Page 52 - AVN November 2015

FEATURE
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Jock Talk
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6Here’s what six intrepid internet
explorers have found out there.
in the United States. In time it was superseded by other
In the 1920s, radio was the primary entertainment medium
entertainment choices, but almost a century later, radio is
still a powerful medium. And with the rise of internet radio
stations, it’s become easier for adult companies to use radio to
reach out to mainstream audiences.
The recent adult radio renaissance can be traced to the
Internet radio station KSEX, which started in San Diego in the
late ’90s before moving to Burbank, on the east edge of the
San Fernando Valley. KSEX went live online evenings, with a
loosely formatted schedule with shows edging over into each
other, a “Jock Lounge” with a live camera that the host could
cut to for “candid shots” (viewers didn’t know that the camera
sat next to a live broadcast monitor so the surprise element
>
was nil), and an informal atmosphere where anybody on
the premises could be corralled into the studio as an on-air
guest. The “No Smoking” signs were routinely ignored, there
was usually an open bottle or two to share, and the program
director, an improv comic who went by the nom du porn
Wankus, kept the energy up and the shows rolling.
“We all owe a debt of gratitude to a guy named Wankus,
who was the first person I know who ever did sex on the radio,”
said Vivid Radio General Manager Farrell Hirsch. “He was
really the pioneer of this. He’s the granddaddy. He was doing
this before I was doing it.”
The current state of adult radio embraces satellite transmission,
Internet radio and connected devices like Roku. Here are some
of the people doing adult radio in the 21st century.
FARRELL HIRSCH is general manager of Vivid Radio,
which went on SiriusXM in July 2013.
“Vivid Radio is different from the other radio services
because Vivid really is a porn company. And it’s the only
one with a satellite radio station. We embrace the idea.
It’s not one foot in the porn world, one foot out. With
one exception, every host is a porn star: The exception is
Samantha Phillips, who was a Penthouse Pet. We don’t
hire doctors to give medical advice. It’s sex. Pure out-
and-out sex.
“We’re on the air 24/7. We’re live eight to ten hours
a day, with occasional recorded shows. I don’t know
anybody else who is offering a full day’s worth of
programming. I don’t think anybody’s got as robust a
schedule as we do. Most of ‘adult radio’ is what I’d call
podcasting. It’s not the same as appointment listening.
Christy Canyon is on the air right now, so if you want
to hear Christy Canyon between 1 and 3, she’ll be here
with a brand-new, live show every day. Podcasting is
[recorded for] whenever you’re in the mood. If you have
a guest scheduled and she turns up 90 minutes late,
you just start the show 90 minutes late. If you want to
listen to our shows at your own pace, you can go to our
archives and listen to anything you want in the history
of this station. But you can also listen to it as a regular
streaming radio station.
“I don’t think anybody takes the same sort of care
with professionalism that we do. That’s a SiriusXM
thing, but it’s also a Vivid thing. Vivid’s always been
a company that has standards of professionalism. We
hire like you would for any other job. You’re looking
for someone who’s exceptional, someone who will be
able to get along in this environment. People say ‘Look
for the biggest stars, look for whoever has the most
followers on Twitter.’ That’s great for the first week.
Then you have to do a radio show. We have a process.
First, we keep a running list of people who have been on
as guests or people we think would make good hosts. If
they’re interested, we put them through a ten-day class
that Sam Phillips teaches. They have to take the class
and pass it. If that works, we put you on co-hosting with
one of our regular hosts for a couple of days, somebody
FARRELL
HIRSCH
Vivid Voices
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