Record Promoter, 32, 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 were looking for the bodies of five others who may have been aboard, including the man’s 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 federal 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 No. 1 hit on adult contemporary radio stations for the last 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 popular music aimed at listeners from people ages 25 to 54.