The 15th Anniversary Of Guitar Ted Productions

Celebrating fifteen years of nonsense and tomfoolery.

Hello and welcome to the brief, mostly unheralded, and non-important news that this blog celebrates its 15th year today, May 11th, 2020.

Wheee!

I started this blog at the behest of Jeff Kerkove, who is now one of the principal figures for Ergon USA and Topeak in the US. So, first of all- Thank you, Jeff! Second of all, if you are not a fan of my blathering, then you know who to blame now for all this!

It's funny to me because when I started this I told Jeff no one was going to even know about it. Well, he made sure that didn't happen by plugging me in- first as a guest blogger on his own blog- then by linking his really popular blog to mine. So, if you are reading this, and if you are one of the many who have told me you can't miss your daily dose of G-Ted as you sip your cuppa joe in the morning, then you have Jeff Kerkove to thank for this. Without him, my life is completely and utterly different. If you want to thank him, give him a Tweet here. He hasn't blogged since about 2014.

The blogging thing was not expected by me to be anything but a goofy way to shoot off some mental energy at first. My first ever post shows this, basically. I don't even have to link to it because it was so short. I mean- no one was even going to read this, right? 

" Welcome to the Freakshow that is Guitar Ted Productions! It is here that I will be at liberty to espouse my verbiage in an unbridled, yet entertaining fashion. I have previously been a guest on Jeff Kerkove's site, and I would like to thank him for his incredible generosity. Look for further upgrades to this site as they become technically possible for me to execute!"

See? I figured since no one was going to read this anyway, why not just be a goofer? And I was for the majority of the first months here. But then something amazing happened and I started getting feedback, people commenting, and folks in the cycling industry were looking at the blog. By 2006 things had radically changed. The course was set, and I was along for the ride.

 But at first things weren't so great. I had resistance in the form of my old boss at the last shop I was at.  I remember when we started out doing this and when the owner of the shop found out- This would have been 2005-06- well he was adamant that Jeff Kerkove and I were going to fall to ruin because it was such a dangerous business, this new blogging thing. He said we'd better be very careful what we posted! So, suspicion was certainly a part his several talks to us at the beginning of the blog activities.  We explained the benefits, but it all fell on deaf ears. In fact, Jeff at first, then I afterward, tried several times to get the boss to allow us to work on the shop's social media. All attempts to offer help in that area were flatly rejected.

Oh well....... I tried. 

And now things are different. I suspect that going forward there will be more encouragement from my new employer, Andy's Bike Shop, and that there will be a benefit both ways for us. But for the most part, I expect "Guitar Ted Productions" to continue on for several more years. 15 more years? Ah.........let's not get carried away here! 

Thanks to all of you over the past 15 years that have made this blog so rewarding, successful, and impactful to my life. Without you, dear reader, I am nothing.  I owe it all to those of you who made this blog worth continuing. Thank you!

Peace!
Guitar Ted