Record Promoter Identified as Victim of Plane Crash

The crash of a twin-engine plane in the ocean off Santa Barbara killed a nationally known record promoter, authorities said Thursday, and searchers are looking for the bodies of five others who may have been aboard, including his girlfriend and two Las Vegas disc jockeys.

The body discovered by the skipper of an oil rig boat about a mile offshore from the Carpinteria pier early Wednesday was that of Donald Cohen, 32, of North Hollywood, the Santa Barbara County coroner’s office said.

Scuba divers from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday found the cabin of a Piper Seneca PA-34 airplane in about 100 feet of water near where the body was found, a department spokesman said, but near-zero visibility at that depth has hampered searchers looking for more bodies.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.

The plane left Van Nuys Airport shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, apparently headed for Santa Barbara, and crashed about 11:35 p.m., NTSB spokesman Larry Yohe said. He would not say how many others are believed to be missing, but the plane’s owner told authorities on Wednesday that as many as six were aboard.

Believed to be among them were Stephen Ortolano, 31, music director and midday disc jockey at Las Vegas radio station KRLV-FM, and his girlfriend, Diane Songer, 34, a disc jockey for stations KJUL and KEDG, according to executives at the stations and friends of the missing couple.

Cohen, who was national director for promotion of adult contemporary music for MCA Records, apparently had a friend--believed to be named Greg--pilot the six-passenger aircraft to entertain the two visiting disc jockeys, said Leslie Marquez, a friend of Cohen and record promoter for Capitol Records.

An unidentified student pilot and Cohen’s girlfriend, Shannon Schmidt, were also believed to have been aboard, friends and neighbors said.

Cohen was enjoying success as the promoter of Elton John’s single “Simple Life,” which has been the number one hit on adult contemporary radio stations for the past three weeks, said Mike Kinosian, an editor at the weekly trade publication Radio & Records.

His job was to encourage music directors and programmers at adult contemporary radio stations to broadcast records by MCA recording artists.

So it was natural for him to have invited a visiting disc jockey for a night out, said friends.

“We know that they were all going out that night for dinner and we haven’t heard from them since,” said Carol Mendes, business manager for KRLV. Ortolano and Songer have not been seen since Tuesday, she said, and “we all feel there isn’t much hope that we are going to get any good news.”

Ortolano knew Cohen because Ortolano’s station played adult contemporary music, popular music aimed at listeners from ages 25 to 54.

Cohen, who worked his way up from the mail room in his 10 years at MCA--was described by colleagues as an energetic free spirit who played the guitar, drove a pickup truck and rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

He was a divorced father who recently threw a fourth birthday party for his daughter, Cassandra, Marquez said. “I’ve never seen anybody connect with their kid like he did,” Marquez said. “He bought her an electric train for her birthday.”

“Rising from the mail room at a place as big as MCA was really impressive,” said Mary Conroy, a national promotions director for Atlantic Records in New York. “But he knew what he wanted, and he got his foot in the door and impressed all the right people with his energy.”

Ortolano--who was from Buffalo, N.Y.--was well-known among thousands of Las Vegas radio listeners who tuned in to him at their workplaces during the day, said Program Director Tom Chase. Ortolano was to have returned to Las Vegas early Thursday to attend his father’s retirement party, Chase said.

Songer, who accompanied Ortolano to Los Angeles, was the morning radio personality for KJUL, which plays music from the 1940s through the 1960s, said office manager Nancy Stewart.

“She started out as an intern and did so well that she became our morning personality,” Stewart said. “When you heard her on the air, you could tell she was smiling.”

Cohen met Schmidt, a carpenter, when she worked on a job at MCA, friends said.

“They seemed so much in love,” said Kim Amidon, music director and morning co-host for KOST-FM in Los Angeles. “I’m still in shock.”