[Coco] New CoCo videos from Radio Shack

[Boisy G. Pitre]

Hi all,

Now that the third and final video is out and the series has been completely released, I wanted to address some of the comments and questions on the list.

The idea of doing these series of videos was proffered by the Social Media Group at RadioShack.  They offered up the idea after I had gotten in touch with Jerry Heep (the engineer on the videos) about doing an interview for the book.  Jerry had to go through RadioShack's PR department, and to their credit, they not only gave me access to Jerry, but offered to give me access to archives of documentation at Fort Worth.  They then brought up the idea of the YouTube videos.  I was, quite frankly, shocked at the level of cooperation and enthusiasm.  Not only would this be excellent PR for the book, it would be a great boostfor the CoCo Community.

We scheduled a day for me to travel to Fort Worth, where we did the video shoot and I got to hang out with Jerry and some other Radio Shack engineers.  We shot over 2 hours of video of Jerry and I just having a conversation.  It was in a makeshift studio with hot lamps, fancy digital cameras, the whole nine yards.  After that, Jerry and I went to lunch and then to his lab for the rest of the day.

There were some comments about the content of the video.  Regarding Frank's book:  the phrasing I used was in the moment; it wasn't the best, but I didn't mean to sideline his work.  We were having a free flowing conversation and honestly, it's a different experience being in that setting, having every word you say filmed.  I sent Frank a personal email asking for his understanding on that, and he responded graciously.

Jerry Heep did do a lot of talking, but for whatever reason, the video editors chose to have me do most of the yapping in the videos.  It's not something I had any say over.  The editing process was done by the Social Media team, and I had no idea what the final outcome would be until just days before the videos were released on YouTube.

Jerry is a fantastic guy, by the way, and did play a role in the design of the Color Computer, albeit not a chief one.  But we'll get into that in the book.

I do want to give RadioShack a lot of credit for this.  They did something huge here by acknowledging their role in a product that they once sold, and by doing that, also acknowledging the people (you) who made the Color Computer the success that it was.  At the end of the video, they even go as far as to solicit memories and stories on their Twitter account using the hashtag #RSCOCO.  I would encourage people to participate in that conversation, as it shows RadioShack that there was, and still is, interest in the CoCo.

Believe me when I say this: I'm in touch with RadioShack, and they are watching and listening.  They are looking at the video stats to see how many people are viewing the spots.  And they are not done by any means.  Starting soon, they will be promoting this series on their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as in their e-newsletter mailing.

You never know what interesting things may come out of this.

Boisy G. Pitre
boisy at tee-boy.com