Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

subego · Jun 3, 2012, 03:45 PM

Dvorak
Needleman
Searls

subego · Jun 10, 2012, 08:19 PM

Ihnatko
Cannata
Someone else

subego · 07:15 PM

It's a blood bath.

Canned:
Dr. Kiki's Science Hour
Futures In Biotech
This Week in Radio Tech

Most likely canned:
TWiT Photo
FLOSS Weekly

On notice:
This Week in Computer Hardware
HAM Nation
The Social Hour

Plus, all the non-TWiT shows which were broadcast on their live feed (This Week in Science, PC Perspective, Trey's Variety Hour) are vanquished as well.

Cold Warrior · Jun 16, 2012, 08:09 PM

Why? I don't keep up with the channel but drama and chaos interest me.

subego · Jun 16, 2012, 10:57 PM

No ratings, so that isn't dramatic in and of itself, but it sounds like TWiT is starting to show up in the red, so there's been an overall policy shift away from pro bono programming.

I remember a year ago he would say things like "Dr. Kiki's Science Hour don't make money, but I feel an obligation to do it anyways". Now he's saying "Game On shot $100,000, I've got big medical bills (presumably his daughter, who went schizo), and no one will buy ads on Tech News Today.

subego · Jun 16, 2012, 11:15 PM

Since we're on drama and chaos, I'll give you the daughter recap too.

His daughter (Abby) lost it her freshman year of college. She was found wandering around in traffic in a daze and was committed.

He mentioned this on the air, and his daughter went completely ballistic (as well she should have IMO). It was actually a sweet moment though that he said he knew she was going to be okay when she screamed at him "Dad, I hate you for this!"

Since then he's been somewhat more quiet about things, but every now and again he leaves hints about the situation. Abby has dropped out of college for the moment, but isn't living at home, presumably because she doesn't need to deal with her parents getting divorced.

Surprisingly, all this seems to be due to a long-term case of untreated Lyme's disease. That can certainly make you schizo.

subego · Jun 17, 2012, 04:09 PM

Also, if anyone is wondering how it's appropriate for me to be mad at Leo for spilling his daughter's private info, while at the same time repeating all that private info myself, stop wondering. It isn't. I'm being an asshole, and I sadly like gossip.

subego · Jun 17, 2012, 05:20 PM

Shwood
Dvorak
Morris (Clayton)
Stevens

subego · Jun 17, 2012, 05:25 PM

And Ozzy

The Final Dakar · Jun 20, 2012, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by subego

It's a blood bath.

Canned:
Dr. Kiki's Science Hour
Futures In Biotech
This Week in Radio Tech

Most likely canned:
TWiT Photo
FLOSS Weekly

On notice:
This Week in Computer Hardware
HAM Nation
The Social Hour

Plus, all the non-TWiT shows which were broadcast on their live feed (This Week in Science, PC Perspective, Trey's Variety Hour) are vanquished as well.

Originally Posted by subego

No ratings, so that isn't dramatic in and of itself, but it sounds like TWiT is starting to show up in the red, so there's been an overall policy shift away from pro bono programming.

I remember a year ago he would say things like "Dr. Kiki's Science Hour don't make money, but I feel an obligation to do it anyways". Now he's saying "Game On shot $100,000, I've got big medical bills (presumably his daughter, who went schizo), and no one will buy ads on Tech News Today.

Perhaps I'm cynical, but I feel like this is the side-effect of him moving to the new location, which sounded like it was a huge investment. If you're trying to maintain a brand, cutting the majority of the programming sounds like a bad move, but I don't know shit.

Originally Posted by subego

Surprisingly, all this seems to be due to a long-term case of untreated Lyme's disease. That can certainly make you schizo.

Originally Posted by subego

Also, if anyone is wondering how it's appropriate for me to be mad at Leo for spilling his daughter's private info, while at the same time repeating all that private info myself, stop wondering. It isn't. I'm being an asshole, and I sadly like gossip.

Well, you can't bring it up and then not explain it.

subego · Jun 20, 2012, 03:24 PM

Yeah, but I'm pretty clearly enjoying it.

subego · Jun 20, 2012, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Perhaps I'm cynical, but I feel like this is the side-effect of him moving to the new location, which sounded like it was a huge investment. If you're trying to maintain a brand, cutting the majority of the programming sounds like a bad move, but I don't know shit.

To be fair, most of these shows are at the fringes of what the brand is about.

subego · 05:29 PM

Magid
Block
~~Someone else~~
The Padre

Also of note, overtures have been made to LeVar Burton to be a guest on iPad Today.

The Final Dakar · Jun 26, 2012, 09:47 AM

Maybe it was work, but I barely made it through half of this week's episode. Just awful.

ort888 · Jun 26, 2012, 10:48 AM

Twit is very hit or miss for me.

Some weeks it's great and some weeks it falls very flat.

It really depends on the guests and what's happening in the world of tech.

The Final Dakar · Jun 26, 2012, 11:00 AM

I think the news this week was good, but the guests were just bad.

subego · Jun 26, 2012, 08:07 PM

Yup. This was a dull one.

I'd say these particular guests are usually good, but didn't bring much to the table this time. The only excuse I can come up with is everyone was burnt on MS news.

subego · Jun 26, 2012, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

Twit is very hit or miss for me.

FWIW, that's why I keep posting the lineup. That way you can see if there's a guest who grabs you (or not).

subego · Jul 2, 2012, 12:13 AM

Prager
Jarvis
Olanoff

subego · Jul 2, 2012, 12:48 AM

They play a clip of an epic Scobleizer rant.

NSFW if you work where people can't swear really loud.

Scoble Freaks Out on Google - YouTube

The Final Dakar · Jul 2, 2012, 03:27 PM

Is it me or were there more ads than normal this week? Seems like he squeezed one extra in.

subego · Jul 2, 2012, 03:52 PM

It seemed like an ass-load to me.

The Final Dakar · Jul 2, 2012, 03:58 PM

Another principle he's compromising for the bottom line?

subego · Jul 2, 2012, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Another principle he's compromising for the bottom line?

Well, it's like the old joke, "we've already determined what you are, we're just negotiating price".

subego · Jul 8, 2012, 02:30 PM

Milian
Hiner

Umm... yeah. Kinda thin on the ground there Chad.

Next Week:

Dvorak
O'Dell
Worley 😍

The Final Dakar · Jul 11, 2012, 10:26 AM

I like Milian.

O'Dell with Dvorak. The conspiracy continues.

subego · Jul 11, 2012, 10:56 AM

I thought they were good guests, and I think "Bluhmbherg Buhssnef Bweek" is funny, just that it didn't have the usual number of guests.

The Final Dakar · Jul 11, 2012, 10:58 AM

He does an excellent Droopy.

subego · Jul 14, 2012, 03:07 PM

The Padre has successfully sold me on his new show.

subego · Jul 16, 2012, 06:53 AM

Merritt may split.

At one point on TWiT he had:

Tech News Today
Frame Rate
Triangulation
At the Controls (the original gaming show)
Current Geek Weekly
East meets West
FourCast

Now he does:

Tech News Today
Frame Rate

The Final Dakar · Jul 16, 2012, 07:04 AM

Sounds like the Network is dying.

Edit: Also, O'Dell got destroyed this week.

subego · Jul 16, 2012, 07:19 AM

Honestly, I have to tune her out at this point.

I'd be worried about the network too, but they've still got enough gas to start up three new shows, and all of them seem relatively decent.

Sarah Lane, who's a good host, is starting an iPhone show (which is crazy they don't have already)
Leo's doing a how-to show now. He's made for that shit.
And, as you can see above, the Padre is going to invite us into his shower.

subego · Jul 16, 2012, 07:48 AM

Also, if I understand the TWiT business model correctly, full time, on-air staff are paid mostly with a revenue share of their shows, so two out of the three shows are going to cost almost nothing to produce.

ort888 · Jul 16, 2012, 08:07 AM

Well, Gruber charges $2,500 a spot on his show and has two per week.

Doing the math, he can rake in $260,000 a year doing a podcast. I'm sure he gives his co-host some sort of share, plus has hosting expenses, etc... but that's a pretty good chunk of change for one guy basically having a conversation with another guy for an hour and a half a week.

5by5 charges like $7,000 for a weeklong spot on all of it's shows. Typically they have 3 sponsors per week, so they would be making roughly $21,000 per week just on on-air sponsors. They have other forms of sponsorships as well.

I have a feeling that the "premier" podcasters on 5by5 (John Siracusa, Merlin Mann, Marco Arment, etc...) can pull in a decently large chunk of change just by doing a podcast every week. Probably as much as a lot of us make doing our regular jobs... and this isn't their regular job.

I'd imagine TWIT can charge a bit more than that, but the big difference is that they have a big fancy studio and employees to pay for.

subego · Jul 16, 2012, 08:34 AM

Leo's made it pretty clear he isn't out to maximize profits. TWiT's top shows could be (and have been) produced in a shoebox.

The five big name shows (TWiT, TWiG, MBW, Windows Weekly, and Security Now) basically carry the entire network, fancy studio included. AFAIK, every other show is break-even or worse.

Tech News Today is the sad story here (and may have something to do with Merritt's bearish seeming attitude). It's a popular show, it killed BoL, but for whatever reason, advertisers aren't finding their ads nearly as effective as on a weekly show, even if the weekly show has less downloads than a single episode of TNT.

Nancy Z · Jul 17, 2012, 02:14 AM

does anyone have probe downloading the podcast?!

subego · Jul 17, 2012, 02:50 AM

Nope.

Which one are you trying to get?

ort888 · Jul 18, 2012, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by subego

Next Week:
Dvorak
O'Dell
Worley 😍

I'm so tired of O'Dell. She's so smug and irritating. I don't care that she has "beef" with Apple. This isn't about that. Her opinions are just bad. Her personality is grating.

OwlBoy · Jul 19, 2012, 12:40 PM

Started the episode, skipped a bit past the ads at the front and started hearing talk of slut brownies from Jolie O'Dell and closed the window.

subego · Jul 22, 2012, 02:00 PM

No O'Dell

Dvorak
The Padre
Harris

subego · Jul 22, 2012, 03:58 PM

What a dud episode.

It was implied Dvorak was an emergency guest.

subego · Jul 29, 2012, 02:06 PM

Silverman
McCracken
Ray

Surprise guest from DEFCON

Also, prepare for four commercials.

The Final Dakar · Jul 30, 2012, 11:02 AM

Every time Silverman is on its boring as hell. It's not like McCraken is the life of the party himself.

subego · Jul 30, 2012, 02:53 PM

Agreed. Not a good show. I like Ken Ray though, and the Padre always delivers.

The best line of the show was by far "I don't think the Vatican knows about him".

ort888 · Jul 31, 2012, 08:07 AM

Yeah this is boring.

Hey guess what, we don't care about the Olympics.

All this bitching is stupid anyway.

Hey NBC, I know you are providing the most coverage of the Olympics in history, broadcast online like never before and on like 8 different channels at once... but we want more. More better faster now. Wah.

This is not a tech story. Or if it is, it's a 2 minute tech story. Slow news week I guess.

The Final Dakar · Jul 31, 2012, 08:13 AM

Them cock-blocking anyone without cable from watching on the internet seems like a valid story.

subego · Jul 31, 2012, 11:30 AM

Hillegass is on MBW.

Worst. Hair. Ever.

I long for the cowboy hat.

The Final Dakar · Jul 31, 2012, 11:31 AM

Interesting coincidence, because the Ray guy made me think of him and I was eternally grateful him and his superfluous hat weren't there.

subego · Jul 31, 2012, 11:52 AM

I'm telling you, it's not superfluous. It hides the raccoon living on his head.

He's a great guest though. What do you have against him below the hat-line?

The Final Dakar · Jul 31, 2012, 11:55 AM

All I can see is a giant hat occupying like 80% of the screen. That's enough.