New General Manager of the Basel_Karlsruhe Forum

The Board of Trustees has elected Urban Frye to succeed Robert Ruoff, who has been General Manager for many years. He will take up his new position as General Manager of BaKaFORUM on July 1, 2010. Frye is an expert on the international TV industry and an experienced television producer, according to a Forum press release. In his role as editor and producer for the Klanghotel series on Swiss television, Frye oversaw the international purchasing of programs and many of his own productions, including a 14-hour live broadcast on the subject of William Tell and a major live show to mark the 40th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was a member of expert groups at the European Broadcast Union EBU and was also responsible for the international formats Young Musicians and Young Dancers, the classical counterparts to the Eurovision Song Contest. Four years ago, he took over the reconstruction of the Rose D'Or television festival for entertainment formats. He was instrumental in the production of the new Swiss Tatort series in Lucerne and is currently responsible for setting up the "Filmlocation Lucerne-Switzerland" office for Central Switzerland.
The forum was founded 48 years ago by the SRG together with the European Broadcast Union EBU and is now regarded as the most important specialist conference in Europe for current international developments in television and media programs with educational, scientific and socio-political objectives. Around 200 media professionals from various countries in Africa, America, Asia and Europe work together in a global network at BaKaFORUM.