INTERVIEW WITH SPONGYMEDIA
Those of you who were active in the SpongeBob Web community around 2005/2006 may remember the site "SpongyMedia." As the name implies, the site was dedicated to...media from the show. There were lots of audio files, videos and screen captures. SpongyMedia also did a great favor for The Mermalair and hosted it for a period of time after it kicked off, allowing us to get off Geocities. =) In Spring of 2006, Dan (the owner) chose to close the site to avoid getting in trouble for the content he had. So DO NOT email asking for a link to the site or anything like that, because you're not going to get anything. For those who remember it, it'll always be in our hearts, and for those who don't...you'll have to wish you were able to "fill your senses with cascading, fluffy pillows of excitement and comfort as you've never felt before." (Patrick, "Survival of the Idiots" =P )

INTERVIEW DONE AUGUST 7, 2005

Scott: Hey, Dan! Tell us about yourself.
Dan: My name is Dan and I live in Connecticut. I like computers, rock climbing, golfing, cars and music (big fan of U2 and Van Halen). I'm a huge Seinfeld and Simpsons fan as well. This year I'm going to be a senior in high school and in college I'm hoping to major in either Computer Security with a backup plan of Web Design.

Scott: How did you become a fan of the show?
Dan: The first time I saw commercials for SpongeBob, I honestly thought it was going to be a flop (little did I know it would eventually be one of the highest rated cartoons on TV at the time). I saw the preview on KCA in 1999 but didn't bother to watch it since it looked really stupid. In August, when it finally premiered, I decided to watch it since I couldn't find anything else on TV at the time. I was stunned and couldn't believe it, I actually loved the show and got mad that I had to wait til Saturday just to see episodes (at that time, it wasn't in "rerun-fest" like it is now). I finally started to watch it every Saturday morning (I went out on Fridays).

Scott: What are you SpongeBob favorites and least-favorites?
Dan: My favorite character in SpongeBob is kind of hard, it's either Patrick or Squidward. Patrick just for the fact that he's Patrick. I've always found Squidward funny for some reason. I love the fact that he can't play anything on his clarinet, but thinks he's a master; it's also somewhat funny of some of the things he does to SpongeBob and Patrick (for example, in Christmas Who?, when he takes the "Very First Christmas" picture).
I love almost every episode in Season 3; however, my favorite episodes are by far Krusty Krab Training Video, Chocolate with Nuts and Idiot Box. Krusty Krab Training Video was probably one of the funniest things I've ever see and almost everyone who has seen it enjoys it.
My least favorite characters are definitely Sandy and Pearl. Mostly because they're really annoying and Pearl is extremely self-centered, which is annoying. My least favorite episodes are Ripped Pants, F.U.N., The Chaperone, Texas, Ugh and The Algae's Always Greener, mostly because I thought they were boring. Sure, Ripped Pants, F.U.N. and Texas have the most well-known songs in them, but I simply thought they were boring and not funny.

Scott: What was the first SpongeBob site you visited?
Dan: The first SB website I ever visited, which everyone can agree with me on, is the worst SB site on the internet: SpongeBob.net. So that doesn't count. The first real SB site I visited was Sarah's SpongeBob Shrine, back when it was on Liquid2k.

Scott: Ugh, I definitely agree on Spongebob.net. All those ads! What made you start Spongy Media? Can you tell us a little history about it?
Dan: The first "SpongyMedia" started out in 2002; it started out as "RPEC's SpongeBob Media" and only had 3 files. I started RPEC's SpongeBob Media originally to host three files: the Instrumental Theme Song, the Midi of the Theme Song and the Wyndham Resorts commercial. We were finally shut down by the place we were hosted on (Spaceports) due to bandwidth consumption. About four months later I decided to reopen the site on a new webhost and turn SpongyMedia into a full SpongeBob media website. It started getting popular when I posted a copy of "The Campfire Song Song" video and MP3 since it was never shown in the U.S. at the time. I decided on the name "SpongyMedia." Later on, for Christmas of 2002, I did a full redesign of the site as a Christmas gift and would do themed layout based on the current season of the year. Around May 2003, lots of search engines started picking us up and we were getting lots of hits. From April 2003 to October, we did some things to celebrate things in the Spongebob world such as having "SpongyMedia Goes Prehistoric" and celebrating "St Patrick's Day." In November of 2004, in honor of the movie, I completely redesigned again. In January 2005, I was alerted by Foxy Grandpa that he wasn't going to continue Nautical Media; instead of letting all the media go to waste, we merged SpongyMedia with Nautical Media to create the largest SpongeBob Media site on the internet. In July 2005, we finally got a domain name, and that's pretty much a short history of SM.


The button used to link to SpongyMedia back in the day. Amazing, eh?

Scott: One of those unique hits come from me each day. ;) Are there certain things on Spongy Media that you are quite proud of?
Dan: Yeah, I'm proud of the entire site, but I'm particularly proud of the fact that we offer 100% free Ringtones, which no other site does. It was one of the main things I wanted to do when I started a SpongeBob media site, since cell phones are an important part of today's culture. I'm also proud of an upcoming project which I hope to release by the end of August, which is SpongyMedia Radio. Its going to be an online radio station that will play various songs from the site, plus its also cell phone compatible.

Scott: Very cool. We'll be looking forward to that. Any future plans for Spongy Media?
Dan: One plan which will hopefully happen (but not guaranteed) is going to be a SpongeBob Wiki (a wiki in a nutshell is a website where anyone can edit). I also hope to get some kind of contest going and maybe give away some DVDs. I want to also get a lot more video clips up.

Scott: Thanks for your time, Dan! Keep up the great work!
Dan: Thanks for interviewing me.