You are NOT listening to a live show!!!!

I am not necessarily speaking for Rick here. I will leave it up to him to explain his point of view, but here is my version.

Rick and I were not in any way fired, dismissed, excused or pressured to leave the radio show. We made the decision between the two of us and our families.

We did the radio show together for seven years and Rick did it for two years by himself before I came aboard.

We quit the show for two reasons:
1. money
2. time

Here is the formula we used to determine whether the show was profitable:
Money from networks ($0) + Money from affiliate stations ($0) + Money from sponsors ($0) - Money we spent from our own pockets over the years to promote the show etc. (I will not disclose an actual amount, but it is in the THOUSANDS of dollars) = -$Thousands.

As for time, we gave up time for many many sports events, holiday weekends, and other wonderful family activities so that we could do the show we had committed to do on Saturday afternoons.

When we explain to people why we left the show and how we never made any money at all from it they typically have one or two responses:
1. Ya, but I bet it was good advertising for your businesses, right?
2. If you didn't make any money, then why did you do it for so long?

For about two years, probably longer, Rick and I did an informal survey of our clients (each of us has around 1000 names in our client address book). We asked, questions like, "Do you listen to our radio show?", "Have you heard of Castellini on Computers?", "Did you catch the show last week?", etc.

Overwhelmingly the reply came, "What radio show?", "Is there a computer radio show?", "I've heard Kim Komando..." If every person who hired us because they heard us on the radio were gathered in one spot, they would easily fit in the High School auditorium of Roy Utah and there would be a number of empty seats.

Why did we do it for long? We love doing the show. We love helping people with their computer problems. Most of all, we know that the show is every bit as good, and in most cases much better, than other radio shows covering the same topic. Deep down we constantly believed that we were always on the brink of seeing the show take off and eventually become a Komando- or Dave Graveline-type show.

We know that the quality is there, the entertainment value is there. No other show does what we do with a total staff of 2. Imagine what the show would be like if we had a staff of 10!

We moved to the Internet because it gave us back total freedom over the show. The new format uses Video, audio, chat and podcasts that can potentially reach millions. Internet radio is the radio of the future. We are just way ahead of the trend.

Tune in and see what it's all about.

As for whether we will return to radio, that is up to networks, program directors and accountants to decide.

Contrary to popular belief, Adam and I never saw a dime from broadcasting "Castellini on Computers" every Saturday for 9 years (me) and 7 years (Adam). We heard many comments like one from above that people "liked the show, but didn't have time to listen". Those kind of comments made the decision to recapture our weekends and family time and do the show as a live web cast every Thursday night from 9:30-10:30pm pretty easy for us.

So far, we are thrilled with the format and the response from listeners and web visitors. We hope that we can continue to grow the show in that format and still provide the service we started almost ten years ago.

PLEASE, spread the word about HelpMeRick.com, our downloadable podcast and all the other great information you can find here at the web site.

THANKS!