Talking Sex Radio AKA TSRnetwork was created little over 11 years ago with the focus of bring forth education to the air-waves. We started out doing a radio show called the Mel and Phil show in our tiny second bedroom. This was a time that when video was out of reach and we only had the ability to do radio. I, Rev Mel was the Mel on the show and taught myself how to edit audio and how to upload a podcast to the internet. We had one microphone that Phil and I shared and we were creating a radio show. Then we added a mixer that hooked up to the computer and we now able to add more mics to the mix.
This was a time when no one knew what an RSS feed was and being the geek that I am taught myself how to build a web sit. It was the worst web site ever built but the need to bring education and safety into our life choice was the driving force.
Then changes started Phil and I parted ways and I closed down doing the radio shows for a while. I had another host called David but he only did two shows with us. Then Tony Bones come onto the scene and he became my co-host and we changed the name of the show to The Rev Mel Show. With losing the last two host I made a decision that if we names it The Rev Show that it could stay that way and even if I lost a host.
After a while I found a web site that you could create a community called Ning so Talking Sex Radio now could have members and a chat room. We paid to Ning a monthly charge to keep TalkingSexRadio.com and we were building up members and a following. They allowed adult conversation, photos and did not censor us. We were well on the road to making things happen. After a while Ning raised millions of dollars and at Christmas sent out a letter that all adult sites were going to be closed down. It hit TSR like a brick wall and we had to move fast and rebuild.
The next site was ready to use template site and I had to hire someone to do all the coding and he did a really bad job. It was problems and problems one after another and he took his money and ran. I had invested all the money I had into building this new site.
We had young man from London that came in to help and for a while we got it up and running but we still had problems it was not his fault and he put in a lot of time help us. One of our members ask her friend in Ohio if he could help and he was amazing. He worked hard to get us up and running. I will always be grateful for my friends from London and Ohio who donated their time to help.
I was paying each month for a server and the site keep getting hacked and was moving really show. Once again we were shut down and they refused to allow us to open up again as they wanted me to pay more money to a server that could handle the traffic but the traffic was from hackers not from our members. I spent about 4 hours a day getting raid of all the hackers from all over the world.
It was a mess so with in two days I build another site and moved my domain over to another company and now I have a site that is easy to manage and I can go in change things. I was once told by Count Boogie to” not worry about building a social network and to concentrate on just the shows”. He was right and should have listen to him a long time ago. Thank you Boogie for that advice.
Getting back to how did we go from radio to live streaming show? Tony Bones was my co-host and he was more of geek then me. The Rev Mel show was picked up by Heat Party Radio and they merged with Ksex.com and so our recorded shows were aired each week. The two owners were at odds with each others and there was problems and a few their host on their live streaming shows quit. Tony and I were asked to host a live streaming TV show called the Rev Mel show. We were so excited about making the change from radio to live TV shows. So we went live but then a funny thing happened. We were the last new show to air on Ksex and we were last show to air on their network. Yes, they closed the door down because of problems between the two owners.
Some would have called this bad luck but it opened up a whole new way to look at the talk shows. I researched many different companies that offer the ability to stream live TV shows on the net and I had little money to spend so it was hard to find something that I could afford. I found a company that would not break the bank but if I increased in viewers it would cost me more. It was a hard to find place to streaming live TV show about BDSM as most companies would not allow adult content.
TalkingSexRadio.com became TSRnetwork.com because we were no longer airing radio shows. Tony Bones was an amazing support with his knowledge of computers and his help to get us into streaming live shows.
We moved out of my small bedroom and moved into the living room and added a few more shows to the network. We became the first network that focused only on BDSM education and safety and our following was increasing so was my cost with the streaming company.
We worked hard to make sure we could continue doing the live shows and sharing knowledge with other like minded BDSM members. I interviewed the likes of Jay Wiseman, Midori and Guy Baldwin in my living room on no budget.
Tony Bones was given his own show and I had the Rev Mel Show and added a few more shows from my living room. We had to get friends to run the camera and run the show. At that time we had really bad mics and audio and learned the hard way. At times the audio was really bad or something would go wrong but we still worked hard to fix things. We added the ability to call in so people watching the shows could be a part of the show. We opened my living room to a live audience and my living room was now my studio and to tell you the truth it was so amazing to have friends help out week after week.
On one of the shows Colin Sir come on and surprised us with a fundraiser that the Monarchs were planing to help out TSRnetwork. They raise well over $4,000 and that went to buying a new faster gamer computer and better equipment to run the shows. None of the money was used to pay bills in running the shows as we were in need of making sure we have the right computer so we did not have the problems that we had before. We still us the same computer to run the shows as I type this.
Someone in the local community had a place to rent in a building that he had his company in. We moved into the new studio and added a second floor and a kitchen and we were off and running. We spent 6 months in building the second floor and video village as we still ran the live shows.
I also went to Vegas and saw this amazing ways to stream live show and switched over to their platform and got them to allow us to do adult broadcast. Learned their platform so well that they would call me to test new things that they added to their platform.
What was amazing is we started with one radio show a week in my spare bedroom and when we closed the door last year we were airing 7 live TV shows a week about BDSM. We did a live BDSM Pride Day show that aired for 7 hours and many people watched it live for the full show. We had call in from all over the world and presented awards to people that made a difference in BDSM. We called the TSR People’s Choice Award where members of our community voted for people that made a difference in BDSM. We had over 100 people packed into our small studio and did interviews and talked about BDSM Pride meant to them. The next year we aired BDSM Pride at Mistress Cyan’s Sanctuary to a full house.
Fast forward to present time and what where we are heading in the rebuilding of TSRnetwork. Another amazing member of our community has room in his warehouse to rebuild the studio and will be announcing soon the name of the person and the location soon.
I would like to talk about the idea behind TSRnetwork and where the idea came from. TSRnetwork was never created with the idea of making money. It was created because of the love of our community and the love of BDSM. Many people had said that well Rev Mel is a bad business woman because she has not made any money at airing the shows. It was never about making money and many don’t understand that. It was about making a difference in our freedom to enjoy our BDSM community and education our member about keeping it safe and informed. This may not make sense to some but to me it’s about giving back to a life choice that has given me so much.
TSR is about touching people that can’t get to a dungeon or a munch. Living a in big city we have so many places to go to meet like minded people but in the smaller towns it is very limited. Most of our viewers are from those small towns and they got to see people like Ken Marcus talking about his amazing photos or being able to see the beautiful Venus de Mila live. They got to see demos like Sex and Metal and fire live on their computers or learned how to keep safe in their play.
Another comment I have gotten is by a few people “well guess the community does not want what you have to offer and maybe you should just give up and let it all go”. What I say to those that say is it’s about saving lives and it’s my way of being of service to our community. Yes, as a Dom I do believe we need to be of service to help make our community a better place. If I have saved one life or been a part of one person not getting hurt that it was worth it.
We have made a lot of mistakes and have had a hard road in trying to grow TSRnetwork but in the end I would not have change anything. For the people that that think I should just give up I hope you to read this post and really take a look at how TSR started. See what we faced all these years and try to put you self in the shoes of myself and the other hosts that have had shows on TSRnetwork. We do come from a good place inside our hearts and believe we are doing a good thing along with so many in our community.
I have seen some amazing things take place on TSR over the years and I have seen some very ugly things happen live on the shows. At TSRnetwork we tried to keep balance and give many points of views and many were not happy when they disagreed with some of our hosts opinion and the mud starter flying. The network of TSR got hurt deeply by some of these things and yes I have been criticized for not pulling the plug on a few things. Yes, mistakes happened and yes we got hurt by them but if there is anyone out there that did not ever make a mistake please come forward. It is easy to criticize others but think about the damage that one can do to another that is just trying to share knowledge with others.
I won’t censor my hosts but in the future I will not allow any of our host or viewers calling to use TSRnetwork in any way in a negative vain. We are not Jerry Springer and not looking to boast up our ratings with negative talk. It’s to hurtful to so many and it stops here. We are here to educate and to share some amazing stories with other like minded folks. If for one moment you could walk in our shoes and understand that is a miracle that we even got this far.
We have an indiegogo campaign as we are trying to raise money so we can even make the live shows better. If the community can look at where we have been and where we going maybe they will open their hearts and give to a good cause. What most don’t understand is I really don’t own TSRnetwork the community does. All of the shows, network and interviews will be left to the community after I’m gone as it belongs to the all of us. I only have one family member and she is not into BDSM and would close it down and all the tapes and interviews would be lost. I give TSRnetwork to all of you the members of the BDSM community.
I’m 61 years old and know that I will not be here for ever and I know deep down that TSRnetwork has made a difference in many lives.. I thank everyone that has believe in our work and for the people that volunteered to work the shows behind the scenes. To all the guest and to the wonderful host that come each week and give back to our community. To the Monarchs that had a fundraiser many years ago and to person that is giving us a new home. But most of all to the viewers that watched our shows and chat-ed in the chat room and called in. To you I thank you.. The the people that donated this last week on our campaign and to the wonderful people that give me cash and checks when they saw me this weekend at the lair. I have been informed that a few dungeons across the country will be holding a fundraiser to support TSRnetwork. I wish to thank you… You are all so very amazing……
I have never been happier then when I’m running one of the shows behind the scenes and watching some amazing people that have changed the way we look at BDSM. What matters to me to keep our community safe and knowing what I know now I would do it all over again.
Please donate to help make TSR a better network. If everyone you knew donated just one dollar or five dollars you could make a difference and help to support TSR.
Link to indiegogo campagn.
http://igg.me/at/tsrnetwork
