Education: Master's in Speech Pathology and Audiology
Few aspects of the Christian music industry remain untouched by Melinda (Scruggs '79) Gales. Her passion and skills led her to a career working for major record labels, artist management firms, and now, in entertainment marketing and branding.
Sometimes she even uses her two degrees in speech pathology and her minor in counseling.
"I always say that was a perfect set up for working with clients in
the music industry - I teach them how to talk and how to deal with life issues," Gales says, only half-joking.
Her initial degree focus at Abilene Christian - radio and television journalism - fit her eventual career path but didn't sustain her interest at the time. She changed her major to speech pathology and audiology, in which she later earned a master's degree.
After a year of work as a speech pathologist, Gales knew it wasn't the right fit and was easily persuaded by her friend Michael Blanton ('74) to come to Nashville and try out a job in the music industry. Blanton and Dan Harrell had just begun Blanton/Harrell Entertainment and were managing a new artist, Amy Grant. Although they couldn't afford to hire Gales immediately, after a few months working for Word Entertainment, she was able to join Blanton/Harrell. A few years later, the trio expanded their business and began Reunion Records, still a leading Christian music label. During the 14 years she spent with Blanton/Harrell and Reunion, Gales worked in a variety of roles, including sales and promotions, public relations, publishing, album production, and tour management.
In particular, Blanton recalls a day when Gales made a successful presentation on behalf of Reunion Records to executives at music powerhouse Geffen Records, including chairman and CEO Ed Rosenblatt. "She just blew them away," Blanton said. "They gave her a standing ovation and Rosenblatt said, 'I think we just met the next president of Geffen Records, when I retire!' Melinda is a 5-foot-2 power-packed, dynamite marketing consultant."
Through her broad spectrum of experience, Gales found that her passion was for introducing Christian music and artists into the secular music industry.
"It's always been about how to broaden music, to get it to as many people as possible," she says. "That's always been what I felt I was about - broadening, rather than targeting one particular market."
After her marriage to fellow music industry executive David Gales, Melinda was recruited by AOL/Time Warner to create a music distribution division. As vice president and general manager, she developed and built Warner Christian Distribution from the ground up. Gales later joined O'Neil Hagaman, a Nashville-based business management firm, where she worked four years with top country music artists.
Now, however, she is able to incorporate her varied experience into working with her husband in The Gales Network (www.galesnetwork.com), providing marketing and branding for clients, many of them with entertainment industry ties.
And it has returned Gales to her original passion: broadening the reach of her clients.
"The thing I'm very excited and passionate about - what feeds my energy - is expanding the brand," Gales says. "Ultimately, I am a much more broad-spectrum person, not just about contracts or budgets, but about taking an idea and making people expect something from that idea, turning it into a brand."
