Porn Valley- In a policy statement posted earlier today, Joe Brandi, the new head of Marketing/ VP at KSEX, states the following:
"The moves that have been made in the last 24 hours should prove to you that we plan on making this company work and failure and mediocrity will not be accepted any longer. Having a membership based website with under 100 paid members and an average of 10 people tuned in is ridiculous. It was time to realize that KSEX was non existent outside of the adult industry and the previous system failed dramatically no matter how much "magic" was supposed to appear. This is business 101. Losing money = failure ....and that is not accepted any longer."
Today we also learned that Wankus, who was given the equivalent of a spaghetti and mandolin dinner including a one-way trip to Hoffatown, USA in the trunk of a car, was a part owner of KSEX to the tune of 20%.
Me, I never understood partnerships. I was promised partnership in AVN and later was told by the owner that he didn't recall having that conversation. So pardon me if I'm a bit vague concerning the implications of honor gift wrapped with a handshake.
But this is the way I look at it. Wankus wasn't the money man over at KSEX. The someone who had the 80% was. And judging by what Brandi says in that paragraph regarding pathetic numbers, those figures needed to be improved by the infusion of money, not necessarily lively banter concerning a woman's anus.
If that's the case, why wasn't the money guy at KSEX fired instead of Wankus? Perhaps he couldn't fit into the trunk of a car? I don't know.
So I turned to "Porn Law" attorney Michael Fattorosi for some free legal advice on partnerships. Had I been a partner at AVN like what was promised me, I might have been able to afford to pay for the free advice. But this is what I was able to solicit.
Fattorosi starts off by saying that he doesn't know anything about the inner workings of KSEX to comment on what went wrong over there. Which is strange because that never stopped an attorney from rendering an opinion.
I also asked Fattorosi if the strategem here was to buy Wankus out because you just can't fire a partner. Or can you as in the case of Jon Belinkie who sandbagged Wankus on air during the 10 pm Thursday slot. An irony when you consider that KSEX's audio has been down over a week. But hardly a detail to be converned about, either, because Belinkie began leaking e-mails as to Wankus' firing before the Lorrainiac Show even started.
There's also a possibility that Wankus, in retaliation, could find some fat wallets who'd back a KSEX competitor.
"Wankus owes a fiduciary duty as a 20% owner to KSEX," states Fattorosi, either way.
"If Wankus were to start another KSEX, I don't know if Belinkie could stop him. I think Belinkie probably could. He could say you own 20% here- you have fiduciary duty to this company."
Not knowing jack shit on any of this, I bring up the matter of non-compete agreements cause I once heard the term on Geraldo. Disingenuous is another legal term I picked up from watching Geraldo.
"It's [non-compete] built in as a partnership," says Fattorosi. "Because you're an owner, you owe a duty to the other owners. If Wankus goes to Belinkie and says buy me out, and Belinkie says here's your money and get lost then all bets are off."
"But you can't say I'm an owner of KSEX and then go I'm over here, I'm starting a new KSEX. It's sort of like me opening up a law firm with another partner. My partner's going to go, what the hell are you doing? You're filing all your business over there when we had a partnership over here. You owe a duty to me."
"I don't know the terms of the deal and what's owed and what's not owed," Fattorosi continues.
Then again Fattorosi's not above speculating what the implications of the KSEX turmoil will have on PrimeTimeUncensored, www.primetimeuncensored.com, a mix of porn and mainstream, which Fattarosi has a piece of.
"I don't know what direction I want to take, if I want to start looking like KSEX or not looking like KSEX," says Fattorosi. "We'll just hold off."
When you bring porn stars into a talk show mix as Fattarosi has, but not on the same scale as KSEX, the inevitable comparisons still will be made. Fattorosi admits that some of the KSEX jocks have approached him.
"But if I brought over their jocks, other than Tony [Batman], then it looks like I just re-invented KSEX," reasons Fattorosi.
"I'm still not trying to compete with KSEX. We do some of the same things, though. But I do want to keep the mainstream. The mainstream is what's going to push us to a different level. Even if KSEX opens up this whole 24/7 CNN of the adult industry, it's not a place I want to go. I want to grab that middle ground between clean and dirty. I'll split the baby because you'll grab both audiences."
On the dirty end, Wankus knows where all the bodies are buried and may have a lot to say before this is all through about the Belinke massacre.
"That would be very difficult to do," speculates Fattorosi. "You'd be chopping off your own foot. Unless there's a deal to buy him out."
"With silence?" I ask.
"If I'm Belinke," continues Fattorosi, "I'm telling Wankus you have two choices- you can be a partner, you're just no longer working on the station. But you'll benefit from our increase so you'll make more money. Or we can buy you out for this sum but in order to be bought out you're going to have to sign this confidentiality agreement and keep your mouth shut."
Which may be near to impossible for Wankus.
