- Pacific Coast Hellway
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Pacific Coast Hellway was an adult-themed podcast hosted by Parsec award-winning author, screenwriter Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff from Los Angeles, California. Featuring uncensored comedy and rants, Nemcoff records the show each weekday inside of his self described BMW "3-series studio" during his commute to work along Southern California's famed Pacific Coast Highway to his office in Venice Beach, CA.
Contents
History
In May 2005, Nemcoff launched Pacific Coast Hellway as a one-man operation but the demands of doing five shows a week and the desire to constantly improve the show and keep it fun led Mark to bring aboard some comedy writer friends to help contribute ideas in the beginning of August 2005. In September 2005, Pacific Coast Hellway added more writers to its staff and a troupe of actors known as the "Pacific Coast Hellplayers". In the summer of 2007, PCH began to turn a profit making Nemcoff one of the first new media producers to leverage podcasting into a full-time career.
In November 2005, Pacific Coast Hellway made its debut on Sirius Satellite Radio when Adam Curry added the show to his PodSquad. In addition to its daily downloadable podcast, Pacific Coast Hellway also appears on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 102 in the timeslot immediately after Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. In April 2007 Sirius and Podshow ended the broadcasts.[1] Podshow podcasters were not given notice of the end of this arrangement.[2]
In 2006, Nemcoff assisted in the launch and operation (as Director of New Content) of PodShow L.A. and is the creator of the Podshow dramatic series "Shadow Falls" and the game show "Boned". Shadow Falls, touted as "podcasting's first professionally-produced drama series"[3] made a network debut in the summer of 2006.
After becoming upset that his original music was not chosen for Nemcoff's "Shadow Falls", Mickevich,and the original "Hellplayers" apparently departed the show in the spring of 2006 (although comedy sketches are still featured with new performers). When asked about Mickevich's departure on the PCH forum, Nemcoff merely replied with "who?".[4]
In August 2006. Mark and Pacific Coast Hellway were featured in Playboy Magazine. The article described the show as "The World's Most Offensively Enlightened Podcast".
In February 2007, Mark and co-host Mike Yusi of U.C. Radio, citing the ascension of Chris Daughtry's album to the top of the charts with only 85K unit sales came up with the idea for "Bum Rush the Charts", a plan to get listeners worldwide to buy a song from an unsigned band on iTunes (Black Lab's "Mine Again") to see if they could drive it up the charts. Enlisting the help of other noted podcasters like C.C. Chapman, Chris Penn, Jersey Todd and others, they got the word out, getting "Mine Again" to chart in the top 100 in almost every iTunes store in the world. Most notably, rising to #4 in the Netherlands. All of the profits from the day's sale (over $12K) went to charity—funding a college scholarship for a student in need as chosen by the Student Loan Foundation.
Nowadays, often appearing in-studio with Mark on PCH is show co-producer Mike Yusi.
In July 2007, Pacific Coast Hellway was nominated for "Best Comedy Podcast" in the third-annual Podcast Awards. It did not win.
In September 2008, Mark temporarily pulled the plug on Pacific Coast Hellway. The official reason being that his schedule got too chaotic to maintain a weekly podcast. Despite unsubstantiated rumors that his contract had not been renewed, his Mevio contract was renewed for all of his shows but Nemcoff chose to focus on his video projects instead, citing the much larger audience and exploding advertiser demand for video content on the web.
On October 10, 2008, a new show was uploaded. In the late summer and fall of 2009, a new season of 20 episodes of PCH were released on Mevio, all sponsored by Go Daddy.
Controversy
In July 2006, it was discovered that Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff included text within his website in the purpose of gaining traffic ("keyword spamming") using popular search terms relating to podcasting and other podcasters. The keywords included words of a sexual nature and the names of more popular podcasts such as Keith and the Girl and Diggnation.[5]
Once discovered by fans of Keith and The Girl, Nemcoff altered the text, adding:
Hey Keith and the Girl listeners... if you're looking here, guess what... you've been Punk'd, bitches. The way search engines work is they pick up even the tiny words hidden on your page, so when I put this on my site, whenever someone searches for "Keith and the Girl", "Diggnation" or any of the other terms hidden in black, including the words "hidden" "in" and "black", somewhere in that search will come up "Pacific Coast Hellway"... LOL.[6]
In the same month of July 2006, Nemcoff ranted on a podcast about Keith Malley, facetiously claiming that he should "bring a fucking knife" to any ensuing meeting between the two.[7]
Criticism
Although clearly angry that he had dared to personally attack Malley and Chemda Khalili, many of the Keith and The Girl message board posters also expressed criticisms regarding Nemcoff's vocal style, his cheerleading for Podshow and its media properties, and his comedic style (which some said was an imitation of comedian Dennis Miller). The iTunes podcast listener reviews also show a mixed-bag of feelings for PCH and Nemcoff, with a polarity between those who love the show and those who hate it.[8]
References
- ^ [1] Podcast Pickle, Podshow and Sirius Part Ways (April 28th, 2007).
- ^ [2] Digital Flotsam, But Siriusly Folks (April 25th, 2007).
- ^ Podshow (July 2006). "PodShow’s Original Drama Series, Shadow Falls, Unleashed!". http://blog.podcastalley.com/2006/07/24/podshows-original-drama-series-shadow-falls-unleashed/. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
- ^ (Site has been taken down) Forums "What has Mark done with Mickevich?" on Pacific Coast Hellway Forums; accessed July 5, 2006
- ^ Google Cache "Use of Keyword Spam" on Pacific Coast Hellway Webpage; accessed August 2, 2006.
- ^ Website - Google Cache "Keyword Spam - Extended" on Pacific Coast Hellway Webpage; accessed August 2, 2006.
- ^ Podcast "Morally Inappropriate..." on Pacific Coast Hellway Podcast; accessed August 2, 2006.
- ^ [3] Pacific Coast Hellway iTunes page
External links
Categories:- Audio podcasts
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