Etienne has been promoted from programme controller, but will continue to handle programming as well as his new strategic responsibilities.
The creation of the new role comes as the station's head of music, Des Paul, prepares to leave the station at the beginning of June to move to MTV as music editor.
Choice FM was previously headed by Graham Bryce, who was also managing director of Xfm and Capital Gold, but left in October 2005.
GCap operations director, Steve Orchard, said: "The last two years have shown increased listening figures, with recent Rajar scores showing more people are tuning into Choice FM and for longer."
In the most recent Rajar audience figures Choice FM's share of listening was 1.9%, up from 1.5% a year earlier.
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