snake321
Irish Republican
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2007
- Messages
- 4,284
- Reaction score
- 7
This was taken from performanceboats.com.....
My name is Chris Davidson. I live in Las Vegas. Since 1986, I have been in charge of Hot Boat Magazine with one job title or another. One of the pivotal moments in Hot Boat's existence came in 1989, when it was purchased by LFP Inc., the company spearheaded by Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt. Hot Boat's new association with LFP would have profound ramifications, especially from a financial perspective. For example, no longer would I have to deal with U.S. Marshalls drilling door locks and demanding that I send our employees home until Chuck Pierce, the previous owner, paid our back payroll taxes. Longtime Hot Boat executive editor Kevin Spaise and I would no longer have to pay our own expenses to attend the L.A. Boat Show. We now had the funds to blossom from a regional based magazine, both for content and distribution.
At Flynt's Beverly Hills offices, Kevin and I would often read the message board with wide eyes: numerous letters and phone messages threatening everything from bombing the building to gunfire and random mayhem were posted every day. Many issues and memories were created during the following 18 years.
Even given these and other drawbacks, working for Flynt and in particular company president Jim Kohls, turned out to be an incredible experience. Kevin and I made many friends while testing some of the finest performance boats in the world. Over the years, I built up a team of core players who were instrumental in producing the best performance boating magazine: award winning writer Kevin Spaise, senior tech editor Jim Wilkes, Jet Tech columnist Greg Shoemaker, photographer extraordinaire Fernando Escovar, my go-to guy editor Brett Bayne, and my girl Friday, Cindy Bergstrom. The work we did together was rewarding both personally and professionally.
And then everything changed.
In August, LFP sold the magazine to new owners. To my astonishment, the sale was initiated in a very secretive manner by my brother, Darrin, whom I had hired years before to help me out at Hot Boat. Unbeknownst to me, he had assembled financial backing, approached LFP's corporate vice president and negotiated a deal that would make him the new editor-in-chief.
The reverberations from the betrayal were enormous.
Several people who depended on the income from Hot Boat were suddenly at the unemployment office. Most disturbing of all was the fact that my brother had attempted to destroy my reputation with people that I had worked with for almost 20 years for his own personal gain. The incident was nothing short of Shakespearian in scope.
All of this transpired while I was in Memphis, paying respects to my hero, Elvis Presley. There was a certain symbolism in being fired from the only job I had held as an adult on August 16th, the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death, standing outside Graceland. To add to the air of chaos, back in Vegas, my brother and several associates made attempts to enter my offices while I was confirmed out of town to seize various assets, while LFP attempted to turn off our phone lines and more. This was definitely my saddest trip to Memphis, and one of my darkest days ever.
After the dust settled, I regrouped with a new mission: to create an even better magazine for performance boaters, with an online version that would include a heavy emphasis on video. Our exciting web presence would include an online version of the magazine, breaking news, swimsuit model archives, manufacturer interviews and tech tips.
Joining me at Performance Boats is the core team of players I mentioned before, plus Joker's Wild owner Todd Taylor, TPI owner Gary Taylor, art director Richie Solomon, ace videographers Earl Crowe and Gary Meeker, and web designer Craig Lathrop.
Although I called the shots at Hot Boat, I never personally wrote any articles and my inner thoughts were shared only with a select few. All of that changes as of now. As I venture into this world of cybserpace, you'll get to watch what it's like to deal with Reggie Fountain, you'll get a front-row seat at the Offshore World Finals, and you'll get my first-hand account of life in the driver's seat at Performance Boats magazine. I've got a lot to say; hope you have time to listen.
My name is Chris Davidson. I live in Las Vegas. Since 1986, I have been in charge of Hot Boat Magazine with one job title or another. One of the pivotal moments in Hot Boat's existence came in 1989, when it was purchased by LFP Inc., the company spearheaded by Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt. Hot Boat's new association with LFP would have profound ramifications, especially from a financial perspective. For example, no longer would I have to deal with U.S. Marshalls drilling door locks and demanding that I send our employees home until Chuck Pierce, the previous owner, paid our back payroll taxes. Longtime Hot Boat executive editor Kevin Spaise and I would no longer have to pay our own expenses to attend the L.A. Boat Show. We now had the funds to blossom from a regional based magazine, both for content and distribution.
At Flynt's Beverly Hills offices, Kevin and I would often read the message board with wide eyes: numerous letters and phone messages threatening everything from bombing the building to gunfire and random mayhem were posted every day. Many issues and memories were created during the following 18 years.
Even given these and other drawbacks, working for Flynt and in particular company president Jim Kohls, turned out to be an incredible experience. Kevin and I made many friends while testing some of the finest performance boats in the world. Over the years, I built up a team of core players who were instrumental in producing the best performance boating magazine: award winning writer Kevin Spaise, senior tech editor Jim Wilkes, Jet Tech columnist Greg Shoemaker, photographer extraordinaire Fernando Escovar, my go-to guy editor Brett Bayne, and my girl Friday, Cindy Bergstrom. The work we did together was rewarding both personally and professionally.
And then everything changed.
In August, LFP sold the magazine to new owners. To my astonishment, the sale was initiated in a very secretive manner by my brother, Darrin, whom I had hired years before to help me out at Hot Boat. Unbeknownst to me, he had assembled financial backing, approached LFP's corporate vice president and negotiated a deal that would make him the new editor-in-chief.
The reverberations from the betrayal were enormous.
Several people who depended on the income from Hot Boat were suddenly at the unemployment office. Most disturbing of all was the fact that my brother had attempted to destroy my reputation with people that I had worked with for almost 20 years for his own personal gain. The incident was nothing short of Shakespearian in scope.
All of this transpired while I was in Memphis, paying respects to my hero, Elvis Presley. There was a certain symbolism in being fired from the only job I had held as an adult on August 16th, the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death, standing outside Graceland. To add to the air of chaos, back in Vegas, my brother and several associates made attempts to enter my offices while I was confirmed out of town to seize various assets, while LFP attempted to turn off our phone lines and more. This was definitely my saddest trip to Memphis, and one of my darkest days ever.
After the dust settled, I regrouped with a new mission: to create an even better magazine for performance boaters, with an online version that would include a heavy emphasis on video. Our exciting web presence would include an online version of the magazine, breaking news, swimsuit model archives, manufacturer interviews and tech tips.
Joining me at Performance Boats is the core team of players I mentioned before, plus Joker's Wild owner Todd Taylor, TPI owner Gary Taylor, art director Richie Solomon, ace videographers Earl Crowe and Gary Meeker, and web designer Craig Lathrop.
Although I called the shots at Hot Boat, I never personally wrote any articles and my inner thoughts were shared only with a select few. All of that changes as of now. As I venture into this world of cybserpace, you'll get to watch what it's like to deal with Reggie Fountain, you'll get a front-row seat at the Offshore World Finals, and you'll get my first-hand account of life in the driver's seat at Performance Boats magazine. I've got a lot to say; hope you have time to listen.
