Boomerang (UK & Ireland)

Boomerang is a television channel broadcast in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland launched on 27 May 2000. It is broadcast 24 hours on the Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, BT TV, TalkTalk Plus TV, UPC Ireland and Freeview (UK) (via VuTV on channel 238). It mostly features classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo.

History

Origins

Boomerang was originally started in December 1992 as a programming block on Cartoon Network USA. It originally aired for four hours every weekend. The programming block followed a unique programming format—every week, cartoons produced during a certain year (and cartoons produced during years prior to that year) would be showcased. For example, if Boomerang was showcasing the year 1969, the viewer would more than likely see an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! or Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines. US Boomerang channel was launched in April 2000.

UK launch

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry is an American animated series of short films created in 1940, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It centers on a rivalry between its two title characters, Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse, and many recurring characters, based around slapstick comedy.

In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1957. During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1960 to 1962. Tom and Jerry then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking Looney Tunes. Chuck Jones then produced another 34 shorts with Sib-Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Two more shorts were produced, The Mansion Cat in 2001 and The Karate Guard in 2005, for a total of 163 shorts. Various shorts have been released for home media since the 1990s.

Daddy Yankee

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1976), known by his stage name Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican reggaeton singer, songwriter, producer and actor. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was raised in the neighborhood of Villa Kennedy Housing Projects.

Ayala aspired to be a professional baseball player, and tried out for the Seattle Mariners Major League baseball team. Before he could be officially signed, he was hit by a stray round from an AK-47 rifle while taking a break from a studio recording session with reggaeton mix tape icon DJ Playero. Ayala spent roughly one and a half years recovering from the wound; the bullet was never removed from his hip, and he credits the shooting incident with allowing him to focus entirely on a music career. Since then, he has sold over 18 million albums.

Musical career

1992–2003: Early music career

Daddy Yankee first appeared on the 1992 DJ Playero's Mixtape, Playero 34, with the song "So' Persigueme, No Te Detengas". Ayala was originally going to become a professional baseball player but he was shot in his leg while taking a break from a studio recording session. The bullet was never removed and he credits this incident with allowing him to pursue a musical career. He made a few songs talking about the shooting incident, but his most "complete" song about it was "6 De Enero", released in 2012. His first official studio project as a solo artist was No Mercy, which was released on April 2, 1995 through White Lion Records and BM Records in Puerto Rico. Early in his career he attempted to imitate the style of Vico C. He went on to emulate other artists in the genre, including DJ Playero, DJ Nelson, and DJ Drako, taking elements from their styles in order to develop an original style. In doing so, he eventually abandoned the traditional model of rap and became one of the first artists to perform reggaeton.

Alex Sensation

Alex Sensation (born Javier Alexander Salazar) is a New York City Hispan music DJ.

Music career

Alex Sensation began his DJing career at sixteen, playing records from his own collection at gigs in nightclubs. In 1999 he was named one of the top ten Hispan music DJs in New York City. As a radio DJ, he hosts two programs on La Mega 97.9 FM: La Original Mega Mezcla and La Mega Mezcla Sábado en la Noche. He has also acted as a spokesperson for Johnnie Walker Black in his capacity as a La Mega DJ, and hosted music festivals for the radio station at Madison Square Garden entitled the DJ Alex Sensation's La Mega Mezcla Live. During the week of November 24, 2012, the song Balada (Tche Tcherere Tche Tche) became the number one song on the Billboard’s Tropical Song list, a track by Gusttavo Lima that featured Alex Sensation as well as Pitbull.

Other work

In 2012 he partnered with Jorge Posada and Don Omar in order to create a program to help young men of Hispan descent transition from youth to responsible adulthood. At the 2015 Billboard Latin Music Conference he moderated the New Latin Urban Movement panel, which discussed the place of urban artists within the American music genre. He has also appeared on previous Billboard music conference panels.