBT-LA, and transform it into the first-class major market urban adult brand, KRBV.
Most recently, Kevin was PD of Pacifica Radio’s KPFK in Los Angeles. He was the consummate lecturer and always willing to share his knowledge of radio programming and the music industry at conventions, seminars, and webinars as an expert panelist.
Kevin is survived by his wife Maria Fleming, son Dylan Fleming, parents Cynthia Tyner, and Gerald Fleming, sisters Stephanie Fleming, Karen Matthews, and Alycia Rivera, and a multitude of loving nieces and nephews and close family friends.