How I Almost Created "The Disaster Channel"

This could have been a real disaster.

About 20 years ago, I was on the editorial staff at Viking Penguin, which as the name implies, was a merger of two venerable old publishing houses.

Our company had been bought by the international media company Pearson, which also bought the venerable old merger-house of E.P. Dutton and New American Library.  It was the early days of the consolidation of publishing.

Pearson decided to move us out of our West 23rd Street offices -- and our compatriots out of their Park Avenue location -- and into the Saatchi & Saatchi building in lower Manhattan.  It was a sleek, stark, almost sterile contrast to the rickety bookshelf-cluttered walls and creaky floors of our old building.
 
The editorial staff was starting to be trimmed and many of us could see the writing on the walls.  Of course, there were no bookshelves to clutter them up!

I started kicking around ideas with some friends about what to do next.  I felt stuck.  I had worked in publishing and printing for much of the 80s.  What else did I know?

I had a short stint as an assistant to a baker when I first moved to New York and loved baking bread.  My friend Howie said my bread was so good, I should open a bakery.  (I've told part of that story here.)

But I had another idea: "The Disaster Channel."

That's right, The Disaster Channel.  Nothing but disasters 24/7.  There was plenty of existing content (movies, documentaries, news footage) and there were new disasters all the time.  We could have "Disaster of the Week" specials, send people out with video cameras to chase tornadoes, think of the possibilities!

It wouldn't take much to start and it would certainly be a hit.  People love disasters.  It would be worth millions, billions even, I reckoned.

My friends were mortified.  "How could you live with yourself if you did that?"

"Well, if The Disaster Channel was a success, then I could do my other idea for a cable channel," I replied. "The Poetry Channel: an all-poetry cable network featuring poets and celebrities reading poems, poets being interviewed, and films about poets or based on poetry."

Call it my "Evil Plan."

Needless to say, I didn't pursue either idea.  Since that time, The Weather Channel has picked up the mantle of disaster coverage. (Someone has even done a spoof announcement of the concept here.)

Could I have sold to TWC or was my idea too early?  I'll never know.

The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous.

The Story is Where It's @: Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2009

Every time I get out into the Philadelphia entrepreneur and start-up scene, I marvel at the amount of great ideas, people, and companies there are here.


(Photo: The Green Skeptic--in StockTwits cap--with Donny Deutsch at Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, Philadelphia.)

It really does feel like a groundswell forming beneath our feet -- or between the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers.

The Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, sponsored by Morgan Lewis, has been running for the past twelve years to become one of the country's most widely attended entrepreneurship gatherings.

This year, the conference was all about stories.

And what better way to open than to hear from Julian Brodsky, founder, director and chairman of Comcast Corporation and the brain behind Comcast's venture arm.

Brodsky, who helped found Comcast back in 1963, told the story of the company's rise from a Philly-based owner of a few TV licenses in Tupelo, MS, to the powerhouse it is today.

Along the way, Brodsky revealed the intricate web of Philly connections to just about every major technological/media innovation over the past 46 years, from QVC to half.com, from Safeguard Scientifics to Internet Capital Group. (Hint: the common denominator is, once again, Pete Musser.)

I've heard another veteran of the Delaware Valley, Steven Goodman from Morgan Lewis, tell another piece of the story and I'm more convinced than ever that someone needs to chronicle this history. A phascinating story.

Panels on Clean Tech, Monetizing Web 2.0 and Mobile communications, and a couple of real-world case studies were also served up during the course of the day. (You can check out my live Tweeting from those sessions and the entire conference here.)

Twenty-five of the region's most promising start-ups were also featured in WEC25 expo, running during the conference, including three green companies: eco, green.konnect.me, and American Resource Conservation.

In the closing keynote, Donny Deutsch, Chairman of Deutsch, Inc. and host of CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch shared his story and insights to encourage the entrepreneurs in the room to stay focused on their ideas and do what they love.

My three take-aways from the conference today:

1) There's so much great stuff happening in Philly;
2) We need 10-15 year horizon for real clean tech advances to be made; and
3) "Why NOT me?" (Donny Deutsch)

Read more about the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference
and @ Phillypreneurs