Alan Cross is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music. The host of 102.1 The Edge's program The Ongoing History of New Music and the ExploreMusic radio show and the curator of the ExploreMusic website, he also served as program director of the station from 2004 to 2008.
Originally from the small prairie town of Stonewall, Manitoba, Cross began his radio career with the University of Winnipeg's campus radio station, CKUW, in 1980. He subsequently joined radio stations in Selkirk, Kenora and Brandon before returning to Winnipeg's CHIQ. He then joined CFNY on October 3, 1986 as an overnight announcer.
In 1989, Cross became the station's afternoon drive time host. The following year, he moved to the 10 a.m.-2 p.m. slot; in 1993, he returned to afternoon drive and remained there until 2001. Beginning in February, 1993, he also became host of The Ongoing History of New Music which has been running continuously ever since.
Cross left CFNY in 2001 to become program director of CJXY in Hamilton (then known as Y95 and subsequently as Y108), although he continued to host The Ongoing History of New Music. He subsequently returned to CFNY as program director in mid-January 2004, remaining in that role until moving to Corus Entertainment's interactive media division, Splice Media (now called Corus Interactive And Integrated Solutions), in 2008 to launch the ExploreMusic project... although CFNY still airs The Ongoing History of New Music. He also hosts the television program Explore Music on aux.tv. His Brazilian assistant is also involved in his projects.
Cross is one of the very few personalities from the 1980s, CFNY's most influential period, still heard on the station today. He married Mary Ellen Beninger, a CFNY colleague, in 1990. She is currently a morning newscaster at CFTR in Toronto.
Cross was the host and quizmaster, for one year, of a regional broadcast of Reach For the Top. The show was broadcast on CHCH-TV in Hamilton during the 1990/91 school year and included teams from Hamilton, Niagara, Toronto, Peel & Halton. Ancaster High and Vocational School was the winner of the tournament in that year.