Nyhl Henson’s Vision for the Future of Entertainment with Streaming 2.0:

Nyhl Henson’s career spans more than four decades across the entertainment industry, marked by influential roles in shaping modern media. From helping pioneer the Home Shopping Network and advancing pay-per-view events to contributing to the development of iconic brands like Nickelodeon, MTV, and CMT, his impact is far-reaching. Now, with his latest venture, Technotainment Streaming Media Inc., Henson is leading the charge into “Streaming 2.0”—a next-generation entertainment ecosystem that combines the personalization of Netflix, the commerce and community of Amazon and Facebook, and the immersive interactivity of gaming.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You ready? Hey music lovers, welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin, and I am here in Las Vegas, Nevada with Mr. Nile Hanson. Nice to see you again. We met Nile in August at the uh the inaugural songwriter, Las Vegas Songwriter Festival, which was such a great event.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Man, that was overwhelmed. And there wasn't uh there wasn't a buck uh uh spared on how that was all put together. Oh no. And and many of the writers that have written some of my favorite songs, uh uh were they were there. Yeah. Uh a in particular uh Taylor Swift has done pretty good. And yeah, yeah. So Liz Rose Rose who wrote a lot of music for Taylor was there. And that's where uh I ran into you guys. Yeah, yes. And you told me about your podcast, yeah. And uh as the launch of Technotainment here uh right away, which is a streaming company that has been designed uh over the past few years uh to be the model for what the streaming industry is becoming. Uh and as we know, all of the all of the legacy companies from Warner, uh Warner, Viacom, uh Comcast are coming into this industry with all guns loaded. Sure. And Price Waterhouse Cooper has projected that in 28 it will be a$3.4 trillion business. Oh my goodness. So pretty much what I've tried to do over the years is to get ahead of the curve and create a model to get proof of concept, and what technotainment's about is to be the first to get out there. Uh uh, I like to say a a very sleek yacht going out into the waters before the big battleships come in. Sure. And and uh we have spent all of our time and money uh with getting some of the smartest people around the world uh to help us create this model that while we have trademarked technotainment, capital T, and it is the name of our parent company, a Nevada C Corp, uh uh called Technotainment Streaming Media, uh technotainment.com, uh we would like to think that we have tested and beta tested everything, uh everything and gone through the learning curves before we go out into the waters, which is beginning to happen at the first of the year with our first uh tranch. And in that techno-tainment really is kind of a generic name for what the new industry is, uh, because now with with global streaming, three well, I don't know how many billion people can get access to this, right? And coming out of the earlier days of North mainly North American-centric and having you have a hundred thousand cable subscribers as MTV or CMT or Nickelodeon or whatever, right uh as a basic service, you're you're doing good. Right. In this case, we're total global distribution going in. And when I say we, uh uh I I include little startup technotainment with those big iconic companies, many of which I've had the pleasure of either working for or consulting with, so I know how they think, and uh hopefully we will have a model that a lot can be adapted without the learning curve which we can benefit from. And one of them, I believe, is that we have just in the pre-launch of the FERCS token for an entertainment company. We're in the pre-launch, we will launch it uh probably in the second end of the second quarter, and uh we're getting tremendous response in the pre-launch. But having been over to do the uh announcement, if you will, where they made me go as as opposed to our our president and and uh coo, that our one of them is here today, uh they had to prove I wasn't a bot, so I had to go to Korea for whatever that meant, for to Korea for the uh uh the the uh Korean blockchain 2025 expo. Okay. Who everybody who was anybody, I don't know how long this is supposed to be. We're we're we're usually 30 to 45 minutes. Okay. So we'll just yeah, yeah. We we we yeah. Okay. Well, um, so I'll I'll stay on path but fast forward to more exciting stuff. But this is exciting for me, and it will be for everybody because when we made the announcement in Seoul Korea at that conference, everybody who was anybody, as I say jokingly, after the uh cyber winter, because when new businesses like this happen and opportunities happen, everybody jumps in and you have a you have some kind of a winter. Too many people in, so the so-called cyber winter a couple years ago, or the people who survived that were there, or didn't go to jail. Oh, right, right. Absolutely ever there. So everybody who was anybody, and we took uh we we we caught we positioned this with this people that work with me uh uh are uh and how we presented CAS, but on my own personal one-on-ones with the big players who survived uh uh and are big, big players and they're gonna be uh in in this crypto side of the business, sure call it the banking side, uh, that I took the liberty to embarrass myself, maybe, and say, um, would I be crazy if I said to you that our coin that we are announcing here and have pre-sales going on pretty well, I might add, that I hope it to be that cast, as in broadcast, sure, as in as in cast in a podcast. Oh yeah. I didn't come up with a name our our our uh our our crypto people uh called bookends based in Lithuania uh are are had came up with that, and they're they're among the top five players in the game. Uh and uh they came up with the names I can't take credit for, but when I heard it, I said that's pretty good. Yeah, well I like that. Broadcast, podcast, I mean Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said many times, and hardly once, did anyone uh laugh at me or say you're an idiot. Matter of fact, a few said that that could happen. Quote, cast can be, and I hope for it to be, to the entertainment and media industry as Bitcoin has become to the currency world. Sure. Okay, so what I hope is that we get this launched, or you know, the pre-launch is going on, and we have a major marketing company out of Dubai, because we're a global business. I mean, I have to remember that. It's not going over to Cannes and selling your selling the territories. I have to remember and and and that I have to go sometime occasionally to these to where the markets are or where they so we then went on after after s after Korea to the very select group of people to Singapore, and it was called Cryptocurrency 2049. I have no idea exactly why the promoters or the producers of that event used 2049, but it probably had some significance in maybe the future. But we did extremely well there and and extremely a good reception there. Cool. So uh when we talk about laughing at being laughed at when you try to get ahead of the curve, sure, and sometimes you you know you you cry because you might have been a little too ahead, but many of the times in being ahead of the curve and taking back to what you wanted me to get into what a lot of your uh viewers uh probably would remember as iconic brands that I was a little bit involved in, or certainly very involved in in the early stages, to be modest, uh, but let's talk about Nickelodeon and and the analogies. For the technology had the technology was going through a transformational change for television after President Richard Nixon, God bless his heart, broke the ban that had been put on major cities not allowing them to bill cable. The broadcast lobby was so strong, and broadcast advertising, and certainly uh Johnson being a broadcast guy before him, uh owned broadcast stations. So basically, big cities to get any kind of critical mass besides the rural markets or markets that couldn't wear cable kind of was a utility using Coaxo cable that could transmit a lot of a lot of signals, but they they only needed 12 because they're solar systems. So when that was lifted, then the good news was that the cities could grant franchises for to build cable. The bad news was they didn't need it. Okay, they had all their 12 channels and and they slapped on a UHF antenna if they wanted to get more, so they didn't need it was the bad news. So the further good news, however, was that somebody needed to create content. Create it for a new medium to create it in a cost-effective, rather rather fast pace to launch uh uh uh which opened the doors for me to get to Hollywood from the farm in Illinois via Southern Illinois University, where in graduate school they happened to be teaching the first curriculum, what they call broadband communication. Okay. So it was all for teaching kids. It was a communication school there, 90 miles from the farm. I had a scholarship and it was nearby. And I got accepted into that program in graduate school, and that was just like everything that you everything that was going to happen as cable grew and the demand for content and how to market it, package it, the business plan. Sure. I learned in graduate school. Okay. So I sent out a couple resumes, one to Teleprompter, which at that time was the biggest cable company, and the one that was dedicated to content. But still, they were a cable company. Okay? But they were committed uh to content because they knew what they had to do. So that was that was like a dream job. Uh I sent them a resume and they came back and said, if half of what you said you have already done is true, uh you got a job. They'll come to Chicago and meet you for the final interview. So they hired me and I went to Hollywood. The other letter I sent out, though, uh, didn't get a response. And it was to a company called Warner Brothers, Warner Communications. And I sent it to them because uh I grew up with their plethora of television shows. Man, they really just like from from I mean good stuff. Bronco, Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, on and on and on. 77 Sunset Strip. So I grew up with a 60-foot antenna on the farm watching and seeing at the end Warner Brothers and this, so I had like, wow, I'd love to work for them. Sure. Not to mention their movie, movies, and everything else. And as they grew to the in in the in the uh mid uh mid-70s, uh they they became more of a conglomerate and they got involved in, I mean, they were big in the record business. Right, right. Warner and all their different labels. And I sent them a letter, except that I said, uh, I am who I am, here's what I've done, and I think that the only way this is gonna happen is that a content, an entertainment company has to get in it and focus on the entertainment. Everybody knows how to build cable systems, which we had built a couple of them when I was a graduate school on top of that. But it's really gonna be content that drives us, it's gonna get the big cities to take it. And you should hire me and move me to Hollywood. Sure. And they didn't respond. Okay. How dare them? So I went to work for teleprompter, and while I was there, I was given a budget to create, just create, create, create. And they sent me to a market that had about 84% penetration, Reno, Nevada. So we can actually, I mean, this make it make it a business of create stuff. One of the things that came out of that was a real hit became home shopping. Oh, yeah. And and my mom was a big fan of home shopping network. It and and what what will work on cable and and rather uh uh in in in a market that had was pretty consistent with with the broadcast market because you had to have cable and Reno and it had been there years, so and we had access to talent and we'd have people originally on the shows, like from Debbie Reynolds to Robert Goulet to Sammy Davis or whatever. But anyway, it it became it became okay, this put the pen in this one, this home shopping, it's and if it has a way to distribute it, which at that time satellites were just coming in, and it was really quite a challenge to set up these these the the shopping in in each of the locations. Right, right. I think we had about 18 going uh at the time when I got a call from Warner in my Hollywood apartment. So we just ran across your letter from a couple years ago, and uh teleprompter had part of LA that was built in mainly Santa Monica and the West Side because they couldn't get reception. So that was before the freeze, and it was a joint venture with Howard Hughes, and it was called Theta, and it was a big cable system, and the shopping show made it on to Theta. Okay, and and somehow or other they said, okay, this this is a business model, it has advertising, it sells merchandise, and it gives some of the revenues back to the cable companies. They've never had anything more than a subscription, so that that really enhances them. And and uh so for whatever reason uh they hired me uh very quickly and and sent me off eventually to Columbus, Ohio for the ultimate two-way interactive system. Um and um and uh excuse me, I don't know how to turn this off. So uh that was called Cube, Q U B E. And Cube was the first two-way interactive cable system ever built. Warner Communications wanted really to shape the cable industry more into interactivity and the ability to sell their movies on a pay-per-view basis. Right. So there were no interactive systems, right? And it was be much better to get four dollars for a showing of a movie than on the HBE model, HBO model that was uh starting to get traction. You pay eight dollars to get all the movies, right? Right. However, uh uh it was a little bit advanced, and the cable subscriber had gotten the word about HBO, and it was really hard to break to break that model then. But we also had to create ten channels from scratch. And cutting to the chase, two of them became Nickelodeon and the other became MTV.

unknown 18:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Wow. Now, so I go to New York to package Nickelodeon to become the children's the first channel on cable for children's because I had consulted with Disney and I proposed to them first, like they had everything, right? But they turned it down. Wow. And opened an opportunity. The good news that opened an opportunity for for a a Disney competitor to happen once these major markets exploded into a hundred million homes over time, and um uh but we had to make a lot of content. I mean, you know, it wasn't gonna be Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig. And so we had to develop all of that. So I became the first general manager of that uh of Nickelodeon to help get the model. I I didn't really know a lot about children's television. That was more music and and other things, but in that we we hired a lot of people from the children's workshop television, Sesame Street, and uh kind of to make it not PBS, but certainly not Saturday morning cartoons, down the middle. Right. That was the goal, right? And as we begin to achieve it, of course, uh, and the story I wanted to tell is all the suits at Warner sitting around a big table, and I make the comment after I'm getting getting the money, getting the necessary capital, uh I said, you know what? I wouldn't be surprised. I'm in my late 20s or early 30s on top of that, but I wouldn't be surprised if uh someday we'll be at a uh social event and you'll hear a mother using the the name Nickelodeon synonymous with Disney. I got laughed out of the room. Yeah, well we know how that all turned out, right? Yeah, and and Nickelodeon was also the forum for us to prove MTV. At Cube, the second service that we had, of course we had the ratings, so we knew how kids were just glued to the service. There was there all these brands and names have changed along the way, ended up with Nickelodeon and MTV uh when when they went uh on the on the satellite uh in 24. Um, but with MTV uh music videos were very few in existence, and we wanted to rely on the record companies, of course Warner had record companies, and they weren't really excited about that. An album and then another up to quarter million on a video. They weren't real excited about it, but uh so we had to test it in Columbus. The difference was Columbus was an interactive system, and our console had five buttons to interact. Now this was hybrid late analog, hybrid digital, and all this stuff for the technical side had to be made too. Sure. Pioneer Electronics was our box maker. They had never been involved in cable boxes, but this wasn't a cable box, this was a home terminal. Right? So it was like a very complex thing to put together. But at the end, the response buttons on the console that the viewer, viewer, subscriber could use, is you'd structure the shows around that. So naturally, and I can't remember the name that we called the uh the pilot. I mean, the it was the pilot was on the air and it did really good. But a lot of people thought because we could we would put up five, the BJ would put up five different videos, and you would press the button for the one that you wanted to watch. And and the psychic experience was that usually the majority would, it was predictable what they would watch, but but they would get the psychic experience that we were playing, because the technology wasn't that advanced like it is today. Sure. We called that frame grabbing back in the day, that you can do what you could do today on the Miraculous, but but but yeah, but it it it really what everyone believed that was what made the music video work, and if you didn't have that, plus we were in a big section of the Ohio State University. So this was a phenomenal Pinwheel was the name of Nickelodeon, it's it and it was only preschool. Of course, we packaged it from preschool to mid-teen to teen and nick at night in in between. So uh so everybody thought that it wouldn't work put out on a 24-hour basis. So we created it as a show, as a hour daily series, and hired Michael Nesmith of the Monkeys, uh-huh. Uh, who was not of the monkeys then but was had was very creative. And he basically, if you want to want to uh give credit where credit's due, of course Bob Pittman uh uh was was brought in to run uh run run MTV and then later uh later uh I think his name in a minute. So we put on Nickelodeon, now had a million subscribers, and the mothers were starting to move their kids over there. It was starting to be referred to as the babysitter channel, good and bad, but it didn't matter. We get and the cable c as cable franchises are being granted, we had contracts with 90 per 2% of the cable system, and whoever got the franchise, a competitor, because Warner was also in the cable business, they became the second largest after that war. Uh the the the uh uh the the the um they had to carry Nickelodeon. They didn't have to carry it, but but but contractually it was written into their franchise and agreed upon the city city fathers that whoever got it would have to play. And and Nickelodeon grew fast. Uh and and in that growth, and when we're ready, contract with Michael Nesmith to put together the ultimate test, but a real real quote-unquote show without the interactivity. And it was an and he came up with things like the VJs and and and all and just the creative approach to it. He he created enough spin and buzz around it to make up for the loss of the interactivity, which nobody would know. So it was a phenomenal hit. I mean, it it like letters, uh letters, and so we knew we'd hit a button, and then obviously we w went out to get the transponder and it later became MTV. I, however, was most impressed, and I like to think of this as show business, and I like to be able to do things that that can make money. Most of these kind of projects are very front-loaded, high capital intensity to get them to profitability. I know uh uh uh uh MTV and uh Nickelodeon you know uh was worth billions of dollars when it when it matured.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Sure. This episode of Musical Miles Podcast is sponsored by Stetson, a true symbol of Western heritage and American craftsmanship. For generations, Stetson has stood for quality, style, and authenticity. Stetson built for those who live the music and the lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Now I'm not sure with streaming and all that, but um uh it it's that cable just to be the cord has been cut and whatever Viacom or or whoever's owning that and those brands they're gonna do with them. Uh I'd like to think that what we're doing now is getting way ahead of the curve, understanding the technology and in our music of our six genres, smart music, that we will have the streaming version of whatever MTV uh impact it made. And subsequent to that, which I was also involved in uh uh and and and and uh and as a private company as opposed to being owned owned by a big company, private company was me, yeah, was CMT. Sure. And uh I'm so happy to see the impact, partially, that CMT had on what's become of country music today. Oh yeah, oh it's had a huge impact. Yeah, and and and and and as I said at the time, I wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms into Nashville because I was the rock and roll guy. All right. For two reasons. After MTV, uh I moved to a technology company and created the pay-per-view network. Uh and and and uh did the first rock and roll pay-per-view event uh with the Rolling Stones. Wow. And a year later with the Who. Wow. Okay, and and I worked with a lot of other, so I was in the pay-per-view business, which was making money because it was just like having, because these this technology company uh was going into broad, we were going into cheap UHF stations that we would buy in these markets that were but people were getting rid of because they knew cable was coming in in a few years. So we would buy them up, and Oak Industries, the name of the company, they could transmit, they could transmit signals to their box, which only picked up that one UHF channel, could scramble it and send a signal back. Wow. And and and and I mean so they could turn it on and turn it off, I should say. In other words, they could turn it off. So when I saw that, they designed that mainly if they didn't pay their bills. But when I came in, and Jerry Porencio had already started it, but I said, let's do pay-per-view with this. Let's turn off the subscribers who are getting HBO package. People were subscribing and were charging a fortune for that because cable was a few years off. Cities like Chicago, LA, Miami, Phoenix, Dallas, for example, they didn't have cable. We had a window there, but we had something else that even cable wasn't going to be able to do too quickly, and that was the pay-per-view capabilities. So the first thing I tested, logically, was boxing. And that was a phenomenal success. Matter of fact, as we were in Vegas here at Caesar's Palace, the Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy, Hitman, Hearns fight was the first national pay-per-view fight. And we were the we owned the stations, had the critical mass of subscribers, and we would turn them people off that didn't subscribe, didn't pay extra to watch the pay-per-view. And and and uh the way we marketing-wise, there's only so many movies a month. Sure. If we turn you you off during that period of time, yeah, forgive us because we're offering a service that nobody else in the world can do right now. Sure. And you may not like boxing, but wait to see what's coming next. Sure. And of course, boxing was very lucrative. And Don King calls me, and we do the homes cooney fight here in Vegas. That was very successful, and people paying us that night. And so those people, few people that complain, first of all, these movies are played many times. We'll tell you when they're available, is, and so forth. And and you can schedule your time, but you might find this service a value if I can broaden it and make it viable in in more different categories. So I am a rock and roll person, a music person, at least uh as a consumer. Sure. Uh, and uh uh pretty much rock and roll at that time. And uh so I approached Mick Jagger and his people. They were gonna do it live. I made him a little nervous, I don't know why. We're gonna do it live, we're gonna simulcast with radio station and those markets and everywhere else, because pay-per-view's coming in, coming to your town soon. And the Rolling Stones, first ever. Mick Jagger's a very creative guy. He's a very uh he's a very uh business-minded guy, and he's a super talent, a showman. Yeah, not that he and I hang out a lot, uh uh, and anything, I don't want to imply that. However, in working and putting this together, he basically made the decisions and and I was responsible on the other side. So it was we got the deal done that and and got it on and it was successful. So I give him accolades for that. Sure. A year later, uh I then formed my own company. Uh, as I'm putting other events together for the company that had the stations and I had the relationship. Now I want to step out and be the content guy. So the two other projects put together was the next rock and roll, and that was the Who. And I represented them directly working with my ex-company, and that was a phenomenal success. Simultaneously, that took a long time to put together the whole time, is I wanted to do live Broadway. And I wasn't exactly uh welcomed, and it took uh quite a while to finally get a deal done uh right before I left. Uh uh and and it was sophisticated ladies, the first Broadway show t pay-per-view sent to homes. Sure. That the best thing to do is go to Broadway, but Broadway industry at that time, you know, the live was what it was when you really, you really, it's not being live is just not, you know, it's just not acceptable. So it took a while to get a deal together with a viable, you know, name brand play. Right. And and I I credit that to the daughter of uh uh what's what's what's the artist, uh Sophisticated Lady account uh see what's what's his name? Anyway, uh uh uh McCain uh Mercedes, the daughter of uh of the um you know the star of the the music with sophisticated ladies was about I got a mental block right now. Yeah. So anyway, after that I saw nobody was doing country. And I really wasn't necessarily country, I grew up around it, but I was always kind of the rock and roll guy and ended up pretty much in the rock and roll business. But I saw that nobody was doing country, and I knew that during our research back a few years ago during MTV that if there was you went multiple channels, that the next viable one would be could be country. Sure. And then of course later we found out that contemporary Christian would could be another, and that's yet to happen, but it probably will. You heard it here. Yeah. In a different way, but more more um so uh I went down to Nashville, opened up an office, and started getting into the scene. The first place I went was to hang out with the writers, because I had to I had to understand the art form more and how it worked and and so forth, and the culture, and the music and the writing and everything. There was a restaurant there called Mauds. Okay. And all the writers seemed to hang out there on certain nights. So I started hanging out there and did not fan anything other than I'm just maybe another writer or just some guy there, but uh then I started um uh I'd already talked to the record companies because uh already had to sell them a few years ago on MTV, and MTV worked for them. So they were on standby, but they didn't want to hear any BS until I uh could pull it off, get the money, and so forth. Uh so I knew they were there if I had certain things in place. And then I started uh meeting the artists. And one of the artists, much like Mick Jagger is a very smart business guy, most artists are not into business, right? Right, and matter of fact, many are poor business people. Right. One of the artists that I was told about was named Conway, his stage name was Conway Twitty, his real name was Harold Jenkins. And I arranged to get a meeting with him, and I said, I need somebody to give me validity, validation, and uh, you know, you've got a lot of number one songs, still cranking them out. Right. And you're a businessman, he said, Yep. Uh and I'd like to bring you on my board. I'd like to get your endorsement. Are you gonna throw me out of here or what? And he said, Well, son, hoss, this video thing is gonna put us old guys that that nobody can see on radio out of business. So I'm not sure I'm for it as as Conway Twitty, but as Harold Jenkins, a businessman, I'm on board because I think you got a hit there. And I'm glad somebody's doing it. So Conway came on board. Now the game is. What year was this? 1984 or 5. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Duke Ellington.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

Duke Ellington, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, okay. But passed away. Okay, yeah. So anyway, back on the Broadway thing, you know, I was going for 42nd Street, all the hot ones, and and just put it out there, had a lawyer there, and finally the Duke Ellington estate and the daughter's son uh was in charge of it. They called me and they said, Hey, we want to do this, you know, to memorialize, and it's about to go to its run. So we put a lot of money into the production of that to make it as close to live. And for example, cameras outside, the excitement, the the forget the theater of the Imperial or whatever it was, uh, and and and the uh f uh the the you know the whatever the lights that are going like that, the red carpet, the carpets pull the limos pulling up, the cameras, as if you're almost going in yourself to watch this, but you may be sitting on a couch in, or you'd be sitting on a couch in Phoenix, for example. Sure. And you're you're getting as close to you can possibly get to to experiencing the theater and being being there live as close as you get. Nothing's ever as good, and I I maintain it's gonna promote promote people and promote live performances and promote Broadway, but that was hard for them to get that at that time, sure, which which is understandable, but we got it done. And uh we tried to shoot the play in a way or the musical in a way in in different techniques uh than normal television and where we place the cameras and and how it would it would be more like you're you're you're there and watching it in from the seat. And uh, however, I went, of course, and uh as I get out of, they provided me with a limo, which was embarrassing, but I took it. And I get out and and uh I look and there's there is protesters all around. I go, oh no. And and and one of the people working with me says, I knew you weren't gonna be happy about this, you know. I you know, what can you do? I said, no. Let's make this exciting. You know, let's show what kind of work we put in this and how how this industry people are fighting something that's really good. So when people watch it and they like it, it's gonna open the doors. Uh and and and make more people come to Broadway, make more live performances, because nothing is better than live. Rolling Stones Live, the Who Live. Uh uh we tell everyone that there's no replacing the live experience. Nothing.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

I mean a live experience, period.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

I go to the Grand Every time I'm in Nashville, I go to the Grand O'Lopary. Every time I'm in New York, I go to Broadway. I mean, just as a consumer, there is nothing better than that. So our job as as uh journalists, I'll I'll call it electronic journalists, uh, whether we provide entertainment or or media, is is to help help expand that art form uh in a certain way that more people can at least get the second best thing. Sure. So, long story short, country music uh uh television started taking off. Uh the Nashville Network was in I called that in I had to bash them. Um and and I had consulted with uh Westinghouse, who was their uh marketing firm, but when I started CMT, I had to bash them, and I called it Hee-Haw TV. And and uh that really nobody could understand why they wouldn't first do something to promote the record industry, as MTV has already proven, you know. And and then the history of of Nashville, going back to the insurance companies, the Ryman, uh it's a rich history. And the Grand O'Pry and and what it did, and then the very successful television uh network first and syndicated Hee-Hall. That's all wonderful. But where the where the market is and where the kids are t and and and and and beyond these the somewhat southern Bible belt, let's expose this Chris this this uh art form of pure country music, but with videos, we're probably all due respect, gonna need young, good-looking guys, and women, of course, extend on that, that look young guys that look good in Wrangler, tight fit in Wrangler jeans. Yeah. Randy Travis used to serve me uh uh sandwich and and and drink at that club out uh near the Grand Ole Opera, I forget its name now, and then he would get up and sing on stage and say, okay, he's interesting. This kind of sounds like Merle Haggard and George Jones, but there's don't see any uniqueness there. Not that CMT or MTV's job was to make videos. Or to select talent. Sure. Somebody else do that and bring it to us. Yeah. So somebody else did see what I didn't see, and I think her name was Martha, the NR person, or whatever it was Warner that saw him one night in there, took him in the studio and recorded him on a song that John Schneider couldn't get done called 1982. Operator. But the other side is the one who became the hit, which became his hit. So I came back one time, and you know, back and forth to California and Nashville. I came back and went in to eat, and I saw Warner Brothers 45. Next thing you know, Randy Travis has got videos. He's on CMD in high rotation. He's got he's booked in our theater because we then, uh Conway and I and partners built a Music Village Theater across from Twitty City, and we booked Randy in there, CMT headquarters from there. And then Pam Lewis, who had I knew from basically meeting her the first day she came to interview for MTV, and and uh sh because she was a friend of my secretary, I probably wouldn't because sent her down to Bob Pittman or whoever. But I knew her because my secretary wanted me to have lunch with her to meet her friend. Anyway, Pam Lewis became a star at MTV, uh, and one of the things she's noted for is the bringing Tina Turner back. So Pam now Miss Shenda's favorites. Pam, dog, and as a matter of fact, I I happened to see Tina Turner's first performance. It was in in Dallas when she came back, and I go, oh my God. Anyway, Pam got that all, I mean, among many things, I'm sure much more there. I was pretty busy with my stuff, but we stayed in touch. And then RCA hired her to come to Nashville, meeting her through all the things she'd done there, and that and as a vice president, but as I say, her smart Yankee mouth didn't really ingratiate, they weren't quite ready for for this New Yorker to uh to but so she formed her own company which still exists called PLA Media. I go to Nashville, the startup, she's there, she's telling me the land, land. I bring her on board. Really, she was as much of the brains as anybody of CMT, and all of her experience in the in the operational side and all the things that MTV grew to, she was right in the middle of it. Right. And so she was very helpful in a lot of the learning curve and what things we could do to save money, make money, you know. But more importantly, as CMT is being sold, and I'm in a process with Gaylord making a movie called Nashville Beat. Uh it was TNN's first movie. Because we were they were they were in the process of buying CMT. I then stepped out to put this movie project together as TNN's first movie. So anyway, called Nashville Beat. So Pam is the PR person on that, and uh she has been bugging me about this kid that this guy that she felt could be the biggest star in ever in Nashville or country, and that he that she wanted to shift from giving them pub publishing cer public publicity services for co-management. And I said, Well, Pam, I I don't, you know, I rely on you if you say you believe that. Uh you got my no, I need you to really feel it. So she sent me the some stuff, and uh I said, well, you know, if you want me to feel it, I don't really feel it. She said, Well, you gotta see him live. That guy was Garth Brooks. I knew it, I knew it. And of course, uh Pam uh uh And you know where he stole his show from, right?

SPEAKER_02 48:19

No. Uh uh Chris Ledoux. He copied Chris Ledoux's live show, So I've Been Told. Chris was Chris Ledeo. Loved Chris Ledew. And and of course, Chris died 20 plus years ago from from cancer, but we've interviewed his son Ned, who has stepped in and kind of he he's he he does uh a lot of Ned's or Chris's music, but Chris was a world champion bareback writer. He rodeo cowboy. Oh he yeah, and he was real talent. But Garth and he Garth said it, and he he actually put he put Chris Ledoux name in that song and uh the worn-out tape of Chris Ledoux, which which is what really brought Chris's uh um to the forefront. And then he he went on tour with you. Chris toured with with Garth and did some some stuff with Garth. But Garth, you're he's iconic. I mean, Miss Shenders' mother was a songwriter in Arizona and she would go to Nashville. She she came back, she'd always come back and she'd say, This is the artist I saw at the Bluebird, and you need to pay attention because he's gonna be somebody. Wow. Garth Brooks, Clint, Clint Black, uh, Randy Travis. She saw Randy, those guys all before they were somebody. Now, Miss Shand's mom's long gone now, but but what a cool experience that was.

SPEAKER_03 49:39

Oh, uh to hear those stories. Oh, I mean, it's where our country's music, I'll call it. Yeah. Um matter of fact, I we had a billboard designed country music, you know, CMT, but it had written it R Pros V S music. Yeah. And and uh, but yeah, no, I mean it it's it's uh well I became the biggest fan in the world of country music and what made the transition we we okay with time. Yeah, yeah, we're okay with time.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Um well I just I just uh I you you've you've segued into each one of these your role and how it came about, which which is really interesting to us because um uh there's there's there's a lot of moving parts and pieces to get you to where you are, right? And to to you know, your your role at MTV, your role at CMT, you know, and and and and it's it's gotta be uh I mean you we're we're condensing this into a we're we're we're knocking on an hour, which is great, which is fine. Um, but um most most people have no idea of what it takes to to get to your position, right? And and to have seen what you've seen and met the artists and worked with artists that you've worked with, Conway Twitty of all people. I mean, what a legend. And and uh and I'm sure there's many, many others that you worked with over the years, especially what which was kind of your transition from MTV into the CMT. But but you became a fan of country music by being involved with it and working with it. Uh yeah, uh immersing myself. Yeah, the music row and and Broadway, you know.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Um just na Printer's Alley. Yeah, we've been to Printer's Alley, what a cool place that's. And the history that just the history of how country music came about. Right. And it really was a promotion uh for an insurance. Insurance company. That's a whole other yeah. Uh uh, but let me just say this might be a little more interesting. When I was going back and forth to Nashville, one of my clients was the Who. Wow they were on tour here, and uh and the final show was going to be the pay-per-view, just like the Rolling Stones final show. Right, right. So I would be invited when I could to fly with them, you know, the band members and the managed management, uh, and and um go to go to certain shows. You know, I went to probably several shows, uh maybe eight or ten, I mean, when I had the time and just go where their plane is and hop on. And uh I uh sometimes uh Pete Townsend was very interested in technology. And he was pretty uh the management, Bill Kirby was the manager, uh I think uh I Rolling Stones, it was Bill, Bill Graham was a promoter, and between him and Mick, there wasn't uh there wasn't I anybody else that mattered it seemed, but with with the who Bill the Bill Kirby was a pretty well-known Brent manager, was their manager for a long time. And uh however Pete would attend a lot of the meetings that when we were talking about the pay-per-view deal, and then I was making the deals with them for distribution with the company I work for, plus we made a deal with 20th Century Fox to package the whole thing, which was a whole lot more advanced money. But occasionally when I would get on the plane, I'd be very low key and you know just just walk back to uh you know sit quietly and but occasionally Pete would stop me and and sit down and he'd talk about technology and uh which was engaging. One time he had bought a pair of Bo Bow's speakers, whatever town it was. Might have been Cleveland or Buffalo, who knows. And he said, uh and he and he sit down. And I did, and he handed me these speakers and he put them on my head. And they were very advanced technology, you know, this is early 80s. And he turns on the song, and it was George Jones. He stopped loving her today. I had, I mean this sounds corny and and and uh theatrical, but it's kind of true. Uh uh. I almost had a spiritual experience because I heard not a nasal country music the way kind of people that can listen to it like uh dang dang. I heard an instrument in a voice.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

I mean and you realize that song resurrected his career, right? And Sammy Kershaw took I know that now, but I didn't know that then. Well, we we just interviewed Sammy Kershaw this week. Here, he was here at the Golden Nugget. Oh, really? And we got to interview, and he sang that song on stage and told that story. He said, he said, he he said that that uh he called him, George called him and said, son, listen to this. And he played it for him over the phone. Oh god, that's a cool thing. And he said, he said, what a what he said, that is the song that that that resurrected his career. They thought he was done, right?

SPEAKER_04 55:40

Long song of the year twice.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Yes, song of the year, two years in a row. Oh, that just doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

I'd probably listen to that every four or five days. I gotta have some Jones. Yeah. Anyway, uh I I was wanting to learn how I I want to be into what I do. I pretty much have you talk about you know what the luck I've had has been basically luck and the desire for fun and to drive a Porsche now and then. Okay. Okay. And that that's it. Everything in luck is most of everything. Having fun, fortunately, you it makes you a creative person, right? Creating and creating things out of your head so you can have fun when there's not fun there. But but but back but but it in uh back to Pete Townsend. So he didn't know what was going on. I mean, of course he didn't know what was going on, but but I look at I look at him with those things on, and I'm seeing him look at me like this. He's got the powderous blue eyes, and I say this a very heterosexual way. Uh uh. And I take, and when it's done, I take him off. Are we okay? Okay, we're gonna I take him off and he says something like this. You yanks Of course he knew I had been uh uh he he knew I had been with Warner for a long time and Bob and you know um and and uh in in various parts of the music business. Sure. And he said, you Yanks something like this, you Yanks do not appreciate uh country music and give it the the give it the uh recognition that it needs. And that not in those words, but c that's what the meaning was. And it was kind of like boom, a bolt of lightning. Man, I'm going into Nashville with fire now. Sure. And then I just started listening to everything. Yeah. Uh K uh Katie uh see Kate Katie Kate KT Oslin. KT Oslin. There's another one that Miss Jenna's mother came back. KT Oslin. Well, you well, your mama and I, I mean, and I could just just go on and she loved KT and she came back and said, I just met and saw this woman, and she is phenomenal. That's another song I have to play uh every night. Oh yeah. You come home and tell them about your problems. I want to tell you about my problems. I had five older sisters, so I have a little bit more of a female perspective and respect or or or kind of see things through their eyes and what women Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Well, my mom always said that KT just tickled her, is how she would always put it.

SPEAKER_03 58:38

Tickled. That's great. Where where were you born?

SPEAKER_00 58:41

Arizona.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Okay, and I I think of Arizona as Phoenix Scottsdale. Yeah, but Arizona is uh is uh country uh in Flagstaff.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

No, in um well, I lived in Scottsdale the first few years of life and then in Sholow.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Okay, well Scottsdale, excuse me. I think this lady here is from Flagstaff.

SPEAKER_00 59:02

But back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

Oh, the the jelly. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, that you introduced us to earlier. Well, there there that's that's the thing, and Miss Shanda was was uh uh you know her mother played the piano. She couldn't she couldn't read music, but she could play by ear anything. And she wrote music, uh, and and uh she was part of the Arizona Songwriters Association, and she used to take Shanda to to some great She drove me all over to They would have showcases and everyone would come and play their song, and then occasionally there would be a headliner afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

And when I was 12, I was in Basico with my mom at Dolan Ellis' nightclub, and he was known as Arizona Spoladier. Anyway, and afterwards, um the when the showcase was over, Jerry Jeff Walker.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Can you imagine? Oh I I would have killed to have seen Jerry Jeff and she got to see him.

SPEAKER_00 59:58

At the time I I I still appreciate it now. At the time, I don't think I realized what I was even seeing, but you know, my first real concert was Marty Robins. Oh my and my uncle um uh recorded Weyland and he had a recording studio in Phoenix in Greenwich. Oh my god. He recorded Doc Sevinson. Wow, Alice Cooper they would fly over to Phoenix to be recorded their albums, his um or you know, Doc Sevenson Denite Show band. Anyway, I was a lucky kid.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Yeah. So, you know, and now you know, we and we and we've actually got the the had the opportunity to interview um uh uh Django Walker, which is Jerry Jeff's son. We've interviewed him twice. And tell us the stories about Jerry Jeff and and you know, he he you know that Jerry Jeff was well Jimmy Buffett credited Jerry Jeff for his career.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:57

It's very coincidental here, but uh normally suits the business side and the artist side, you know, we you you're professional, we're trying to be professional friends, but it's sometimes difficult and it's better not to, but I I can say that a handful of of of of uh celebrity um artists and so forth actually have become personal friends. Just a through it all we then trusted each other and beyond above and beyond music, and one of them didn't start out that way was Conway Twitty. Right. Uh and later we he we went to Branson. And unfortunately, after putting the big thing together, uh he died right in the middle of it, and that was the very second. So he would consider he would say, and you know, artists don't have any friends either, other than over close circles, but he would say and I would say openly uh that we we we became friends and friendship is about trust. And when we were signing the big deal for him on the Branson Hills project, multi-million dollar deal, uh, and then he had to sign off uh were in his bus. The people involved in this was like Leah Coca and Brian Sype, the quarterback who was designing the first who became quarterback Cleveland Browns that became an architect, and he he built log cabin mansions or designed them, and this theater in Branson Hills was going to be uh a log cabin theater. Oh wow. Okay, so anyway, so to sign that deal with Conway doing a hundred shows uh a year, uh uh I gave it to him on the bus uh and and and uh uh I said, Well, get this to your lawyers. And he said, Is it okay with you? I said, Well, yeah. He said, I'll just sign it. And that that was unfortunately he died. Yeah, but that that's the level. Now, Jerry Jeff Walker happens to be another one of those, and I don't want to take up all your air time. Wow, and that happened because I realized in Nashville after I got into the groove that there was a missing component to the manufacturing and the distribution of music and publishing where the creative a lot of the creativity was coming from, and that was in Austin.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

He's got one quick question for you. Sarah's gonna have to go. Okay. We yeah, we we need to finish up too.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

Okay. Um, so uh five, we ready in five minutes?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:55

Yeah, five minutes is yeah. I gotta, yeah, so a couple couple other questions. Did you ever get the chance to work with or know Guy Clark?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:02

Uh I I I I know him. Uh and part of the T for Texas, T for Tennessee project, and and Chris Ledoux was kind of in that mix, but uh didn't know him very well, but had the highest regard for him. Yeah. Little I knew of him and his his his uh ability, his creativity.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Oh, I I just some of the some of the greats. I mean, in in of course, you know, Jerry Jeff worked with Jimmy Buffett and Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Well Jerry well it started by Jerry Jeff had the birthday parties every March, which led to, which led to, uh, basically led to South by Southwest. And over the time, uh Jerry and Susan, Susan, and my wife Sue uh became uh just I don't know, it's just kind of connected. And when Jerry would be playing in California, he'd he'd come to our house. Oh we'd shot baskets together. Oh my goodness. He's a wild and crazy guy, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

Did you did you so did you ever get to meet Django, his son? No. What a great well he's not a kid, he's a man. He's in his forties now. He's an artist and a Suzanne's daughter's son. Okay. Yeah, they have two. There were two. He has a they have a daughter and Django.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

I don't know the daughter's name, but I I uh still have Susan's uh uh uh phone number, and I called her when I heard about him dying and said I couldn't make it, but certainly she remembered me and blah blah blah. So I no, I didn't I never mentioned. Django, very talented. In fact, Jimmy Buffett cut one of his songs. Well, see, this is information as we move into our music, smart music, and as I said, we formed Technotainment Music Group, announced it at the Mondo Conference in New York. And if you don't know what Mondo Conference is, MO. N D O.myc. Last year, not this year, we made the announcement, but the year before last, they gave a sp a Randy Travis in his wheelchair with his new wife his 26 millionth uh goal record. And it was presented by RIAA, head of RIAA, and and then they presented with Warner Brothers him a special AI Music Award, being the first artist to record an AI uh song. Oh, I love that song. I absolutely love that song. Okay, so I I I don't like uh it sounds like I because I don't notice the camera here, but if it but if I did, I'd be, I wouldn't be, I'd I'd be worse. But so I don't I don't really uh I'm not really comfortable being on stage. You know. Sure. Most people have a lot of ego and I just have insecurities when I get up on stage or in front of a camera. But anyway, uh they told me maybe uh if it works out, you obviously will be there, and you probably want to want to say hello to Randy because they they they knew the story. Sure. The story short told you a short story how uh Randy was my cook and and um bottle washer. Uh yeah. And and that they might they might introduce me and I would come up and tell the story. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm sitting there kind of nervous, kind of hoping they wouldn't, kind of hoping they wouldn't, you know how that is. It's always, you know, you you gotta technotainment. We've been involved in Mondo for nearly four years now. We're very part of they're gonna be the driving trade association that's that's gonna push the music out. So uh they call me and forget about me tripping on the stage and falling down. Forget that. You know, I'm looking up a Randy in his uh in his uh wheelchair, but anyway, I I and you know everybody runs over to pick you up like an old man you pick it up. So uh but I compose myself as best I can and I'm addressing Randy. Do you remember? And he's going, yes. And whether he did or not, he's going, yes. You know, a lot of miles have crossed since then, but usually people remember the early days of me. So then I stu then I uh told the story about you know how he met, you know, you know, how he he was my uh you know, he he was my waiter for many years, and I would go there to get away from the industry people because it's kind of like a tourism place, and he was the cook there. And uh he would get up with the band of made called Nashville, it was made up of a bunch of top-notch studio musicians, and the last song they would get for him to do before he cleaned the place up. So I told that story, and then I told the story a little more elaborate that while I was gone, Warner Brothers came in and said, Hey, you know this guy, this I bet this guy could cut this song in one cut that everybody had been around Nashville a long time, 1962 changed 1982, and that's kind of and when I got back, they got the 45 in the in the thing, and I go, he's still serving me a blackened ribeye sandwich, take the blackened off. And he's still serving me, and I said, Hey, what happened? And he I don't know that he knew at that time that I was anybody anything other than a regular customer coming in. But so, and he tells me the story, and then he said, I've never sang it live. I said, Well, you're gonna do it tonight, right? And he said, Yeah. So when he got up on that stage, what I had kind of seen as, you know, kind of wasn't something unique there that I felt should be a little bit because kind of mixture of George and Murrow. Now, now I know it couldn't be any better to be in a mixture of those two. But he gets up and he goes, operator? I go, oh, I get it now. Yeah. So then his the manager, Liv, Hatcher of the club and owner, she's managing them. And so when I go in again, uh I I talk to her and I say, we want to you come over and and book you and our book Brandy in our theater, and we want to uh get with Warner Brothers, make sure, get the videos, we will we will put we will rotate this thing out of out of hell, and we'll get him into our theater, and the rest became history. But when I got to the point, he started crying, then I knew he could remember. Yeah, yeah, he could remember whether he remember me or not, or whatever. Yeah. But this is the beauty of country music. Yeah. It's it's real, it's people, yeah, it's emotion. It's a major British rock star with powder blue eyes, watching me. Not you know, I I hope I wasn't holding my hands up and praying or anything like that, but but I just he stopped loving her today. And then it went on. Wait a minute, this guy. Somebody asked me the other day who was my favorite artist. Now, Steve Perry is probably in rock and roll. I'd like to say Roger Daultrey and I'd put him up there in a second, but Steve Perry's just too good. I mean, he's too he's he's George Jones of Country Music of Rock Music. And matter of fact, we will be uh hopefully working with Steve Perry's replacement. Really? Arnell. Really? Who's we're looking to sign him, he's he's still with Journey, but looking to sign him to Technotainment Records. Wow. And uh he and I've had a lot of conversations. I swear to God, when he when he was found in in uh in Philippines by one of one of the you know founders of Journey, and he goes up, he just replaces Steve Perry. And he and Steve Perry, I understand from Arnell, we've become pretty friendly now in the business range of the record and everything. He's touring with Journey. They're going on their tour, right? Supposedly final, but he just goes up there, and Steve Perry, I understand people that know him, uh loves him and and really agrees. Then I have a uh I have a sample of Steve Perry singing one part of a song and and uh and and then Arnell, and he really can't tell them if you are it's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:52

It's amazing.