Celebrities to Host and Judge 'Battle of the Bands' Fundraising Concert at The Cable Show

WASHINGTON, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday evening, May 11, Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles will rock to the sounds of bands competing in the "Battle of the Bands" competition staged by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA).  Featuring musicians who hold day jobs with cable operators, networks, suppliers and the media -- as well as a special performance from Band From TV -- the concert will raise funds for this year's CableCares' beneficiary, "A Place Called Home," a non-profit youth center in South Central Los Angeles (www.apch.org).  

Emceeing this year's competition, courtesy of TV One, will be Christopher "Kid" Reid, host of TV One's "Way Black When" Black Music Month concert specials in June. Best known as one-half of the former hip hop musical act "Kid 'n Play" and for starring in the House Party movie series, Reid has also served as the host of contest shows such as "Your Big Break" and "It's Showtime at the Apollo."  

The three celebrity judges for this year's competition include:

• Kim Coles – Perhaps best known as "Synclaire" from her five seasons on FOX's comedy series, Living Single, Coles is the host of BET's pop-culture game show "Pay It Off" and co-host of their upcoming show "My Black is Beautiful."  Coles has also starred on numerous hit primetime television programs, including "Frasier," "The Geena Davis Show," "Six Feet Under," "In Living Color," and "One on One," among others.  She has also served as co-host for several morning programs, including "Fox After Breakfast" and Lifetime's "New Attitudes," as well as the national syndicated daytime talk show "In the Loop."
• Allison Hagendorf - A music industry veteran, Hagendorf is a host on "Fuse Top 20 Countdown," a new two-hour countdown show that includes interviews with celebrity guests, a recap of the week's biggest moments in music and the most popular music videos of the week.  Hagendorf worked as an A&R executive at SonyBMG for both Columbia and Epic Records for eight years, and currently serves as a host for "Steve Madden Music," as well as a voiceover artist (she's the voice of Oxygen TV).   She is appearing courtesy of Fuse.
• Bob Guiney – Of ABC's "The Bachelor" fame, Guiney is currently the host of "GSN Live" on GSN and TLC's "Date My House."  He also serves as co-host of WE's "3 Men and a Chick Flick," co-hosts Bravo's "Battle of the Network Stars," ABC's Super Bowl coverage, and many specials for E!, VH1 and TV Guide Channel.

Eight bands will compete in this year's charity concert, including the champion for two years running -- Xpanded Bandwidth -- from Cox Communications. Other bands in this year's competition include:

• Yellow Border Band (National Geographic Channel)
• The Solutions (ARRIS)
• New Day Dawn (NBC Universal)
• TV Rejects (CableFAX, C-SPAN, Retirement Living TV, Broadband Gear Report)
• Full Mesh (Juniper Networks)
• The Streamers (Cisco)
• One Night in NOLA (FOX Cable, Avail/TVN, NFL Network, Sony)

This year's concert will also feature a special headline performance by Band From TV -- featuring television stars:

• Greg Grunberg (NBC's "Heroes")
• Adrian Pasdar (NBC's "Heroes")
• James Denton (ABC's "Desperate Housewives")
• Bob Guiney (GSN's "GSN Live")
• Jesse Spencer (FOX's "House")
• Scott Grimes (NBC's "ER" and FOX's "American Dad").

The majority of the money raised from all Band From TV performances are donated to charity.

Now in its third year, Battle of the Bands has become a popular feature of The Cable Show, raising nearly one-half million dollars in the past two years to benefit the host communities for The Cable Show.  NCTA's 59th Annual Convention and International Exposition will be held the Los Angeles Convention Center, May 11 - 13, 2010.

One Battle of the Bands ticket is included with each paid The Cable Show full access registration.  Additional tickets are available for $65 each.  Fundraising efforts are focused on corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and personal donations.  Corporate sponsorships to date include:

• Platinum Sponsor: Cisco
• Gold Sponsor: Motorola
• Silver Sponsor: OpenTV
• Road Crew Sponsor: Disney/ABC Television Group
• With The Band Sponsor: ADB, ECI, SiTV, CSG Systems
• Battle of the Bands Supporters: TV One, Fuse, ABC Family

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For a full list of sponsorship opportunities, visit www.thecableshow.com/battleofthebands, or call NCTA's Industry Affairs Department at 202-222-2430.

For more information on Battle of the Bands, including ticket information and sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.thecableshow.com/BattleoftheBands or call NCTA Industry Affairs at 202/222-2430.

For more information about Band From TV, visit their official website http://www.bandfromtv.org. Band From TV can also be found on Twitter @bandfromtv and on MySpace at www.myspace.com/bandfromtv.

For more information on The Cable Show 2010, visit www.thecableshow.com or call NCTA Industry Affairs department at 202/222-2430.  

NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks. The cable industry is the nation's largest broadband provider of high-speed Internet access, serving more than 40 million customers, after investing more than $145 billion to build two-way digital networks with fiber optic technology. Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art digital telephone service to more than 20 million American consumers.

SOURCE The Cable Show 2010