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Matching entries from B.L. Ochman's blog
ZeFrank is Back - Eat Your Heart Out Jay, Jon, Dave et al
Eat your heart out Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. While your writers are striking, leaving you speechless or in re-runs, ZeFrank is back. What a beautiful study in contrasts between old and new media. Also today, not-so-amazing-anymore-Amanda has a new post....
After the Long Wait, And the $600 -- iPhone Activation Hell
Oh boy! It seems that scores thousands of people, who waited in line for days for an iPhone are having trouble getting AT&T to activate their phones -- a problem that renders the phone an iBrick. An Engadget poll reports that 38% of iPhone buyers have iBricks! Apple is said to have sold 1.5 million iPhones this weekend. That means there are a LOT of pissed off customers. And since so many are early adopters, like Steve Rubel and Thomas Hawk, many are singing their blues in well-read blogs. See why I told you to wait! It's being called iGate, and iPhone Hell, and those are the polite terms. Engadget explains "So yeah, long story short, there's a few people out there left phoneless while AT&T gets its act together." Reports are here, here, here, here and here. Robert Scoble, the lucky duck, seems to have had a great experience. Ditto for Amanda Congdon....
Experience Alien Abduction Just for the Fun of It
Amanda Congdon has vlogged some really wacky amusement parks to visit for summer fun. My favorite, hands down, is the Alien Apex Resort, in Roswell, GA New Mexico, opening by 2010. It's a "multi-sensory experience" that celebrates the legendary Roswell UFO incident of 1947. "The park will showcase the worlds[sic] first alien abduction experience. "This won't just be a theme park ride", says Bryan Temmer, Founder and President of Alien Apex Resort, Inc., "...you will actually believe you have been abducted by aliens."Woooo ooooooh hoooooo....
Amanda Congdon Does Infomercials
Amanda Congdon, ex-Rocketboom host, now star of TV and MySpace, does infomercials. Here she is in one of a series of Science Stories for DuPont. Undoubtedly it pays more than Rocketboom. via Jason Calacanis Twitter post...
Amanda Congdon Takes a Taser Hit at CES
Ouchy. Live on ABC News, Amanda Congdon took a hit from a Taser gun at CES. I sure can't say I would have done the same. Looks like she is serious about making a name for herself as a journalist. Just the other day I was wondering, Amanda WTF? when I saw her most recent MySpace video in which she confesses to a robot that she called the cops on a neighbor who turned out to have been smoking medical marijuana. Funnily, her MySpace profile lists her age as 59. Ha ha....
Can Internet Talents Rescue TV Networks From Idiotic Reality Shows?
Amanda Congdon, who last week signed a deal to develop a show for HBO, will be video blogging for ABC News, and "turning up occasionally" on Good Morning America and 20/20. You go Amanda! With ZeFrank - who's just as likely to compete in Olympic phone dancing in his living room as to give scathing political commentary -- and Ask A Ninja - who's hilariously odd, and just might be ZeFrank - featured in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, it's clear that Internet celebrities are the new MSM flavor of the month. There are huge numbers of extremely talented people online, despite all the space detritus on YouTube et al, and I'm willing to bet that you'll be seeing more of them on large and small screens soon. As TV Networks swtich to an endless stream of idiotic "reality" (aka cheap to produce) shows, the Internet is replete with fresh talent, eager for a shot at a wider audience (aka cheap to produce.) So soon you'll see online saving offline, if there's really anything to save at this point....
Amanda Congdon's Back on Sponsored American Tour
Amanda Congdon's back with Amanda Across America. She asking "the Force" (that's us) to "force Amanda to do fun things." She's got a wiki, a website, a funny MySpace page. She's sponsored by Environmental Countdown and is driving a Ford hybrid car. So we have the charming Amanda and friends, and several sponsors who are getting a great ride through the social media landscape. What a terrific idea, and I'm sure she'll make it big fun....
Rocketboom 2.0 Launches Cautiously
Rocketboom 2.0 has launched. "Interim" host, Joanne Colan (a former VJ for MTV Europe) made a cautious and unremarkable debut. Boy she looks like Amanda Congdon at first glance. But she's not as edgy. Hopefully, everyone will cut her some slack for a few days while she gets her personna on straight. Colan's debut episode began with a tomatoes flying at her, acknowledging how hard it is to replace someone as popular as Congdon. After the barrage ended, Colan graciously tipped her hat to Congdon. The first spot sends Colan into the streets of Manhattan to pay homage to blogger Kyle MacDonald trading one red paperclip for a house. It was cute, but Rocketboom is going to need to be more than cute to maintain 300,000 downloads a day. Andrew Baron, Rocketboom's producer, writes on the site's front page, "best wishes amanda you will always be welcome back," and links to her Amanda Unboomed blog. Hey, it's a little late to start acting like a mensch....
Rocketboom: Still Not Ready to Roll With New Host
The Rocketboom cybersoap saga continues. Yesterday, Rocketboom's site promised the first segment starring Joanna Colan, who's replacing the delightful Amanda Congdon who's signed with Hollywood's Endeavor Agency, would be online today. Well, yesterday, actually. Whew! Got that? But today, Rocketboom executive producer Andrew Baron's message on the site says: "...I have tried to get the episodes up and running as soon as possible, though I am not comfortable with the way they are going yet.... It's easy enough to recreate the same thing, the challenge here is to do the next." Baron hired hired Colan, former MTV Europe VJ (and former music/DJ curator at Table 50) to replace Amanda, who says she was fired. I don't think it would be easy, or smart, to try to recreate the same thing. That's what makes network news so boring. All the talking heads do the same act. The Endeavor Agency, which signed Congdon, represents TV and film stars such as Lisa Kudrow, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler....
Mainstream Media Weighs in On Rocketboom Bust, But Adds No News
Mainstream media is weighing in worldwide on the Rocketboom bust, but the majority of dead-tree journos don't get it or they rehash what bloggers have been saying all week. strong>Steve Johnson at the Chicago Tribune Hypertext blog says: "Congdon is reportedly already fielding job offers. She'll surely land a good gig hosting somebody else's version of an Internet news show and be able to move to L.A. if she wants to. But it's hard to imagine it having staying power unless her new executive producers persuade her to stop with all the shameless mugging for the camera." Dear Steve, the reason 300,000 people a day watched Rocketboom was because it didn't pretend to be objective. People who admit that they have opinions are more believable than those who pretend they don't. That goes a long way toward explaining the growth of social media. And Felicia Lee at the NY Times correctly calls the Rocketboom rift a cyberspace soap opera, but adds absolutely no new details to the news bloggers have been reporting all week. Lots of people have been busy editing the Wikipedia entries on Rocketboom and Amanda Congdon and there are now more than 10,300 posts tagged rocketboom at...
Rocketboom's Very Public Breakup Highlights the Difference Between Old and New Media
The beauty of social media shines through as the blogging community unites around fired Rocketboom star Amanda Congdon. Instead of being cloaked in secrecy like old media, this one's being played out publicly with thousands of bloggers worldwide offering advice and support for Congdon. One comment suggested that Congdon auction her services on eBay, but I doubt that she's looking for the highest bidder. I think she's looking for the most creative freedom and the broadest reach. Jason Calacanis wrote an open letter on his blog offering her a job at Netscape, "... my offer to you is do your daily report for Netscape and we'll pay you whatever you need to get paid AND you can own all of the rights to your video forever (just give us like a six month exclusive window on Netscape). We will set you up with our kick-ass studios, get you an office, and I've got a full-time video editor at your disposal (i.e. they can go with you anywhere). Also, we'll set up a travel budget so you can go cover whatever stories you want. You're a star baby... it's time to be treated like one." There are nearly 10,000 blog posts...
Rocketboom Fires Amanda Congdon and Loses Its Voice
Amanda Congdon announced today that she's been fired from Rocketboom because of unreconcileable differences with her partner, Rocketboom producer Andrew Baron. She's heading to LA, and she says she'll be back soon. I sure hope so. Hey, maybe she'll hook up with Scoble. Amanda Congdon IS Rocketboom, which certainly is a unique phenomenon. RocketBoom has enjoyed huge and well-deserved success, approximately 300,000 daily downloads, distribution via Tivo and $40,000 per week in advertising revenue. There are national cable shows with smaller audience share. And Rocketboom is more creative and fresh than any news show on any channel. Video Podcasting News has a transcript of Congdon's announcement . Hey Amanda, we miss you too. But I'm sure you'll do great things. The only part I don't get is why you'd wanna move to LA. Yecch....
Rocketboom Takes on Scientology
Rocketboom's Amanda Congdon takes on Scientology as only she can. An excerpt:"If you think about it, the Christian concept of turning the other cheek is fairly assinine. I prefer to crush my opposition. Don't you?"...
Rocketboom Launches Commercials TRM Won in eBay Auction
Amanda Congdon is the star of five days of loopy advertising created by Rocketboom forthe popular video blog's first advertiser, TRM, a seller of ATM machines. TRM paid $40K in an eBay auction for 5 days of advertising on Rocketboom, which gets 200,000 downloads a day. The ads, in episode format, feature Congdon as an out-of-work newspaper reporter who answers an ad for TRM and becomes a superhero by selling ATM machines. Very funny, very original, very Rocketboom. The ads are goofy enough to go viral, at least among Rocketboom fans. Posted by BL Ochman...
Rocketboom Advertising Auction Opens on eBay
Amanda Congdon's Rocketboom today launched a unique eBay auction for advertising on its popular daily vlog. The $1,130 reserve has not been met, although there already are 19 bids. The copy on the bid is an excellent media kit for Rocketboom. The highest bidder will receive "five original, fifteen second (minimum) - one minute (maximum) post-roll commercials that will span five days of programming, Monday-Friday, March 6 through March 10, 2006. Each day that week a different commercial that we create for your company will be played at the conclusion of the Rocketboom episode. " Rocketboom's coverage of the anniversary of John Lennon's death is included. It's not representative of the daily broadcasts, but it's one of Congdon's best posts ever. UPDATE: With six days to go, the reserve has not been met, there are 89 bids and the current high bid is US $14,999.99. My guess is that the reserve is $25K. There is no "Buy it now" price....
Rocketboom to Auction Ad Slot on eBay
Journalist Paul Berger's blog, reports that Rocketboom producer Andrew Baron and presenter Amanda Congdon are about to find out how much an ad at the end of a Rocketboom segment is worth. The site gets about 130,000 downloads a day. Next week they will auction off Rocketboom's first week of advertising on eBay. The winning bidder will have to give creative control to Congdon and Baron, who will produce the ads themselves. They'll also reserve the right to reject ads advertisers insist on making themselves. Smart moves by Rocketboom. Having run a wildly successful blog ad campaign for the Up Your Budget Treasure Hunt I created for Budget Car Rental, I can tell you categorically that traditional advertising simply does not work on blogs. Advertising agencies, who are still scratching their heads about blogs, want to approach blog ads with the same heavy hand they use for in-your-face advertising online.. Blog readers give traditional advertising a bronx cheer, ignoring it. Getting blog readers to click on an ad takes edgy, slightly weird, definitely non-traditional advertising that - like blog content - has to engage and interest readers. I can't wait to see how Rocketboom approaches advertising. I'm sure it will...
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