A Promise to Fred Seibert

I met Fred Seibert at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. We did one of these mobile movie panel discussions together. These panels seem to be happening every other week, somewhere in the world. Fortunately, this panel (organized by Charles Zamaria at the Bell New Media Fund) was more fun than most and was even rated as the top panel of the Television Animation Conference (TAC).


Fred is the force behind Channel Frederator, the world’s first cartoon podcast network, and Frederator Studios, one of the largest and most prolific cartoon studios and the folks who gave us The Fairly Odd Parents, ChalkZone, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Cow and Chicken, The Powder Puff Girls, and many, many more...

I was fortunate to spend some time talking with Fred at the Chateau Laurier Hotel. Fred is currently spending a lot of time growing Channel Frederator as well as continuing his cartoon innovations at Nickelodeon. All this creative output is natural for Fred who started his career in radio and as a record producer and then went to MTV as one of the music channel's first employees. If you want to get a sense of the kind of originality that he brings to the table, have a read through "MTV: The Making of a Revolution" by Tom McGrath, which talks about the early years of the network.

Fred's reputation is daunting. But like a lot of successful people, he is also a fantastic listener. We talked at some length about Mobifest, producing awards shows (He also producers the Channel Frederator Awards), and where distribution is heading (away from networks and into the hands of creatives and small producers).

At this point, he asked, "Do you have a blog?"

Me: "No. It seems like too much work."

Fred: "Why don't you have blog? ... You should have a blog!"

Me: "How often do I need to update it?"

Fred: "Once a week."

Media: "That seems like a lot..."

Fred: "The media business is always on. That's where you want to take Mobifest, right? ... I'm older than you..right?"

(Pause)

Me: "OK...I'll start a blog."

Well, that was my promise to Fred Seibert. And, this is my first post.