‘T.R.A.C.K. Live’ soap opera continues: no cable deal known

Don’t believe everything you read, especially if it comes in the form of email dotted with a bunch of yellow emoticons. On May 12, I reported  that the masters track “reality show” called “T.R.A.C.K. Live” was slated for fall telecast on the ION network. Scratch that.  ION isn’t airing the show. In fact, when I wrote ION a couple weeks ago, I got a call from JoAnn Levey, a senior vice president at ION Media Networks in Burbank. She was mystified by the email announcing the show’s looming debut. ION had nothing to to do with Julia Dudley and her show. In fact, ION attorneys were looking into that claim, as well as Julia’s posted solicitation on storybids.com, an industry marketing site. The mystery was soon solved.  The email was from early 2008!  A year old, it cited January 2009. But wait!  There’s more. The show now has this new Web site, along with promotional “webisodes” that might hurt the show’s cause more than help it.

I have no clue why this note arrived May 11 — a year late.


Three webisodes are posted, with juvenile production quality — a heavy emphasis on cheesy graphics. Rather than tease the viewer, they dismay anyone with a sincere interest in the show’s success. See for yourself.

Moreover, a companion blog makes the claim:

T.R.A.C.K. Live! has many incentives for members signing up to the site; from being eligible to be a guest in the live audience, appearing as a guest on season 2 to take place in Ft. Lauderhill, FL, to receiving sponsorship gifts. The time is now for the track & field community to come together for a greater purpose.

Whatever.

Last weekend at the Striders meet, I asked Jeff Williams, the 1996 Olympic sprinter, whether he had been paid as a coach for the show. He confirmed that he had been paid. (That’s a relief!)  But he wouldn’t tell me anything else about the show, or where it would air. He’s probably under the same gag order I wrote about last year.

A second season, with meets shot in Florida, also is being touted, and was confirmed by a Season 1 athlete I spoke to on the phone recently.  It’s also suggested by email from tracklive@gmail.com I quote at the end of this entry.

But wait! There’s more! 

This site suggests that “T.R.A.C.K. Live” will appear on a site called Buzz TV, saying:

Our mission with new track & field reality TV show, T.R.A.C.K. Live!, is to demonstrate to the masses that a dying sport in the USA can come back to life through real adult role models striving to help their former high schools as they rigorously train and compete in the show.   T.R.A.C.K. Live! premieres internationally on BUZZ TV, Monday, Dec. 15th!  on prime time! 

Buzz TV, based in Eastern Europe, doesn’t answer my queries.

Here’s a screen grab of the storybids promotion that got ION’s lawyers up in arms:

Here’s the email I got early Sunday that discloses the new Web site:

Greetings to All T.R.A.C.K. Live! Members,

We hope you have had a good weekend!

We’ve been busy getting the show exclusives ready for your viewing and will let you know shortly of launch dates for the season 1, but there is still some preparations to complete; we are almost there! Meanwhile, we thank you for your continued support and patience!

We moved the videos over to http://tracklivetv.magnify.net/ (link is on the homepage of this site.) This should be easier for all members to load pages faster. Feel free to send others to these links who want to find out more about T.R.A.C.K. Live!

Also, we have an open blog from “The Producers Corner”, where the public can view weekly diaries and commentaries on the T.R.A.C.K. Live! Journey. The blog then continues in the members only forum for the full entry, which you are welcome to read! This will bring insight to the show dynamics and road traveled. The blog link is on the homepage of this site or you can go to: http://tracklivetv.blogspot.com/ These new entries are submitted every Sunday morning.

Finally, we ask that each member invite two others, as we continue to build our track & field community on the net, the hub of information for the masses when it comes to this sport!

Thank you again for being a part of a expanding community!

Sincerely, 

T.R.A.C.K. Live! Staff 

http://www.tracklive.us/

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May 31, 2009

12 Responses

  1. Ken Stone - May 31, 2009

    Nine hours after posting the above, I was sent this email (apparently as part of a distribution list and not to me separately):
    NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS & T.R.A.C.K. Live!:
    There is a commentator outside of T.R.A.C.K. Live! who is not an official or reporter of any business regarding T.R.A.C.K. Live! or Julia Dudley or any essence thereof. Ken Stone at Masterstrack.com is not authorized to report on any specific dealings with T.R.A.C.K. Live!, nor have we given him any recent information or interviews in regards to the direction of the show. The information he is reporting is erroneous, libelous and outdated. Any correspondence that does not come from the producers of the show or show creators should be subject to investigation.
    Thank you for your understanding.
    Julia Dudley Najieb
    http://www.tracklive.us/

  2. anonymous - May 31, 2009

    Ken, don’t bother reporting on this mess. It’s not worth your time, the space on your website, or the attention of masters track atheletes.

  3. Kevin - May 31, 2009

    Kinda too late to be telling Ken “don’t bother reporting on this mess” as he obviously has invested quite a bit of time & energy doing just that. I guess I’m curious as to why? Seems like the 3rd man into a fight to me. Not much objectivity shown. What gives Ken?

  4. Becca Gillespy Peter - May 31, 2009

    Everything I have heard about this “show” (and I have had first hand reports from people who participated early on) sounds an awful lot like the reality show scam that was portrayed on Dateline: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24425209/

  5. Ken Stone - June 1, 2009

    Forgot to mention that TRACK Live is on Twitter as well:
    http://twitter.com/tracklive
    In other words, the show is EVERYWHERE, except where it counts: on TV.

  6. Shanicka - June 1, 2009

    I like your last comment Ken. That was my laugh for the day. HA!
    My thing is, I don’t recognize any of the masters athletes and I’m pretty good with faces and names. So who are they? Do you recognize any of them? If this was about Masters, why isn’t any of the TOP master runners featured, Like Renee Henderson, Lisa Daley, Bill Collins, Joy Upshaw, Rita hanscom, Phil Rascker. There are more of course, but I don’t see any of these Top Masters in the previews at all. I’m pretty sure if asked these people would gladly participate.
    I’m thinking, maybe the athletes being featured are trying to make a name for themselves and get more recognition for their efforts..which is okay. Perhaps the creator of the show is trying to get masters Track recognized, which is not a problem. They just need a little more organization and more resourceful help in their dealings. The way that they are going about handling things just appears shady to me. Maybe they want to be the first creator of the Masters T&F reality and want to get the show out there before anyone else.
    Whoever is behind it, should just go ahead and produce it ON THE WEB as a WEB REALITY SERIES. That way, if enough viewers and ratings go up, it would give ION or any network station more reason to air it on T.V. If everyone else can have a reality T.V show, why can’t masters track and field.
    Keep up the Good work Ken, you’re so informative, I love what you do!

  7. Marjorie Milligan Jackson - June 1, 2009

    Shanicka,
    I am not one of the top masters athletes. Thanks so much for pointing that out, I am working on it. 🙂 In spite of this I have competed for several years. You can verify this by checking the rankings, W40 sprints. As for my participation in the show, I do not feel scammed, I was intersted in the community service component of the program. I am planning to compete in Oshkosh in July hopefully we can meet. As for asking people to participate, everyone had the opportunity to tryout for the show. The try-out meet and the initial announcement of the project was advertised on this website.
    Marjorie Milligan Jackson W40

  8. Becca Gillespy Peter - June 1, 2009

    Shanicka, most of the top masters athletes figured out pretty quickly that the whole show is a scam, and the show wanted a tremendous time commitment for something completely unproven. Most athletes have jobs and can’t take huge chunks of time off work, nor did they want to put up with the many shady aspects of the show.
    If the show can actually get on the air, they’ll have more money and a better shot at getting better athletes in the future. I’ll believe it when I see it ON TV 🙂

  9. Marjorie Milligan Jackson - June 1, 2009

    I had a great experience on T.R.A.C.K. Live! Hopefully I will see you both in Wisconsin and you can get the real story from someone who was actually on the show from the start until the finish.
    Peace,
    Marjorie Milligan Jackson W40

  10. kevin - June 2, 2009

    Shanika, Glad you had a good laugh. If Ken’s version of all this is even remotely true, not sure what’s so funny. Where did you get the idea the show was about developing ‘Top masters athletes’? I understood the premise as taking more run of the mill athletes & trying to develop them through some rigourous training, into better runners. Taking top master’s athletes would have been like taking a bunch of people in great shape & putting them on The Biggest Loser, don’t you think? Too much misinformation, rumors, innuendo etc…. for my liking. Play nice everyone

  11. Tyrenda Beatty - June 2, 2009

    I actually received a call from someone for this show and because of the time commitment I was unable to do it. I was actually suprised to see at least 3 of my college alumni on the show so I was thinking it was legit. I will be reaching out to a few and asking them questions and about their experience on this show. I am also a masters athlete and I thought it would be good exposure. If they were not able to get a t.v deal it would be fun to do it as a web show, not sure what the pressure is to get it on tv, folks today don’t even watch tv, they would rather watch shows on their computers while they are taking their lunch break, or is that just me. 🙂

  12. Shanicka - June 7, 2009

    Ken’s statement was
    “In other words, the show is EVERYWHERE, except where it counts: on TV.”
    Which gave me a good laugh, I’m sorry that you don’t agree, Kevin.
    My understanding of the premise BEFORE I saw the website, was that it was masters athletes competing against each other. Which made me wonder why did I not see many of the athletes that we read about like Bill Collins, Renee Henderson, Phil Raschner. I have seen and read alot about PHIL in several magazines. She has sponsors by a product that is bought and sold in national chain stores. So, Why wouldn’t they want her in their production? I’ve seen Renee in at least 3 articles. WE always hear about BILL.
    So, in no way was I trying to step on anyone’s toes, or hurt anyone’s feelings or call anyone out. I’m not saying that, whoever I DID NOT mentioned isn’t top notch, those athletes that I did, came to mind for the reasons that I’ve stated.
    As I learned more about the show, to my understanding it was for community involvement to improve track facilities and to train masters in order for them to compete at the trials. There’s nothing wrong with that. But in hindsight, I thought an invitation was extended to specific masters according to their qualifying times and distances for them to compete at the trials.
    Whatever the case maybe, If Majorie says it wasn’t a scam, I believe her. If there wasn’t a promise of prize money and people weren’t told that they would receive money then I don’t think there was a problem. If contestants couldn’t commit due to constraints, then they couldn’t commit, which explains some things.
    I think that they would be better off airing it on the web, but since they were able to get the Oct 11 T.V slot (according to Ken’s newer blog) that’s even better! Right now, I just really want to see what all the hoopla is about and see the show, since it is about my favorite sport.
    My only question is, is the time slot at 1:30 am or pm.

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