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Technology Stocks : K-Tel (KTEL) Have the cheesy '70s records come to an end? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louis Riley who wrote (1547)	5/4/1998 4:53:00 PM
From: bluejeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3203

Louis, on a completely different topic , do you know which brokerage firms have and have not contacted shorts requesting them to buy back in? Thanks for answering the question. Bob

To: Louis Riley who wrote (1547)	5/4/1998 5:17:00 PM
From: Jumper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3203

Stock Investor Trading News mentioned biz.yahoo.com Although the article neglected to mention that Mr. Riley was a Fundamental Investor. :)

To: Louis Riley who wrote (1547)	5/4/1998 6:02:00 PM
From: Tom Terf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3203

Ktel shorts: how are you enjoying the ride ?

To: Louis Riley who wrote (1547)	5/5/1998 2:05:00 AM
From: justpassinthru	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3203

mr. riley, i never thought for a second that ktel would only be selling their cheesy compilations on their website: what purveyor of music would open a website like that when it's so easy to have all the albums currently in print available on your site (which everybody else does). no, once again you're throwing up a smokescreen instead of addressing the factual and ethical issues being raised. let's face it, ktel is synonymous with cheesy compilations--to the average baby boomer (including joe kernan), that's what the name ktel means (if it means anything at all). in hyping their website, ktel traded big-time on the promise of making their compilations available on the net. it turns out that only a small percentage of the albums featuring those "3500 top 100 hits" are available--and no doubt ktel knew that this would be the case (i.e., knowing their way around a third-party license, they knew very well that they didn't have the rights to sell these albums on the net). of course you're correct in your implicit argument that these compilations were never going to be the bread-and-butter of this site--how could they be?--but ktel can't have it both ways, i.e., bragging about all those hits while knowing that they aren't going to be selling the albums they're part of. in my opinion, that's plain dishonest. since you seem to keep ignoring my point--which is about credibility-- i'll mention the issue of the re-recordings one last time--and how ktel should not be talking about all the masters they themselves own when the dirty secret is that almost all of them are re-recordings, and not the original versions; and how, if they'e going to sell them on the net, they should clearly label them as such. there, you've made me repeat myself--but since we're on the subject of credibility, i'm going to mention two other examples.. the big announcement about the deal with billboard magazine gave the misleading impression that this was an EXCLUSIVE arrangement; in reality, almost any music vendor can cut a deal with billboard (and many have). and to think this news had something to do with the big price runup today is just mind-boggling. more significantly, i've now finally had the chance to look over both the original ktel press release (about the web launch) and your first buy recommendation, the one-two punch that started this whole rollercoaster ride. I don't have the time or inclination to tear them apart point-by-point, but one thing really stands out and deserves comment sooner rather than later--ktel's fundamental misrepresentation of what business they've traditionally been in, and therefore their fundamental misrepresentation of where their expertise lies. ktel, essentially, claims that they're the kings of direct response and direct marketing--and that therefore they're naturals for the net. This all sounds fine until you stop and actually think about it--because in reality, ktel albums, while advertised on television, ARE ALWAYS SOLD IN RETAIL STORES (with perhaps a few exceptions). Direct means that you would buy direct from them, as in calling that 1-800 number with your credit card handy. don't think so--every ktel album i ever bought, i bought at a retail store, and that's how ktel has always played it. (ktel has always been good at three things: compiling hits, tv advertising, and getting their stuff into retail stores. i don't see how any of these things can give ktel much of a net advantage--can you? as for brand name recognition? PLEASE. the only people to whom the name actually means something--the boomers--think of it as a joke; you know, those "cheesy" compilations.) how can you trust a company that paints such a misleading picture of their primary mode of business, especially when it's so transparently clear that they're doing this in order to make the investor community think that they're more web-worthy than they are. (although one look at the site itself--with its lack of graphic and textual information about the products being sold--dispels that notion real fast.) that's enough for now. thanks for reading this far.