NextLevel.com

Editorial transcript for review. Lightly edited for readability. This is a first-person recollection; claims not independently established elsewhere in the record remain oral-history evidence. Brackets mark uncertain wording or spelling.

00:00 NextLevel.com—what a monster this thing turned out to be. It originally started as part of the studio at 1040 Midi and Music. We started doing jingles and commercial work under the name Next Level.

00:19 There was a guy in Vancouver who used to come to the studio. His name was Tom Beeman [surname spelling under review], and he was famous for doing commercials you heard around Vancouver at the time—“Wedding Day One,” “Way to Go Chevy” [wording under review]. His voice, production or writing was everywhere. He would rent the studio and do his jingles.

00:58 I told him I was looking to do an Internet company. The Internet was pretty new then. He asked whether I needed him to do a jingle. I said, “No, I’m trying to find a name for this thing.” He said he would think about it and bring something to the next session.

01:18 At the next session—possibly for a cruise—he pulled out a piece of paper with bars going up and down like a sound display. Across the steps he had written “Next Level.” He said, “I would rent commercial studio time from a place called Next Level.” I said, “Great. Thanks, Tom.”

01:50 I looked at the name and thought everything we were doing was going to the next level: traditional media, audio, writing, publishing, banking—everything was going to the Internet. We set out to create a company and website that reflected that. We had already learned communications through 1040 Midi and Music BBS, so it was a natural progression.

02:23 Next Level went from being a front name for studio work to a registered website carrying music-related news. Because my band was touring, I could collect information on the road. On another Black Diamond KISS-tribute tour, I started telling promoters and opening bands that we could build websites for them. Some cost twenty-five or fifty dollars; some we did for free.

03:36 We began doing websites for bigger bands. Ace Trump was touring with us and understood the business side. I called Shelly Bergren [surname spelling under review] in Los Angeles. She had worked with Warrant and other eighties bands. Her circle included Gerri Miller from Metal Edge, Tim Rosner [surname spelling under review], who became KISS production manager for the reunion tour, and Los Angeles promoter Jennifer Perry.

04:41 We put music news on the NextLevel page—material other people could not get, including the kind of information Metal Edge received. The site became popular. Then we decided to approach radio stations.

05:00 I met Bob Mills at CFOX and pitched building a website and doing something new called streaming: putting the radio station on the Internet. At that time RealPlayer capacity was sold by the number of simultaneous streams. Ten streams might cost around one hundred dollars a month; one hundred streams might cost one thousand.

05:36 We wanted to make the investment but were tight on cash. Starnet Communications already had streaming capacity for other purposes, and I decided we might borrow some for demonstration. We began streaming CFOX and CFMI. Next thing I knew, I was in America making the same pitch. That will be Part 2.