CyberShack Host, Charlie Brown
If you were to ask Charlie Brown, he'd tell you his earliest memories played out to a soundscape of Pong and that as a child his real pride and joy was his Commodore 64, which took centrestage in the family home and provided a young Charlie with hours of pleasure. Little wonder then that Charlie was to grow up with a passion for all things gaming and gadgets and become the founder of a successful media channel – CBN – whose CyberShack brand plays out across TV, radio and online.
But then, Charlie was always something of an entrepreneur. By the age of 12 he'd masterminded a scheme that would see him earning at least $10 pocket money a week.
"I was in boarding school in Year Seven and I would go to the local bakery on a Saturday when they were about to close up - hand them a dollar and pick up all the left over pastry they had - and then go back and sell it to all the students."
All this extra cash came in handy when it came time to hang out at the local video arcade... Not that he needed all that coin...
"We'd grab a slushie, set it on the deck of the Double Dragon and clock the game with a 40cent investment" he recalls. His teen years were spent mastering Altered Beast and After Burner, but his passion for gaming took a back seat when his father made the decision to install a second phone line in the family home. Ostensibly for fax – Charlie put the phone line to quite a different use...
"It was the early 90s and I got my own laptop and we had a second line in the house. I was allowed to put a phone point in my bedroom and I had a mac laptop. It had a little modem in the back and I signed up to dragon net ( a local Sydney ISP) and started getting into the web. It was on all the time... 'cause local calls were 25c. I was always downloading or uploading something...
"Then I got more and more into it and started building websites and learning about the web and tech."
This new passion soon led Charlie to study at University and soon after came an unexpected break into local radio.
"I'd started Uni - I was studying commerce and IT technology - and I rang up the radio station one day, requesting something and we started chatting and they found out I knew about the internet and technology. And they asked me something stupid like 'Where can you see photos of Pamela Anderson naked?' and I said 'I know that...' and the next thing I know they put me on the radio talking about technology. That was on the Edge 96.1.
"They offered me a job – and instead of flipping burgers while I was at Uni, I got to go on the radio. The only problem was you only got paid when the segment had a sponsor - so eventually I started selling the show myself. I worked out very quickly if I started doing segments on other stations I could spread the risk...
"By the end of '99 I was on 20 stations doing segments and I had a major sponsor (Bigpond) and they suggested that I do a long format show – so I put it all together..." Soon after CyberShack was born...
Quitting his day job at the radio station, Charlie took on the task of managing, producing and promoting the Cybershack brand full time. Seven years later the brand encompasses cross media channels of TV and online; has associations with major companies and partnerships with global events – such as World Cyber Games.
"I think if you can start anything from nothing and make it into something worthwhile that you can still be passionate about - then that's the best achievement ever."
These days you can see Charlie bringing his passion to life on the Today Show as their technology guru, catch him reporting on CyberShack TV or see him pottering around his local Dick Smith Powerhouse, come the weekend... that's if his wife let's him out of the house ;P
If you were to ask Charlie Brown, he'd tell you his earliest memories played out to a soundscape of Pong and that as a child his real pride and joy was his Commodore 64, which took centrestage in the family home and provided a young Charlie with hours of pleasure. Little wonder then that Charlie was to grow up with a passion for all things gaming and gadgets and become the founder of a successful media channel – CBN – whose CyberShack brand plays out across TV, radio and online.
But then, Charlie was always something of an entrepreneur. By the age of 12 he'd masterminded a scheme that would see him earning at least $10 pocket money a week.
"I was in boarding school in Year Seven and I would go to the local bakery on a Saturday when they were about to close up - hand them a dollar and pick up all the left over pastry they had - and then go back and sell it to all the students."
All this extra cash came in handy when it came time to hang out at the local video arcade... Not that he needed all that coin...
"We'd grab a slushie, set it on the deck of the Double Dragon and clock the game with a 40cent investment" he recalls. His teen years were spent mastering Altered Beast and After Burner, but his passion for gaming took a back seat when his father made the decision to install a second phone line in the family home. Ostensibly for fax – Charlie put the phone line to quite a different use...
"It was the early 90s and I got my own laptop and we had a second line in the house. I was allowed to put a phone point in my bedroom and I had a mac laptop. It had a little modem in the back and I signed up to dragon net ( a local Sydney ISP) and started getting into the web. It was on all the time... 'cause local calls were 25c. I was always downloading or uploading something...
"Then I got more and more into it and started building websites and learning about the web and tech."
This new passion soon led Charlie to study at University and soon after came an unexpected break into local radio.
"I'd started Uni - I was studying commerce and IT technology - and I rang up the radio station one day, requesting something and we started chatting and they found out I knew about the internet and technology. And they asked me something stupid like 'Where can you see photos of Pamela Anderson naked?' and I said 'I know that...' and the next thing I know they put me on the radio talking about technology. That was on the Edge 96.1.
"They offered me a job – and instead of flipping burgers while I was at Uni, I got to go on the radio. The only problem was you only got paid when the segment had a sponsor - so eventually I started selling the show myself. I worked out very quickly if I started doing segments on other stations I could spread the risk...
"By the end of '99 I was on 20 stations doing segments and I had a major sponsor (Bigpond) and they suggested that I do a long format show – so I put it all together..." Soon after CyberShack was born...
Quitting his day job at the radio station, Charlie took on the task of managing, producing and promoting the Cybershack brand full time. Seven years later the brand encompasses cross media channels of TV and online; has associations with major companies and partnerships with global events – such as World Cyber Games.
"I think if you can start anything from nothing and make it into something worthwhile that you can still be passionate about - then that's the best achievement ever."
These days you can see Charlie bringing his passion to life on the Today Show as their technology guru, catch him reporting on CyberShack TV or see him pottering around his local Dick Smith Powerhouse, come the weekend... that's if his wife let's him out of the house ;P
