Not a week goes by that I’m asked about the old show. Correction – my old show. Show’s still going as well it should. It’s brilliant and revolutionized how languages are attained and absorbed. And I’ve put off penning my thoughts. Had put it off. Until a few things came to light these past few weeks.
For-the-record, I’ve never gone on-the-record about what happened, but shall. ‘Cause people ask. And they did someone wrong. Blatantly. So here goes.
My Exit
…was eminent. Gone were the good ole days of free beer in the fridge and everyone having no idea who did what. Not to say we didn’t get it done – we did. And had fun. Hell, more concept was conceived in the pub than in the boardroom and it was everything you read about in cool start-ups. The converted warehouse. The excitement. Late nights and early mornings. The risk. The mayhem. All of it. But with success came structure and that really killed what was had. It happens, I suppose – the need for someone to start counting the money going out. But what a drag. No more free beer. A timeclock. Someone who reviewed the timeclock and wore a tie. Squares – you know the type. They needed to make money, fair enough. But when I went from producing a show I was a part in starting to being also told to produce the corporate programs said suit brought in to help pay the bills, I walked. Walked under the announcement that it was becoming a ‘production house’. It did – but more on that later. I was asked back to continue doing The Saturday Show (and at half-a-million downloads a month, you can see why) I agreed. Purely for the money. A few months later I started making a whole lotta money (that sounds weird to even write), so I left. On good terms. Still am. Ken’s a big brother to me and Hank is one of the smartest men I’ve ever worked with. So that was it – ‘thanks very much’ and ‘see ya at the pub’. All things good and all things fine.
Spanish/Italian/French/etc
…this is what I meant. Now – as stated, no one paved the road towards online learning more than we did. No one. I can show you obvious knock-offs and apologetic ones. There’s a reason we made Time Magazine’s Top 10 List. ChinesePod ‘coming from our studios in Shanghai’ along with the Chinese staff on board to help in a Chinese neighborhood with Chinese culture in China is what made it that. But ‘ItalianPod coming from our studios in Shanghai’ doesn’t seem to carry the same…oh, what word am I looking for here – ‘credibility’? No, that’s not it, because they had true speakers and the same approach, but it seemed…greedy, I suppose. But they have to make money and I understand that. ChinesePod, despite being flown into teach the CIA Mandarin wasn’t making anyone rich. So dowhatyagottado, I guess…it just seemed to cheapen it.
The Man
Said suit is the band promoter who tries to grope groupies by promising them backstage access (no pun intended). He began to stifle the creative flow there. With everyone. Trust me on this, I’ve heard it from them. The program director called me once to produce some much-needed openers/closers for them which I did. My policy being ‘you-give-me-that-pile-of-money-and-I’ll-give-you-this-cd’ meant he had to pay me out of pocket, as suit was somewhere out of town touring a bean farm or whatever. When suit came back, he allowed for the promos to be played, but told director that because he didn’t okay it, he wouldn’t get paid. He’s one of these guys. So PD left. Suit implements a ‘no free coffee’ rule for the staff of 40+. Now their last hope of bringing an edge to the show, [Dear] Amber has left. Gone. Sorry to break it to ya’ll but she has. So – It ain’t looking good. And here’s the kicker – as good as this is to learn a language, the economy is shit and people are starting to cut back on things. Now – you have a educational program with pop culture benefits and an amazing cast, it becomes a personal attachment and perhaps will make the cut. But without these, it could be deemed a ‘lose-able luxury’.
Now…the kicker.
They. Fucking. Stole.
This is what is comes to? God – I hope not. But they did. Here’s what happened. A friend of ours, of yours and mine, came to Shanghai with an idea. An idea for a new show for ChinesePod. He played it to them and they loved it. Told him to keep his phone on over the next few days. No reason why they shouldn’t have – it was a good show.
Then nothing. Silence. Then the ‘would love to but we don’t have the budget’. Fine. And fair play. They don’t have the money. That’s how a pitch goes. No hard feelings.
Then this (if you can’t see the link, it’s restricted to premium access so I ripped it and uploaded it again):
Didn’t see the dates? I’ll help you.
- ‘Radical Approach’ (remember the pitch? ‘no money’?) – uploaded on April 15, 2008.
- ‘The Radical Show’ (even stole the name? are you kidding me with this?!) – released on December 16, 2008!!!
To be honest – I’m fucking floored. It – despite its choices in suffocating surrogates – is a classy operation. It has huge potential and not just in this capacity. I remember Ken talking once about how he wanted to put basic Arabic onto mp3 players and send them off to our troops! It was this kind of thought and intellect that started this entire thing, but to stoop so low as to not only steal from a man who helped them along the way, but to not even change the title, it’s pathetic. As is the show, but that’s neither here nor there.
So that’s it – up until I saw that video, I was fine. If it weren’t for Ken and Hank, I’d still be teaching English. I have nothing but respect for them. That being said, whoever had even a finger in the release of this is a cowardly hack.
Shame on you.
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