| --Tuesday, April 22, 2008--
RudeTV sprouts from the grave of KSEX
 It's one thing that adult-oriented Internet TV station RudeTV has taken a good deal of the staff of the former KSEXRadio, but it must seem a little on the nose that the new station has moved into KSEX' old studio.
KSEXRadio was a beloved old garage band of a business that was characteristic of the porn industry; often disorganized, brutal on its enemies, forgiving of its friends, and a wealth of information about the porn industry from people getting paid about 20 bucks an hour to run their shows.
Nestled for years on the top floor of a nondescript Burbank office building, KSEX was purchased in 2006 and revamped, somewhat, with big plans to move the company closer to the heart of Porn Valley. This eventually happened in May when the company moved its offices to Canoga Park.
 Not everyone made the move, however. KSEX program director Wankus, who had been feuding with the ownership, was publicly fired earlier that month. This news was broken when one of the owners called in to a KSEX show and declared Wankus' termination over the air. Bad blood ensued.
But KSEX took six more months to die. Though some "Porn Jockeys" resigned in protest of the manner of Wankus' dismissal, others began to see the writing on the wall. The company was being managed from New Jersey and things were falling apart. KSEX struggled to keep talent and original programming, advertisers began dropping out, and eventually the remaining staff was asked to go without pay and do the job for the "exposure."
KSEX finally died in late January of this year.
Meanwhile, Rude.com, an Internet entertainment site launched by the founders of webcam pioneer Camz.com, heard that there was some studio space available, and called Wankus to be its program director and main host, as he had been at KSEX.
"They flew me to Bangkok for the job interview," Wankus said.
 Rude.com wanted to expand its market to adult television, and threw tens of thousands of dollars into outfitting the space KSEX had occupied as a TV studio. RudeTV boasts two studios with greenscreens separated by a control booth (in which Powder and Socks, both late of KSEXRadio, dwell), a reception area, a ready room for talent, and a large room outfitted with a stripper pole.
But can an adult Internet broadcast site be self-sustaining? KSEX never was, and its short-lived competitor PrimeTime Uncensored also failed. But Rude has a little money behind it, and it is being run by people familiar with the adult industry.
Rude.com co-owner Brett LaMar told me he will be 32 in a week. He and his wife, Sammy (of Samm4u.com) live in Thailand, as does Rude.com's other co-founder, Robb. Active swingers, LaMar and his wife also started housecamz.com.
"We knew that the KSEX space was going to be available," LaMar said, "and Rude.com was getting ready to make its move to Internet TV."
Rude.com has come under attack by adult industry webmasters for hosting stolen content and employing traffic hijacker/adware giant zango (see sample thread). The adult industry will forgive most things, but stealing content is never one of them. I am assured everything is now copacetic and attributable.
But after the unpleasantness with KSEX, Wankus is hopeful about his new bosses.
"They're putting a lot of time and money into this place to do it the way it should be done," he said.
 Last night's opening party was well-attended and, despite the fact that the station went live at 6 p.m. with a show called "Guitarded," in which two pornstars play strip-"Guitar Hero," the mood was laid back. There was also a Make Your Own Drinks open bar, which also helped.
 Powder told me that there had been a couple of test runs of the new studios and shows, and that he was expecting the evening to be tough but successful. As it happened, the night went off without a hitch, though sometimes callers weren't loud enough and the various greenscreen motifs were a little busy.
 Mika Tan who, after a family-related hiatus ("No, I wasn't in Afghanistan with the Army or in Iraq with the CIA," she said. I hadn't heard the story about the CIA), has returned to performing, last night hosted "Whispers," an occasional Mika hour in which she uses dildos for callers' enjoyment.
RudeTV schedules 20 hours of original programming, broadcasting from 6-10 weekday nights. Currently free, it will soon switch to a subscription model with various free incentives, and will begin archiving its shows for On-Demand access.
 Among its shows are "Guitarded," "Smell My Finger" (also hosted by Wankus with a different co-host every night, such as Sunny Lane, Kylee King, and Cleopatra of the Nile), "Penis or Plastic?" hosted by Alanna Thomas remotely from Gilbert, AZ, BDSM-themed "Baadmaster's Dungeon," and "Road Whore," Lexi Lamour's stories of stripping and strippers.
 Guests at last night's opening party included photographer Ken Marcus, Kylee King, Alanna Thomas (pictured), Trinity Saij (pictured), Cleopatra (pictured), Carrie Moon, Dakoda Brookes, Sammy LaMar, Mika Tan (pictured), and Sunny Lane.
Previously: Energy drink-drinking nudes; Wankus out at KSEX, fired by phone
See also: Rude TVLabels: alanna thomas, cleopatra, events, interviews, ksex, kylee king, mika tan, rudetv, sunny lane, wankus
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, September 17, 2007--
Maxim photographer has just enough time for you
 Maxim photographer Alan Strutt is doing you a favor by appearing on Tony Batman's KSEX show Thursday night.
After all, he says, "I'm in Los Angeles for this week, and then off to Thailand where I'm shooting 20 girls from 20 different countries for Maxim International. I'm looking for girls here to use in that shoot, as well as in other pictorials over the coming months."
OK, so he's off to Thailand soon but he still doesn't have the United States representative? And if he's shooting "20 girls from 20 different countries" why is he looking for girls from here? Wouldn't he just need one?
E-mail Tony Batman to figure it out.Labels: events, ksex, tony batman
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, August 01, 2007--
Nautica Thorn, Jersey Jaxon on Wankus show tonight
 They say they are not competing, but KSEXRadio and PrimeTime Uncensored fish from the same shallow pool of summertime porn talent.
KSEX' new studio is great, despite the steady migration of talent from there (Jason Sechrest is holding down the fort with about 70 shows weekly). And Tony Batman and Wankus more or less switched places; Batman was a mainstay of the fledgling PTU and moved to KSEX when Wankus was unceremoniously fired from his home of several years.
Wankus is now the peripatetic king of the Chatsworth low-res streaming porn video scene.
The former "Transformers" voice has had a steady gig at PTU for the past several weeks, and tonight hosts the bite-sized Jersey Jaxon, Nautica Thorn, Kayla Paige, Ashlynn Brooke, and a woman named Haileey (that's what it says here) James. (Ryder Skye will appear next week, contrary to the poster. But what are you going to do? Make a new poster?)
The Wankus Show is always fun, even if PTU's studio is uncomfortably cavernous.
Will PTU be the XBiz to KSEX' AVN? Will either ever make money? Is James Bartholet the most talented man alive? All will soon become clear - or it won't!
Previously: Energy drink-drinking nudes
See also: Prime Time UncensoredLabels: "nautica thorn", ksex, prime time uncensored, Ryder Skye, wankus
posted by Gram the Man
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--Friday, June 08, 2007--
Energy drink drinking nudes
 Here are Ryder Skye, Regan Anthony, and Rachel Starr shilling Liquid Ice Energy Drink on KSEXRadio by virtue of being naked near it. Liquid Ice is not a sponsor of this website, simply because there is no safe way to mix it with Jagermeister. "Liquid Ice" employs what rhetoriticians call an oxymoron; it is like saying Solid Gas.
Naturally, if it is a choice between Liquid Ice and Solid Gas in terms of what you want naked girls advertising, I'd pick Liquid Ice every time.
Still, it was tasty on its own. I would probably drink it if I were a truck driver, but my crank recipe is pretty solid.
 Notice how when looking from left to right the ladies' smiles get bigger, culminating in Starr's megawatt choppers. This does nothing but prove that our Western style of reading is the balls.
"The West is the best" - Jim Morrison.
Previously: Investing in Regan Anthony; Wankus out at KSEX
See also: KSEXRadio, Liquid Ice, Ryder Skye, Tony BatmanLabels: ksex, pop, Rachel Starr, regan anthony, Ryder Skye
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, June 06, 2007--
Investing in Regan Anthony
 Because I am the nation's finest erotic photographer, I knew that Regan Anthony needed a prop for our impromptu photo session at the new KSEX studios (she was a guest on Tony Batman's show).
We noticed that the walls were bare and that, since KSEX' move from Burbank to Chatsworth was not complete, there was little furniture around.
"Sit on that large wire spool!" I commanded.
"Now what?" Anthony asked.
"Now take this $20 bill and stick it between your breasts!" I said.
"The most I ever got between them was $104," she said.
(I didn't have that much cash on me, so I swiped my credit card instead.)
Previously: Healthy Request: Regan Anthony; Faith's Fantasies
See also: KSEXRadioLabels: ksex, regan anthony, strippers
posted by Gram the Man
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--Friday, May 11, 2007--
Wankus out at KSEX, fired by phone on air
 It is hard to imagine KSEXRadio without Wankus, the person who undisputedly made the station the unvarnished garage band of porn industry discussion.
"Well," Wankus qualified today, "if you think KSEX sucks, that's me, too."
Wayne "Wankus" Lewis joined KSEXRadio in late 2000 after years as a radio DJ in regional markets around the country. He joined at the request of former owner the late Mike Rick.
"I coached his kid in Little League," Wankus said, "and he called me up when he'd bought the station from the former owner in late 2000. He said 'I'll stay out of your way.'"
Wankus brought an abrasive, incisive, often hilarious East Coast style to the airwaves, building a loyal fanbase with "PJ"s ("Porn Jockies") that worked for $20 an hour. Wankus is responsible for most of KSEXRadio's identifiable trademarks, from its music to its commercials.
Following Rick's death, Rick's brother, Chris, took over the station but he eventually sold to a four-person partnership that included Sean Trotter, a shareholder in Adam & Eve, a "silent partner" named Gene who was a restarauteur, Josh Aaron, and Jon Belinkie. There was talk of taking the station to satellite radio, moving the station to larger quarters from its current Burbank location, and a general restructuring managed from afar. Wankus continued as Program Director.
"There were big plans," Wankus said of the new regime, which began early last year. "But (despite Trotter's involvement) the new owners were outsiders trying to run a porn business."
Tyler Faith, who today resigned her PJ gig in protest of Wankus' firing, concurred.
"It has been a very rough year," she said.
I asked what the biggest problem seemed to be in outside ownership.
"This is a west coast industry and you have to respect that," Wankus said. "When I moved to Santa Barbara from New York, it took me four years to talk without people wanting to fight me."
(I had earlier asked Wankus to please slow down; I'm from the East Coast myself and I have grown used to people talking at a leisurely pace since I moved here.)
"...so I understood the difficulty," he said. "They have very New York-y, hard-sell tactics. You can't yell at (AVN president Paul) Fishbein about the AVN ads. I had to do a lot of apologizing for them. But you can't manage a business by vacation, which is what these guys were doing. You have to get in and get your hands dirty."
On Thursday night, PJ Lorrainiac's show started with a call from partner Jon Belinkie. He informed her on the air that Wankus was fired and that she was the new Program Director.
"I hired Lorrainiac six years ago," Wankus said. "She had just started the show, everybody was having a good time..."
Wankus and Faith are dubious of the station's continued success, because they don't feel the owners know the territory. But this pales in comparison to the method of the dismissal.
"(Wankus is) responsible for KSEX getting to where it is now," Faith said, "and you don't treat someone like that."
Many companies in the adult industry are notorious for shortchanging their employees, but this reflects the entertainment industry in general, and maybe even Los Angeles (that is why I work for myself). These companies might survive based on short-term disrespect to the people who work for them, but it could be argued that they'd do a lot better if employees were treated better.
"(Belinkie) and I would have these screaming phone calls that we'd end with 'I'm hanging up now. I'll call you tomorrow,'" Wamkus said. "We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but we all wanted the success of KSEX."
Both Wankus and Faith admit they feel relieved after what they think of as a year of struggle and butting heads with the new owners.
"Now he can devote 100 percent of his time to my company (Team Tyler)," Faith said. The couple are negotiating a new series with a major studio, the details of which will be announced soon.
"I'm getting my ducks in a row," Wankus said.
I asked what the secret of success in the porn business was.
"You can tell who's going to succeed when people stop getting the googly eyes with naked girls all around them," he added. "These guys still have the googly eyes after a year."
Previously: Tyler Faith, awake and asleep; Tyler makes honest man out of Wankus; What makes boobs real?
See also: Wankus, Tyler FaithLabels: business, ksex, news, tyler faith, wankus
posted by Gram the Man
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--Tuesday, May 08, 2007--
Porn Star Karaoke the way it used to be - tonight
 I like that Wankus dude. He is hosting Porn Star Karaoke for the first time in about a year tonight. Not that his replacements have dropped the ball, but watching Wankus host Porn Star Karaoke is like watching a train not crash.
Previously: Tyler Faith: "Just like the glitter on her nose"; Faith's Fantasies
See also: Sardo's Bar, KSEXLabels: events, ksex, PSK, wankus
posted by Gram the Man
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--Thursday, March 15, 2007--
Sunny Lane, on and off the ice; Tyler Faith, awake and asleep
 I asked Sunny Lane what she thought of her ABC special when I dropped by KSEXRadio last night.
Lane and former Adam & Eve contract performer Sophia Lynn were followed by ABC's PrimeTime crew for several months, and special attention was paid to the supportiveness of Lane's parents, Shelby and Mike, of her career choices, whether her career was ice skating or porn.
I have never seen Lane off-message, and I told her so. I don't expect her to trash-talk other performers or confide in me her love of the Dark Arts, but it is sometimes a challenge to determine if what I'm hearing is the real Sunny Lane.
Last night I came to the conclusion that whoever Sunny Lane is, it is a perfectly integrated product, and I should just stop worrying about it because I like the product. She has been this person since she was a tiny ice skater of seven years old, if not before, and she will probably be this person when she is a grandmother, entering cookies into competitions.
"My (ice-skating) coach told me that there's 'On Ice' and 'Off Ice'," Lane said.
"And at what point did you realize that the cameras kept following you after you unstrapped your skates?" I asked.
"When I was about eight," she said.
I was being interviewed on KSEX about my coffee redistribution system, and Lane, Wankus' co-host, kept the mood light with peppy down-home aphorisms.
"Be true to yourself," she said.
"Keep your energy positive," she said.
"I am the god of Hell fire," she didn't say.
I saw a little bit of the PrimeTime special. The PrimeTime people had contacted Lane through Nightmoves, the Tampa magazine and exotic dancer show that first brought Lane to prominence in the adult world. I had also seen Belladonna's PrimeTime special a few years ago, and I wondered how much of my overall feeling of unease came from the editing.
For example, one of the things Sunny's dad, Mike, extols about his daughter's work at The Bunny Ranch is the fact that "she was fed."
It leaves the viewer wondering, "What part of Georgia do you have to be from for being fed to be a luxury?"
Lane confirmed that her father had said plenty of things prior to and after the food comment that were not aired. I didn't feel the special was a hatchet job, but there were a few examples of too much talking or, perhaps, too little.
Kelly Turner writes:
Don't you find it interesting that the porn industry tends to get upset at the mainstream media's so-called hatchet jobs? (sidenote: Wasn't porno supposed to go mainstream any second now?) Is it because they are so used to a trade media that wouldn't dare say anything negative, so they can't understand it when the Diane Sawyers take a swipe at the industry? Why is mainstream not giving the industry a fair shake if they mention drugs, child porn, rough sex and the like? Why are they expected to (always) report positively on an industry that has so many negatives? Still, Sunny felt the show was a positive experience.
"We've been getting a lot of interview requests," she said. Indeed, Lane's publicist, April Storm, says that her phone hasn't stopped ringing.
I had the same problem with my old Volkswagen Rabbit. The horn would not stop beeping. I had to punch it into submission once in Nashville because people thought I was beeping at them. I guess it's not the same thing.
Later, I asked Pride of Saugus Tyler Faith to pose as my ideal smoking prom date. "Weah in tha pahkin' lot a tha fuckin' Kowloon," I suggested.
Wankus showed several clips of his cruise to Belize with Faith, including one shot of someone getting (almost) pushed into a pool, making a pit stop, with his face, on the concrete rim.
The shot made my testicles recede.
There was another clip of a drunk Wankus and a drunk and passed out Faith, with her pants off.
Faith later signed a release so it was a legitimate and wholesome portrayal of life partners having drunken sex.
"Would you just look at her ass?" slurred Wankus, sounding like Robby D. The camera zoomed in.
The shot made my testicles come back.
"Shhhh," Wankus kept saying, not to Faith but to the camera, as if viewers at home might try to warn her.
I always have fun at KSEX.
Previously: KSEX Awards: Meaty; The South rises again at PSK; Tyler Faith wears light blue Nikes; Tyler Faith: "Just like glitter on her nose"
See also: KSEXRadio, Gene Ross reports, Sunny Lane, Tyler FaithLabels: ksex, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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