Then you waltzed in the door and said, “Hey Joe, I have this
idea for a train channel on the Web, and I’ve got a back-
ground in TV production. What if we could partner, where I
do the content, and you could distribute it?”
And the rest is history, as they say.
Barry:
Sometimes I feel we’re late out of the gate with TMTV.
But on other days I feel like we were way ahead of the rest
of the world, at least on the production level of the monthly
TMTV show.
Joe:
We’re late in some ways, but we’re also just getting
started, right? Between the two of us, we can dream up
more stuff than we could ever do in two lifetimes with
TrainMasters!
Barry:
Because we’re subscriber supported, that gives us some
freedom you don’t have with the ad-supported magazine.
If TMTV were a cable TV show, there would be many restric-
tions on what kind of stories we could do. Every story would
have to be vetted by the cable execs, whereas with TMTV we
have the freedom to just go to Tennessee, for example, to
cover the Oak Ridge Horn Honk – if we think something’s a
great story, then we’ll do it. There’s no TV executive sitting at a
desk somewhere going, “Oh I think we’d lose viewers if you did
that story.”
Joe:
Formula production says, “If it doesn’t interest a large
audience, then we won’t do it.” I’m sorry, but that’s not the
MRH way.
Barry:
And in the network TV world I’m from, if a show like
TMTV gets picked up, because the audience is so general, the
content has to be dumbed-down. It’s so refreshing to do a
series about trains and not have to spoon-feed the audience – I
don’t have to treat them like dummies!
Joe:
I support covering the hobby well with TrainMasters. I’ll
pick on a particular interest: Traction. They don’t like me saying
this, but traction is a hobby niche interest. The audience is not
nearly as large as, say, for class 1 transition-era railroads.
Yet that won’t stop me from doing an article on traction in
the magazine, and that should never stop us from doing a
TrainMasters segment on a traction subject.
I want to cover the hobby well. If that means we do a seg-
ment that appeals to a tiny audience at times, then
fine!
Barry:
Good, I want to do a feature on PCC trolleys (street cars).
Joe:
Go for it! Since TrainMasters does not have ads per se,
then for hobby vendors, what, if anything, does TrainMasters
have to offer them?
Barry:
I start by asking what a particular vendor has to offer
TrainMasters. There are many great stories that involve
manufacturers.
“Formula production
says, ‘If it doesn’t
interest a large
audience, then we
won’t do it.’ I’m
sorry, but that’s not
the MRH way.”
5
MRH introduces TrainMasters TV - 5
MRH-Dec 2013
