So with the signing of the distribution deal with USA, we would launch in March 1995 and with the launch would start paying $146,667 per month for the privilege. As the CFO, I knew the reality was that we would struggle to put together a great show, pay USA and have any money left over for marketing. The challenge would be creating a show that would break through and garner some attention. Not an easy challenge and thankfully this was not Kevin’s first rodeo,
Stepping back for a second, it had been over a year since we had shot our pilots. Kevin would have to put together talent that was available, affordable and would work with his vision of the show. Adam Curry had moved on to other projects. If anything, there was a bit of tension in the relationship. On our behalf a year earlier, he had gotten the cnet.com URL and it wasn’t dead easy for us to get him to hand it over when we needed it. Dr. Mae had also moved on to other projects which was probably a blessing. After NASA, the late night, slightly seat of the pants, invent it as you go CNET life was maybe not the best atmosphere for her.
So Kevin we get totally new talent. The first major addition was Richard Hart. As I mentioned in an earlier post, he was a popular local newscaster and host of The Next Step on Discovery, and legitimate technology enthusiast. He and Dan Sexton who had been the Executive Producer would arrive that December. Both were great guys, authentic to the category and would be long-time team members.
The second person was Gina St. John. She was an actress living in Los Angeles and had done some small parts including being Diane in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. She would fly back and forth from LA and though technology was not her background, she had a nice demeanor on camera, couldn’t have been nicer or easier to work with.
So how would we garner attention? What did Kevin have up his sleeve? How about a little OJ Simpson controversy. During the summer of 1994, there had been the murders of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and the famous white Bronco low speed chase through the highways of LA. If you remember from the pilot, we had done a segment with Failure Analysis Associates who could do computer recreations of events for trials and lawsuits. The big idea was for us to pay Failure Analysis to recreate the Nicole and Ron murders with an eye towards proving who did it. I don’t exactly remember the cost, but it was between $100 and $200k. Kevin talked to Rod Perth at USA and they said they would provide some promotion to this idea and the basic concept was it was cheaper to do this stunt than try to spend any dollars marketing ourselves.
Looking back, I understood why we did it but it is not maybe the most PC (and not personal computer version of PC) thing we could have done to start. When you watch the episode ask yourself the same question.
Here is the episode:
Lon and PK deserve thanks because we launched with some great advertisers like IBM, Network MCI and HP Printers.
Here are some great behind the scenes clips. We brought in a lot of friends to act as extras. You will see the team had grown. There are so many great folks you will see that it is hard to cover them all — David Overmyer, Thom Bird, Michael Mondo, Dan Sexton, Kelly Hendricks, Jason Pepper, Stace Felder, Michelle Mahoney, Chris von Rumohr, Nancy Guilbert, Sydney Rainin, Lew Baldwin, Dana DeMars, Chris Parker, and lots of others (as you recognize folks send me names and I will add to list). I will also point out Matthew Barzun in his famed Boston Bruins hat as stage manager (?).
Here also are some film strip from photos taken that night….
So we had launched the TV show, but weren’t in a position for the actual online presence. We did ask for folks email addresses so they could see the OJ video again with a hope of building a list for the coming launch. If you look carefully in pictures and video, you will see our future Editor-in-Chief, Chris Barr, and Ken Emery among others.
So, in March of 1995 we spent a bunch more money, had launched a TV show with advertisers and had at least teased the launch of our online service. That was a good night, but like the pilots it seemed to go on forever. Rick Brown, the Senior Producer, made the mistake of saying to Kevin, “if we don’t finish on time, you should fire me.” Sadly by the next week, he was off the team.
More to come…….
Fantastic. Not sure which video is more fascinating: Episode 1 of what would become become the biggest tech publisher in history, or the behind the scenes footage that shows an energy that just crackles. People had yet to retreat to the private sanctuaries of headphones, mobile screen stimuli, and being together alone.