The Valley's Web Celebs From Grammar Girls to a Cat Galaxy, several Valley residents have turned their sometimes odd talents into online celebrity.
Each morning at 8 a.m., Nohl Rosen turns on the microphone connected to the computer in his North Phoenix home and offers a hearty good morning to his online radio audience. Like any morning-radio host, Rosen plays a variety of tunes, interrupting the line-up of music for the occasional news update.
What makes Rosen’s show far more interesting than the run-of-the-mill radio program is that he’s broadcasting to an audience of felines. What’s more, Rosen says his boss is a cat.
Cat Galaxy Radio debuted seven years ago with a mix of music streaming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and with its broadcast content aimed at an audience of cats. Rosen, completely seriously, says he just serves as a human spokesperson for the station while the operation is run by administrators of the feline variety. As of May 2008, Rosen’s Web site, www.catgalaxymedia.com, has surpassed the four million visitor mark, a success Rosen assigns to his feline friends.
“Isis deserves credit for being the one that gave birth to the idea,” says Rosen, referring to his feline station manager. “One day [Isis] was meowing. She didn’t want food. She didn’t want water. She didn’t want to play. There was a music CD sitting on the table in front of me, so I said, ‘I think I know what you’re asking me for.’ I put the CD in the radio and pushed play. The music started playing, Isis laid down, and Cat Galaxy was born.”
All music on the station is selected by the cats, explains Rosen.
If the cats don’t like the music, they may “hiss, spit or just leave the room,” he says.
Rosen is just one of many Valley residents who have employed quirky ideas to find their cyber fame, and while for most it’s simply a hobby, some have propelled their celebrity into full-time careers.
“The Internet opened the door for anybody to take the spotlight,” explains Brian Shaler, an Internet-marketing specialist based in the Valley who lists Nike, Ford and Boeing as some of his previous clients. “As long as you’re interesting and relevant and do something new that people can talk about, anybody can become an Internet celebrity.”
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Becoming an overnight Internet sensation is now one of the more popular daydreams for would-be entrepreneurs. Last year, Forbes.com even posted its second annual list of the top 25 most influential Web celebrities, which included a grouping of “penniless bloggers and geek entrepreneurs.”
This new wave of Web-savvy guerilla marketers has taken no time to become an evolving industry with many public relations and marketing professionals vaunting their online-marketing prowess.
As a blogger, photographer and “jumper,” Shaler was able to create a bit of Web celebrity of his own. Shaler, who maintains the strange hobby of jumping over things, takes photos of himself jumping over large objects and then posts them online. The resulting productions on YouTube.com, Digg.com and Twitter.com have earned Shaler top ranking on the popular sites.
“There’s more value in personal branding and self-marketing than just having a really good portfolio,” said Shaler.
Having achieved a few swift Web moves, Shaler says he will likely never have to look for another job: The jobs come to him. He’s also writing a book about self-marketing online and serves on the board of directors for several Phoenix-area Web conferences.
GRAMMATICALLY SPEAKING
One of the most popular Valley Web celebrities earned her fame by treating her online audience to basic lessons in grammar, which she never dreamed would be so popular. Mignon Fogarty was a science and technology writer living in Gilbert who enjoyed tuning in to popular NPR podcasts like Science Friday.
A true technophile, Fogarty began taping her own science-themed podcasts, which she recalls being fun but very demanding.
Fogarty decided to try something new. While proofreading other writers’ articles Fogarty says she often came across the same simple grammatical mistakes. “[Writers] would misplace the apostrophe in their words or use ‘that’ instead of ‘which’ or ‘which’ instead of ‘that.’ Just the same very simple errors over and over again,” she says.
Fogarty began airing short, informative grammar lessons through online podcasts, and within a month was listed as one of the top education podcasters on iTunes. “It just took off beyond my wildest dreams.”
After exploding through nothing more than word-of-mouth advertising, Grammar Girl was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, in Business Week and the Wall Street Journal, and its podcasts have been downloaded more than 11 million times to-date in nearly every country in the world.
For Fogarty, being the Grammar Girl is now a full-time job with advertising revenue, an audio book, a print book to be released in early July, speaking engagements and even an entire podcasting network (www.quickanddirtytips.com) with podcasts on parenting, business, manners and, of course, grammar.
Fogarty attributes her success mainly to podcasting technology. “Where else can something like Grammar Girl be successful? Where else can you imagine listening to a five-minute show with a tip about writing?”
In one city, there may not be enough people interested in Fogarty’s podcasts, “but when you spread that across the country or across the world it’s a very large audience.”
WATCH THIS
Jody Gnant rolls over in bed and groggily peers over to the camera on her laptop computer and says good morning to the dozen or so people waiting online for her to start her day.
This is how Gnant has begun nearly every morning for the past nine months. The 29-year-old singer, songwriter and Valley native is living the ultimate reality show – filming every moment of her days, from sunrise to sundown nonstop.
As a struggling musician, Gnant paved her own way to media attention and record sales after gaining exposure through the now legendary story of the red paperclip, which was traded through the popular Web site Craigslist.com for a variety of items, ending with Gnant receiving a year of free rent in exchange for a recording contract.
After a few months of streaming her every move, Gnant landed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, had a profile in the Sunday Times in the U.K. and booked a jam session with Jason Scheff of the band Chicago. She also had a casting call on rapper Ice Cube’s Internet TV channel, and that’s just a small taste of some of Gnant’s recent exposure.
When Gnant set a release date for her album – September 14, 2007 – she knew she needed to drum up some extra publicity. Six weeks prior to the release, she turned on the camera.
Online viewers flooded her Web site where they could watch Gnant rehearse with the band, and could even tag along for a visit to the doctor when her voice grew weary. When it came time for the CD release party six weeks later, people from all over the world flew in to support the fledgling artist.
Gnant’s 24/7 on-air world grabbed the attention of hundreds of new fans, but the worldwide media had not yet caught onto the story. So Gnant decided to keep the cameras rolling.
Today, Gnant carries her laptop with its built-in camera everywhere, though she takes a break for trips to the restroom. Viewers watch Gnant while interviewing with TV news reporters, meeting with music executives or simply eating breakfast. Though Gnant pulls the camera’s blinder while sleeping, the audio continues to roll.
The singer greets 150,000 to 200,000 unique visitors to her site, www.jodygnant.tv, each month. At any given time, at least 30 to 50 viewers watch Gnant run errands or hang out at a coffee shop.
Gnant’s viewers don’t watch idly; instead, they can talk with Gnant through instant chatting. It’s like having 50 best friends, Gnant explains, adding that she can always rely on someone to give “an off-color opinion on what outfit I’m wearing,” and someone is always available to give directions when driving, she said. While lost during a recent drive to Calif., a viewer in England found directions online and sent them to Gnant through her site.
Due to her site’s growing popularity, Gnant has nabbed a few sponsors and says her goal is to capitalize through advertisers, which she says will allow her to give her music away for free.
“Anything is possible now for an independent artist. The Internet and new technology have removed all boundaries that previously existed … You can reach the consumer directly. You don’t need the middle man to get the message out.”
COOL CATS
For Rosen, the success of his feline radio station has spilled over to its Web site, where he posts staff blogs and news updates.
Though Rosen has received ample attention over the years, he doesn’t believe he’s doing anything out of the ordinary. “Yes, the humans in the media think we’re unique because a radio station for cats had never been done before. But we’re regular members of the media … We have a job to do. We’re not going to stop doing it simply because some humans think we’re weird.” Most attention is supportive, Rosen says. “We actually get picked on more by the dog people.”
Rosen was flooded with offers for advertising revenue in the beginning and is still occasionally approached by potential advertisers, but the full-time computer technician has opted not to chase the extra cash. “It wasn’t ever about the money. It was about helping the feline community, giving a voice to the cats who need good and loving homes.”
Rosen aims to spread the word about cat shelters, cat adoption and events like the annual summer Bowl-A-Rama in support of animal rescue.
Rosen sees the Internet as the ideal forum for his cause. “We’re moving away from traditional am/fm radio. You have a wider and growing audience with the Internet … once you hit the Web, it’s international.”
Given the wide niche market that Rosen has discovered, the station’s view on advertising could change, but such a decision is out of Rosen’s hands, “The cats are in full control. If they meowed and said let’s take Cat Galaxy in this or that direction, I’d do it … I could not have asked for better bosses,” he said
|
