Is this how you show your respect ?
Yesterday, 10:01 AM
Scott Greczkowski
Senior Member
Hanging Out Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 193
Stars is a JOKE!
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There I finally said it. And it feel good in saying it too. Let me say it again… STARS IS A JOKE.
We all know the fiasco that went down with the cancellation of the SBE show in Atlanta. Since the show was canceled my cell phone has been ringing off the hook with company management, lawyers and other interested parties asking me to dig for the real reason why the show was canceled. Personally I could care less now, what is done is done.
Over the past few days that I have been here in Reno, the people that I have met have been pissed at what happened. I guess they have a right to be, for me I really don’t care. The way I look at it, I am getting to spend some nice alone time with my wife without the kids.
Should people be calling for Marty’s head on a platter over this mess? Yeah probably.
Some folks are looking at Marty as the hero of the industry even with the cancellation. What I find funny is that all the people praising Marty are Stars members and folks that were running for positions on the Stars board of directors. Now I will get to Stars in a few moments, but lets talk about Marty for a few moments.
Marty is a genius and one of the worlds biggest idiots all rolled into one (I am not picking on him by saying that, I am sure he would agree with me). I honestly believe in my heart that he wanted the best for the industry. He successfully pulled off a show that folks said could never happen.
But the problem is that Marty is foolish as well. His two biggest flaws are he wants to do everything himself (carrying all the weight on his shoulders) and the other flaw is that it is his way or no way.
After the failure of the last SBE show in Atlanta, many of s asked Marty what we could do to help him out. We never got a answer, yet we really wanted to help him, we all believed in the SBE and wanted to help him succeed. As time rolled on and Marty was getting ready for Reno once again he carried all the weight on his shoulders. This time is was a load his massive shoulders could not take. Many of us were here for him yet he never asked for help.
Marty is the kind of guy who seems to believe that if you want something done then you need to do it yourself.
Marty didn’t like the way SkyReport / SkyRetailer was covering the SBE show so he started Transmitter News so he could better promote the SBE Show. The Transmitter News started off with some great reporting but has turned into nothing more then cutting and pasting news from press releases and talking about SBE and Stars.
Marty didn’t like that Claude over at DishRetailer.COM was not promoting the SBE show enough so Marty then went out and started his own clone of DishRetailer, from much of the same layout of the forums, down to the same color scheme.
Marty did not like that the industry association known as the SCBA did not take his SBE show seriously so Marty came up with the idea to start his own industry association… STARS. Not only would Stars aim to be the industries top satellite assocaton, but they could also hold their meetings and training classes at the SBE shows.
Marty drew up the first set of by laws and ideas for the group and put the first board of directors together. The first version of Stars blew up after the last SBE show in Atlanta. Marty worked and pieced together Stars version 2.0. This new version of Stars operated in secret, it wasn’t till a lot of questions were asked of who is on the Stars Board did some answers finally come out. Marty’s name was listed among those board members of the new Stars.
It wasn’t until after a vocal outcry of a few folks did Marty announce that he was no longer part of Stars. If I remember correctly he want on to state that he would no longer promote Stars and wished them well. At the same time he announced that he sold off Transmitter News and would only be writing special columns including his mythical yet enjoyable “John Hack” saga.
Not too long ago I got an email in my inbox from Marty it was something about him starting some kind of installation Fulfillment Company that he was starting. It appeared it was going to be tied to the Stars organization somehow. I never followed up on that email to find out more about it as I wasn’t interested.
Anyways Marty went from a guy who was trying to help the industry into a guy who was trying to be the industry. It is my believe that with Marty trying to go in all these different directions could have been the reason why Marty took his eye off the ball and for some of the problems we saw with the SBE show. I honestly believe that if Marty just kept his eye on being a show promoter that the SBE show would have indeed happened this week.
Enough about Marty though, I do honestly like the guy and believe that he was not just doing all of this for the money. I feel he just stretched himself to thin.
Now on to Stars.
With the cancellation of the SBE show this week this could have been the opportunity for Stars to shine. They could have picked up the slack and used this time to meet with folks who still came out to Reno.
Instead the president of Stars decided to stay home. And those Stars members who were here decided it would be better to spend the time drinking and gambling instead of trying to talk with those satellite folks who made it over here.
I personally even reached out to the community that came out to try putting something together so that we could all meet together. Not one single Stars member replied to the requests of “lets do something”.
If Stars was truly about supporting the industry then they blew it big time yesterday, one of the SBE sponsors Glorystar / SatelliteAV decided to make lemonade from a lemon and opened up its world headquarters to those who came down to Reno for the SBE show and gave those in attendance training on how to install Glorystar systems and motorized Free To Air satellite setups. This was an event that was publicized on many of the industry websites including the Transmitter News, yet NO ONE from Stars took the time out to support the industry to show up.
We had lunch at the Glorystar event and while we were eating the topic of Stars came up. Everyone there had the same take on Stars, Stars is a joke. Some went as far to call to call it a joke. All of this was said without me prodding anyone. A few mentioned running into “Doc” Bob Livingston and how he turned them off on the idea of Stars. Its seems that the way Doc was talking it was a “Stars will do things my way or else” approach.
No I want to point out that I am in no way picking on Doc, he was just the only name that was mentioned by those in attendance. Doc is kind of an unforgettable guy in his own right. If you have ever met him you know what I mean, from the 1960’s Buddy Holly Glasses, and his distinctive smell of stale cigars Doc Livingston is one of the industries biggest characters.
This morning for the first time in 3 days I went over to the Transmitter News forums website to find Doc Bob taking pot shots at me and calling me a “fair weather friend to the industry” MAN TALK ABOUT THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!
I should note that over the past 3 years I have gone out of my way promoting the SBE. I did so to promote the industry. While Marty did offer to pay me in the past for advertising I never took a single cent from him. I promoted the SBE show because the industry needed a show like the SBE.
Over the past 3 years I have personally put over $15,000 of my own money into promoting the SBE, hell our Internet Café at the first SBE show cost us well over $15,000 alone! That is a lot of money to spend on a show considering a site like SatelliteGuys.US barely draws a profit.
We never went into any show to sell ANYTHING to anyone, we went to promote the SBE and the industry.
Sure I could have walked into the SBE shows and tried selling advertising to the vendors and made myself some good money. Many vendors were surprised when I walked up to them with my camera and laptop and features their product on SatelliteGuys and did it free of charge.
If Bob thinks I am a fair weather friend to the industry, then I think he really needs a thicker pair of Buddy Holly glasses.
Bob also mentioned that he heard I wanted to buy the SBE show and run it myself. He also said that he heard that I said I could run it better. I never said any of these things and wouldn’t want to run a show such as the SBE show. The only thing I said when I was asked if I ran a show what would I change about it, and my answer was I would have opened the show so that exhibitors could sell products from their booths and offer show specials. How many times have you see this cool product at a show and wanted to buy one but when you got home you forgot about the product and never purchased one. By allowing vendors to sell their products on the show floor would eliminate this, and the buzz of show specials would attract any people to come to the show just looking for bargains.
While Doc Bob was busy flapping his lips, I was working to help the industry and those who ventured out to Reno.
I personally worked to get two carloads of people to the event, which was enjoyed by all. And then after the event took those folks for a night on the town, we went to dinner and I even treated them to a nice show. I did this to thank them for making the trip here and for doing their part in supporting the industry.
Where were Doc Bob, Stars and their supporters? Why could they not come out and support the one event for the SBE show that still happened?
Stars is a JOKE.
That’s my opinion and I am sticking to it!
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Scott
SatelliteGuys.US
STARS IS A JOKE
Did anybody make a bootleg video with their camera phone that they can post on youtube?
