Tearin' Up My Charts
I just got off a call where an astute PTFO listener admitted something that speaks to my greatest pride in this show — and my greatest fear.
After your first week, I didn’t think you’d be able to keep that up.
Which, fair. We launched an always-on show with a series of episodes that couldn’t have been done without weeks of background reporting and production.
And yet!
Our team has worked to keep it up, more than six months in.
We’re making something that’s deliberately different from anything else in sports media, and we’re growing, and people I respect seem to care. It’s gratifying. To the point where a related concern has emerged inside our newsroom and my brain, on account of the rate of stuff we’re publishing, three times a week:
Are we taking too many big swings? Should we pace ourselves?
Maybe?
But also: fuck that?
Which brings me to today’s show, which is not just a warm multimedia bath of pre-9/11 American nostalgia. Though it is palpably that.
It’s the product of years of reporting invested by PTFO correspondent Yourgo Artsitas, who has a wonderful new documentary coming out this fall.
It’s a story about MTV, youth culture, my sister, democracy, boy bands, corporate executives, and hacked elections, exactly 25 years ago this week. In other words:
Total Request Live.
Also, Korn.
DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,
Pablo