Back in 2005, a devilishly handsome young podcaster was looking for a way to get more fan involvement on his show. He found this crazy site called K7.net, which gave a free 206-area-code number that worked not only as a free fax-to-JPEG service, but also a free call-to-MP3 service. You called the number, left a message, and that message became an MP3 sent to this dashing bon vivant's email. This genius creator picked the number 206-666-4673 that's 206-666-GORE and the world was never again the same. The veil of innocence had been ripped away, exposing the sordid, sweaty underbelly of fandom and artist interaction.The podcaster who is often mistaken for Brad Pitt, Cary Grant (and sometimes Don Knotts, but we won't dwell on that here) would play these fan recordings on his FridayFix shows and respond to them live. It became a staple part of the show, a way for Junkies to hear the voices of other Junkies, a way for fans to be directly involved. It was fun and really helped cement the community we were building back then. Eventually, the production time demands of this process forced us to move away from weekly call-in shows, and instead use the Goreline only for Q&A episodes that followed the completion of each podcast novel. The podcaster with the steely gaze and the moviestar jawline reveled in responding live to these recorded fan comments and questions. For some podcast novels, we got so many calls that the Q&A show would go well over two hours. Once we started releasing our books for sale at the same time we started the podcast version, however, we got fewer call-ins for the Q&A episodes. The Goreline was still great fun, but the call-in line's impact was waning. And now, my friends, this chiseled Greek Adonis of a podcaster has learned that the K7.net site is no more. The Goreline, sadly, has ceased to exist. Shockingly, a business that has provided a great service for ten years and never charged for it or had any way of selling advertising against it has gone under. Weird. While there are some other call-to-MP3 services out there, we've decided to permanently retire this feature. When we do Q&A episodes, we will still welcome people sending in MP3 recordings. The vast majority of questions/comments we get are via email, though, and that works great for us. So you'll still have a regular chance to say your piece.
So all y'all Original Junkies out there, raise a glass to the good-ol' days where so many of you heard your lovely voices on the show, and heard this devastatingly gorgeous author who drives a Porsche and probably dates Scarlet Johansson engage and be all chatty and witty and stuff. Goreline, thanks for 11 years of fun. We hardly knew ye.
