We Get Around

A busy week here at My Damn Channel HQ. Do you know how hard it is to be in our office, get mentioned on Greg Fitzsimmons' Fitzdog Radio (2/8), and make an appearance in this profile of Grace Helbig of Daily Grace all at the same time?

Not that hard, actually. But not that easy either. Have a Wednesday!

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Bob Dylan Signs Six Book Deal?!

It's no secret that we love Bob Dylan at My Damn Channel, so we were extremely excited to read on IFC.com that it's rumored Bob Dylan has signed a six book deal, and will continue his enlightening, though typically enigmatic, memoir series "Chronicles".  The first volume was released in 2004, so it's been a while since we've had the privilege to enter the mind of Mr. Dylan. 

And even though it's just a rumor, we're confident that it's gonna happen.  Why?  Well, we first heard the news via IFC, who just so happen to have content from their new series "Portlandia" on My Damn Channel. 

Coincidence?  I think not!

So while we're waiting for "Portlandia" to premiere tomorrow at 10:30pm on IFC, and for the next Dylan volume to come out in who knows how long, enjoy this performance from Sweet Pea Atkinson, a soul singing legend who has recorded with Bob Dylan. 

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The King of All Media on CNN

Last night, Howard Stern went on Piers Morgan Tonight to be interviewed by British dude Piers Morgan. Right off, Howard took control, and it was clear why he is the King of All Media - even though it seemed Piers believed that he and Howard were...PEERS! OH!

My Damn Channel's own fearless leader Rob Barnett was asked on to the Howard Stern Show last year on 4/20 to discuss Howard's departure from terrestrial radio and finding his replacement.  And Howard was gracious enough to chat about My Damn Channel - The King!  Talking about My Damn Channel!  What an awesome experience.

Enjoy a clip from the interview HERE.

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RAMP Gets An EXCLUSIVE Interview With Lee Abrams!

Meet Lee Abrams:



He was the Chief Innovation Officer at the Tribune Co. until very recently. 

There were a lot of stories going around about how his quick departure was punishment for a company-wide memo he sent containing links to some, erm, videos of questionable taste.

The good people in our RAMP (Radio and Music Pros) division thought that since linking to a video seems to have cost Abrams his job, it's only fitting that he use online video to tell his side of the story. 

Watch the entire interview now at MyDamnChannel.com/RAMP.

Here's something to whet your appetite:  Lee Abrams inspired one of those Hitler memes we were all so fond of for a while.  You know the ones:  we laughed and laughed when we watched them even though they starred HITLER.

Don't pretend like you don't know what we're talking about.

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Rob Barnett and Mark Malkoff on The Adam Carolla Show!

Blogworld is the gift that keeps on giving!

While they were all in Las Vegas to do the closing keynote for Blogworld, founder/CEO Rob Barnett and Mark Malkoff made guest appearances on Adam Carolla's podcast.

Rob and Adam are old friends so naturally they talk about:

• *How they're both probably in higher demand for keynotes than Screech and Carrot Top
• *How they're probably not as in high demand as George Clooney and Brad Pitt
• *How Rob hired Adam to replace Howard Stern
• *How Penn Jillette is ridiculously tall
• *How My Damn Channel and The Adam Carolla Show are going to work together!!!

And, to that last point, we feel like this:



Mark Malkoff's segment begins around 40 minutes in, and Adam promptly calls him "Mark Mackoff."  It's okay, though, they blame it on the bad handwriting of one of Adam's staff.  And then they talk about:

• *How Mark has a Guinness World Record in something
• *How Mark learned you can flush an entire roll of toilet paper down an airplane toilet in 4 seconds
• *How Adam HATES IT WHEN PEOPLE CAN'T EVEN MAKE A SIMPLE QUESADILLA
• *How Mark spent 5 Days In The Bathroom

So listen to the show now! 

Or go to Adam's website to hear it!   

You can even download it directly into iTunes!

Phew.  That was a lot.  Here, have a Rob Barnett and Adam Carolla chaser:

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My Damn Channel: Our 3rd Birthday

My Damn Channel is 3 years old today.

Punk was still a baby when this photo was taken. Nixon is looming in the background. He's pointing the finger!

The pic is taken during a time called "college radio" before consultants sucked freedom out of the souls of rock radio madmen and mystical women who turned us onto music completely capable of changing and defining our lives.

I first met Harry Shearer that year. I chased rock dreams through radio, television and film - and called Harry in late 2006, with the idea to start a then-unnamed business which became My Damn Channel. I called Don Was. I called David Wain.

We launched My Damn Channel exactly 3 years ago, on July 31, 2007.



We give artists we love, trust and respect all the tools they need to skip over stone walls of multi-national media empires and create video delivered directly to you.

We've never been stupid enough to think www.MyDamnChannel.com would be the most visited online destination in the world. But we built a home base big and bad enough for every creator to have their own channel and we built a massive distribution network to move video onto every digital platform where we can make a solid business deal to support the work. The good shit ain't free.

We built a business driven by advertising, licensing and the certainty that we can bring you talent and content in special events later this year - worthy of a buck or two from you to support the art. Crazy, right?

Artists like Illeana Douglas prove that companies like IKEA can connect in a whole new way with millions of people watching millions of videos every hour. Illeana birthed a baby called "Easy to Assemble," which Ad Age dubbed "the most-watched sponsored web show."



We survived the world's worst economy and found our way to success because YOU watch and share our videos. THANK YOU.

We have artists that trust us to respect their art. THANK YOU.

We have sponsors and business partners who believe that we can deliver the good shit and guarantee millions of eyes on it all. THANK YOU.

We have backers who put their faith and coin into a vision for a new show business as powerful today as television was in the 50's. YOU GET IT! THANK YOU!

We have a man named Warren Chao, our Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, who knew how to stop us from avoiding most of the mistakes baby companies make to screw it all up. Warren: I've never known a single human being as smart, dedicated and effective inside a company as you. THANK YOU.

Biggest thanks to our families for not killing us when the hill seemed to high to climb! 

RESPECT and THANKS to every one of you who have spent a day inside our small, evolving staff of rebels and business partners.
(Keep an eye out for your party invite!)



We start year four today. Documented in "the world's longest press release" here - with all our new channels for your immediate inspection.

One more major announcement is coming out in days to prove that you'll still have My Damn Channel to kick around for years to come. 
F Nixon.

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The Adam Carolla Show

Old pals Adam Carolla and Rob Barnett got together last night to record for Adam's massively popular Podcast
"The Adam Carolla Show"

Listen to the Podcase here
The magic begins at Minute 48

 

Join the action on The Message Board here

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3 Years Ago: Launch Mode

Good things come in 3's.

3 years ago, a small band of true believers were readying the launch of My Damn Channel: 7/31/07.

Here are the inaugural videos from the first 3 artists we signed.

David Wain came in with the world's fastest pitch for Wainy Days: (paraphrasing) "I want to make out with the hottest women in the world and every date goes horribly wrong."

His first episode (a 3-parter) co-stars Elizabeth Banks as Shelly:


David Wain as David Wain, Elizabeth Banks as Shelly.



Harry Shearer was the first hero we signed. He sat in prosthetic makeup for over 4 hours to become Dick Cheney, singing sexy for Scooter Libby:


Harry Shearer as Dick Cheney.


We wanted music to marry comedy in our company from Day One. We turned to another brother and one of the best musicians and producers on the planet, Don Was.

Don's "Wasmopolitan Cavalcade of Recorded Music" is an earful of the best music you can't get anywhere else.

His first My Damn Channel production starred one of the smartest singer/songwriters we know, Jill Sobule:


Don Was, Rob Barnett, Jill Sobule, Warren Chao at the My Damn Channel west coast launch party, 2007.


Here's a rare, bonus video from the archives. Day one back on 7/31/07 also starred Big Fat Brain, the geniuses behind You Suck at Photoshop, and the web designers of all things DAMN. One of our only spoof vids looked 20 years into the FUTURE and poked our pals at Funny or Die, who had launched a few months earlier:



Matt Bledsoe, Troy Hitch

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Boxee Makes One Million Miracles

Boxee is the best way to get TV shows, movies, videos, music, and photos from the Internet on your TV. We’ve been watching this company grow and we’ve seen people’s heads turn every time their name is mentioned…inna good way. Put simply, this company is hot – with the right ideas to build the future with you in the driver’s seat. Here’s more.

Boxee just gave My Damn Channel access to one million new households. We just gave Boxee every single video we’ve had on My Damn Channel since launch in 2007.

You can now see our original music and comedy in the comfort of your own domestic domicile – on the largest screen of your choice. This is a HUGE win for our fans, artists, and sponsors … even our moms will finally think we’ve all got real jobs.

We’re launching this new chapter of our life by giving Boxee exclusive off-site distribution of the premiere of David Wain’s new “WAINY DAYS.”  This is episode 32 from one of the most-watched comedies in the new world - starring David along with Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman & Zandy Hartig.

If we weren’t working so hard to entertain you – we’d be home right now partying our brains out watching Wainy Days, Easy To Assemble, the entire catalog of the Don Was Cavalcade of Recorded Music, all those You Suck at Photoshop and Horrible People episodes and the deadly smart creations by Harry Shearer.  

It's all there waiting for you. New stuff we can't even tell you about yet will be there soon, too.  Admit it: you want to go there.  It's okay.  We want you to go to there, too.

THANKS BOXEE!

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The King And I: The Irreplaceable Howard Stern

Like millions of us, my stepmom is a lifelong Howard Stern fan. She just sent this photo taken off of Howard TV, airing our in-studio interview from earlier this week. I had the honor of being Howard Stern's guest on his Tuesday, 420 show (scroll to 840a).

Response is coming into My Damn Channel via email, phones, video views, comments, new subscribers, tweets, wall postings, and even a live spotting this afternoon in a clothing store (to complete the surreality). The influx of intense energy all flows back to a man undeniably uniquely qualified to hold the heavyweight title: "King of All Media."

Howard endures as one of the most talented and honest souls alive. He embodies the freedom of speech with every breath. For all who've been fired, laid off, downsized, pink slipped, discharged, axed, or job eliminated...it's hard to imagine speaking truth to power on a live microphone the way Howard has done it for decades.

I first followed Howard Stern on a carrier current, college radio station, 64 WTBU at Boston University. (There's a great scene depicting TBU in "Private Parts.")

If you've ever chased a radio dream, then your college years are likely the last time and place you ever experienced the fear and thrill of exercising your freedom of speech over a live mic.

Primordial FM rock radio stations were created in the late 1960's. Early heroes like Harry Shearer and Steven Clean were blowing minds at places like KPPC in Pasadena, California (which eventually became the world famous KROQ).

The combined forces of original radio talents and pre-corporate rock music created stations throughout the 70s powerful enough to infect audiences with a sense of community, purpose, passion, sex and fun that began to hit the wall around 1980.

I was sitting on the front steps of my apartment on Beacon Street in Boston with Steven Clean and my best friend, Mike Isabella the night Ronald Reagan was elected President. I was 20. I was about to drop out of college and take a full-time job as a rock radio jock at WAAF out in Worcester, Mass. One year later, I had the only radio thrill that came closest to being on Howard's show this week. Lightning struck and we convinced the Rolling Stones to do a private show for our station's fans in 1981 to start up the "Tattoo You" tour.

But, back to Mr. Clean. I'd been Steven's intern for a time at WCOZ in Boston. At that point in his career, Clean had been fired by many of the best radio stations in the country. He was a real life inspiration for the Dr. Johnny Fever character in "WKRP in Cincinnati." Steven was incredibly talented, brilliant, a true music expert and fan...and he was rebellious enough to drive the most patient souls to the edge of their sanity.

Considering the nation's new President, Steven held a joint firmly in my face and said, "See this? This is OVER!"
By the time of Reagan's second term, most radio station managers had a "Just Say No" policy for disc jockeys expressing free thoughts on mic, or taking free reign over any music playlist.

A small number of former radio station program directors shaved their beards, cut their hair, bought expensive suits, and armed themselves with halliburton briefcases filled with blow and bullshit designed to convince every fearful radio exec that they had the only secrets to ratings success, fortune and fame.

Conformity soon became the norm. Tighter playlists made stations sound the same from city-to-city. The job of disc jockey was transforming free thinkers into people paid to read positioning slogans, timechecks and weather forecasts.

In the midst of all this unholy homogenization, Howard Stern began to build a radio show free from the constraints put on most of his competitors. His talent grew on the radio and expanded with every carefully planned new project he launched.

Superfans know that Howard pays homage to legends who came before him like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. I can't think of another entertainer who has more succesfully won battles with corporate brass than Howard. One of the many surprises about the real man to outsiders is how he maintains his position with grace and wisdom.

No one knows what the next chapter will be for the Stern show in 2011. Assume Howard can see the possible moves on the chess board more clearly than most. As a fan, I'll be following as I have since the beginning. As a business owner, My Damn Channel stands ready to serve The King anytime he calls. 

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