RHINO HORNS IN ON WEA CATALOG SALES

WEA's catalog sales team just got a whole lot hipper.

WEA Chairman/CEO Dave Mount and Rhino Entertainment Prexy Richard Foos announced at the current WEA meetings taking place in Atlanta that 22 members of the Rhino sales and video department will be moving into WEA's Burbank headquarters to take over the sales and retail marketing responsibilities for all of the labels' catalog product. The division will be called the Strategic Catalog Marketing Group.

Rhino sales topper Bob Carlton will be joining the WEA team as Sr. VP Sales and Marketing for Catalog, reporting to WEA EVP/GM Alan Voss. The Strategic Catalog Marketing group will immediately oversee $500 million in WEA catalog, retain responsibility for Rhino releases and WEA's video titles.

Dave Mount took some time out from the group volleyball game to tell us that the rest of Rhino's staff, including A&R, Marketing, etc., will remain intact. "Rhino is still a significant label and a significant presence in what they do, and none of that will be changing."

Mount is also quick to point out that no jobs will be lost on the distribution or label level, either at Rhino or any of the WEA stable.

"Our existing sales force will continue to be doing the day-to-day selling of the catalog. In effect, they will become a new sales arm for Carlton's new team. Rhino also has people that focus on non-traditional or non-music stores. And they've done a terrific job of getting product into those outlets, whether it's museums, nature stores or toy stores, etc., and they'll now be looking for opportunities within our entire catalog."

Some insiders liken the move to UMVD's catalog division headed by Bruce Resnikoff and sales honcho Richie Gallo. The new WEA catalog entity is expected to begin in September. But they can always send us those doo-wop box sets now.