Monte Conner

Monte Conner is a former senior vice president of A&R for Roadrunner Records. His path into the music industry began while at Baruch College in Manhattan, where he hosted a weekly underground metal radio show, called “The Witching Hour,” at the school's radio station WBMB. The show ran from September 1982 to December 1986 and during that time Conner immersed himself in the emerging thrash and death metal scenes, honing his skills for discovering new talent. After graduating college, he landed a job at Shatter Records handling College Radio Promotion. He was at Shatter for nine months, from March to November 1987, before leaving to join Roadrunner Records in December 1987, also doing College Radio Promotion. By January 1988, he added A&R to his duties at the label, and by late 1988 he became the label's Head of A&R for North America.

Conner is considered to be an expert not only in the genre of Heavy Metal, but also in the genres of Rock, Hard Rock and Classic Rock, and frequently discusses bands from these genres in magazines, on radio programs and podcasts, and in music films and documentaries. He occasionally serves as a consultant on reissue albums for various labels. He is also a music journalist and has written for Metal Mania magazine in the US, Classic Rock magazine in the UK, Rock Hard magazine in Germany, and currently writes in his own online blog on Facebook.