Author | Good uncle
Source | Good master
"Phoenix TV is the story of a madman and 500 crazy people."
"A madman" refers to himself, that is, Liu Changle, the owner of Phoenix TV.
When he said this, Phoenix SATELLITE TV was like a day in the sky.
At that time, Liu Changle wanted to become China's Murdoch.
As early as one evening in June 1995, when the Summer Palace was about to close, a boat quietly sailed to the middle of Kunming Lake. On board, Liu Changle and world media tycoon Murdoch held the final round of negotiations.
The outcome of the negotiations was:
At the same time, in order to successfully land Phoenix Satellite TV in the mainland, the remaining 10% of the shares were handed over to CCTV's company in Hong Kong.
A satellite TV channel that is well-known in the Chinese world around the world was born in this way.
25 years later, some time ago, two pieces of news came out:
One is that the top management of Phoenix Satellite TV will carry out a major personnel adjustment, and the actual controller Liu Changle and his family management personnel may withdraw from the Phoenix Satellite TV Group.
The other is that the financial business of Phoenix Satellite TV has been deferred, involving a loan amount of 9.77 billion yuan, and 70,000 lenders have been denounced on major media platforms.
Before that, Phoenix Satellite TV was actually no longer the Phoenix Satellite TV that "saw the phoenix in big things", and Liu Changle was no longer the spirited Liu Changle.
An era, the curtain has come to an end.
1
Liu Changle is indeed a "madman".
Because he once led a group of "crazy people" to do what Neither Li Ka-shing nor Murdoch had done.
Before him, Murdoch was undoubtedly the first media tycoon in the world to see China's huge potential, and Lao Mo clearly knew that as long as he ate this billion-level market, small fish and shrimp could also become big fish and crocodiles.
As early as 1985, Lao Mo came to China to find opportunities.
But the money was also spent, and he also sent 50 old Fox movies to CCTV, but he put a cold ass on his hot face and didn't fish for anything.
It wasn't until 1993 that Lao Mo finally waited for the opportunity.
Because he heard that Li Ka-shing wanted to sell STAR TV (Hong Kong Satellite Television Co., Ltd.).
STAR TV was founded in 1993, and before it, there were already two radio stations in Hong Kong: "Wireless" and "ATV".
And both stations have a hard backstage:
Behind the "wireless" is the Lee family and Run Run Shaw, and behind the "ATV" is the Lin Baixin family and the Zheng Yutong family.
Originally, the world was divided into two parts, but Li Ka-shing ran to insert a foot, which of course did not have good fruit to eat. So when Li Ka-shing obtained a business license issued by the Hong Kong government, he was also informed of the following two additional conditions:
First, Cantonese programs cannot be broadcast;
Second, users must not be charged.
Obviously, this is ATV and Wireless putting pressure on the Hong Kong government.
Li Ka-shing, who has always presented himself as a confucian and elegant person, shouted angrily:
"A local TV station doesn't let you broadcast localized programs. Funny! ”
As a result, after the establishment of STAR TV, it lost $90 million per year.
It is precisely because of this that Li Ka-shing wants to get rid of STAR TV as soon as possible.
In July 1993, after just a few hours of discussion with Li Zekai, the son of Li Ka-shing, Lao Mo impatiently decided to acquire a 63.6% stake in STAR TV for $525 million, and then took over STAR TV for nearly 1 billion yuan.
This acquisition seems to be a win-win situation:
Lao Li made a lot of money, and Lao Mo got a springboard to enter the Chinese market.
Lying in his mansion on the top of Victoria Peak, Lao Mo began to plan his media empire:
The United States has his Fox TV; the United Kingdom has his Sky TV; and now in Asia, there is his STAR TV. Moreover, STAR TV alone can reach more than 3 billion viewers.
Lao Mo calculated everything, but missed the most critical point:
Chinese mainland do not allow overseas satellite TV to land.
With this, Lao Mo's idea of "touching 3 billion viewers" immediately lost 1 billion.
On the other hand, since Lao Mo acquired STAR TV, Chinese realized that something was wrong:
How did there suddenly become an extra "imperialist" propaganda tool in the sky, and it was broadcast in Mandarin? It's dangerous!
As a result, the State Council issued Order No. 129:
Chinese citizens are not allowed to install antennas to receive satellite TELEVISION programs without permission.
In other words, not only can the Chinese people not watch STAR TV openly and openly, but also watch it secretly.
Old Mo was annoyed and began to operate actively.
One day in 1994, Lao Mo came to the mainland and began a passionate speech.
He first "showed loyalty":
"Hong Kong will be returned in 1997, many foreign companies will leave Hong Kong, but my old STAR TV will never leave, I want to be a qualified Chinese citizen, but I don't know what to do, you teach me."
He then stated the purpose of the trip:
"I am willing to pay for technology to help you build a paid platform for satellite TV, but I have a small request - put a few sets of STAR TV programs on your platform, you feel suitable for the Chinese people to see, just open it, not suitable, close it." 」
With these words, Lao Mo moved himself to a mess, but unfortunately, he could not move the Chinese officials sitting here.
However, this matter attracted the attention of a Chinese person present.
This person's name is Yu Tonghao.
Yu Tonghao, who worked for a radio station in Guangdong, in the late 1980s, imitated Radio Television Hong Kong and pioneered the reform of mainland radio by means of live broadcasting and two-way communication with hotlines.
At this time, he is following two other big celebrities and planning a big event together:
Run a world-renowned television station.
The other two, one is Liu Changle and the other is Wang Jiyan.
Wang Jiyan, China's first professor of television studies, was the deputy dean of the Beijing Broadcasting Institute while planning for CCTV, and he was the director and cameraman of the large-scale TV feature "Silk Road".
1980 Sino-Japanese documentary "Silk Road"
Liu Changle, on the other hand, is a businessman.
He went to pharmaceutical factories, worked as an engineer, and later went to sea to trade oil.
After entering the 1990s, he gradually realized that China was about to enter a golden age of media.
I have to say that Liu Changle is a businessman with an extremely keen sense of smell, because it was after the mid-1990s that China's media industry began to develop by leaps and bounds, CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV, Southern Weekend... It was during that time that they reached their peak.
In 1994, since Liu Changle, Yu Tonghao, and Wang Jiyan first met in Dongjiaomin Lane in Beijing, the three of them had a great sense of seeing each other and hating the evening, and they were eager to kneel down and kneel down to Taoyuan Sanjieyi.
Yu Tonghao once said emotionally:
"I saw an idealistic glow in Liu Changle."
However, their ideals have not been able to land.
After all, running a TV station is not a grocery store, who wants to do it?
It wasn't until Yu Tonghao learned that Murdoch was struggling to find a way to land on the mainland that they realized that the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had finally come.
2
Before learning about Murdoch's plight, Liu Changle had actually thought that he could start with Hong Kong.
At that time, Hong Kong was about to return to the mainland, and what they thought was that as long as they seized this opportunity to set up a television station in Hong Kong, they would be able to take advantage of the loose policy of "one country, two systems" and rely on the mainland and have a broad market.
Therefore, Liu Changle found Murdoch and began a marathon cooperation negotiation.
And the two sides agreed that in order to avoid striking grass and snakes, all negotiations were carried out in secret, and no wind noise would be revealed to the outside world.
Liu Changle also gave a reason that Lao Mo could not refuse:
"With you as an expatriate, it is difficult to land on the mainland."
Having encountered countless nails in China, Lao Mo knows better than anyone:
If you want to do business in China, without a "license", it will be difficult to move forward.
Of course, the scheming Murdoch did not believe that Liu Changle had the hand of heaven and could get the landing right. But in the end, they still reached a cooperation, because at this time, Lao Mo had no way out.
One day at the end of August 1995, it was raining lightly.
A photographer was mysteriously dragged into the Great Hall of the People, and he was constantly admonished by different people:
You don't have to ask anything, you can't say anything afterwards, you just have to videotape.
The photographer looked confused, and later he learned that it was Liu Changle and Murdoch who cooperated to create a Phoenix SATELLITE TV, and that day was the official signing ceremony.
The policy of running a station for Phoenix Satellite TV is exactly the nine-character policy proposed by Liu Changle, Wang Jiyan, and Yu Tonghao before:
"Based on Hong Kong, relying on the mainland, covering the world."
After some preparations, in early March 1996, the first backbone of Phoenix Satellite TV entered Hong Kong.
Among them is Xu Gehui, a beautiful host who has hosted the CCTV Spring Festival Gala;
Chen Luyu, who interned at CCTV and later went to the United States to work hard;
And Dou Wentao, a young man from Ya pi who was struggling to write on Guangdong Radio.
The reason why these three people walked towards Phoenix Satellite TV without hesitation was not inspired by any ideals.
For them, it is more out of the helplessness of reality.
It is rumored that Xu Gehui was caught in a scandal at that time;
Chen Luyu, who went to the United States, experienced a double frustration in marriage and career;
Dou Wentao has always wanted to jump from a radio station to a television station, but has not been able to do so.
At that time, in the eyes of everyone, Phoenix Satellite TV was a small and inconspicuous broken station, and many hosts of serious TV stations could not look at it at all.
But no one expected that this small broken platform could actually lead this group of people to set off a huge wave in the media circles in the future.
3
When it first started broadcasting, Phoenix Satellite TV was a bit tepid.
Zhang Tielin said that during that time, "Lu Yu and Ge Hui were like ducks who had fallen behind, doing nothing after work every day."
However, Dou Wentao's performance surprised Zhang Tielin.
At that time, Zhang Tielin and Dou Wentao's desk was only separated by a board, zhang Tielin looked at Dou Wentao's desk every day with a stack of newspapers, a teapot, in addition to doing programs, Dou Wentao sat there calmly and calmly looking at the ceiling.
Except for "Meet phoenix tv", the rest of the programs of Phoenix TV at that time were purchased or continued by STRA TV Chinese.
When Murdoch took control of STRA TV, it adhered to the principle of "entertainment first".
He did this in the United States before, and Americans ate this set, and he felt that Chinese would eat this set.
Therefore, when Phoenix Satellite TV was first established, there was not a single reporter in the station, let alone going out to interview, they just packaged and translated some overseas entertainment programs and made it into a lively and lively appearance.
Dou Wentao later complained:
"In the first year of Phoenix, the Hong Kong director asked me and Xiaoli to stand on the side of the camera at the beginning of the show, and as soon as the shouting began, we were going to jump out like a rabbit and shout at the camera:
'Hi, hello everyone! ’”
It made him feel very bored.
Five months after the launch of Phoenix SATELLITE TV, Liu Changle held a strategic seminar at the Hong Kong Dynasty Club, which has an admission fee of more than 300,000 Hong Kong dollars.
When Liu Changle said passionately:
"Within three years, Phoenix TV will become the most influential Chinese-language TV station besides CCTV."
There was a burst of laughter from the audience, and the effect was like Guo Degang throwing out a meme.
In fact, everyone knows that the ledger received from STAR TV shows that the advertising revenue of Taili for the whole year is more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars, while the expenditure is more than 150 million Hong Kong dollars, and the cumulative loss has reached 200 million US dollars.
They felt that Liu Changle was drawing cakes again.
But Liu Changle didn't think so.
What he thinks is that if you continue to follow the old path of STAR TV and carry out entertainment to the end, Phoenix Satellite TV is indeed not saved. But if they rely on the news station like CNN, they will definitely be able to kill a bloody road.
Of course, this idea will certainly encounter resistance, and the biggest resistance comes from the Murdoch team.
Although Liu Changle and Murdoch each account for 45% of the shares, according to the previous agreement, the company's affairs are mainly responsible for Liu Changle. At the insistence of Liu Changle, Phoenix Satellite TV began to prepare news programs.
On March 31, 1997, Phoenix TV launched the "Current Affairs Express".
From the very beginning, Liu Changle stressed that we must not learn from CCTV's news broadcasting.
Newscasts are characterized by brevity and timeliness. Phoenix TV did the opposite, working length and depth.
In the first week of the launch of "Current Affairs Express", they launched two important news features:
One is Deng Xiaoping and Hong Kong, and the other is the place where the Treaty of Nanking was signed.
Later, it was really popular, and it also brought fire to two anchors- Wu Xiaoli and Dou Wentao.
These two people have very different styles, but they have a different spark.
Wu Xiaoli was once a popular female anchor in Taiwan, and she had a nickname, called "Sweet Sister".
When broadcasting the news, she was not sitting precariously like Zhao Zhongxiang and Xing Zhibin on the mainland, reading the manuscript in a serious manner, laughing when she should laugh, and sometimes sighing and commenting twice.
Dou Wentao, who came from the mainland, followed the mainland's broadcast method.
The two of them are relaxed, but they have a different flavor.
A year later, on March 19, 1998, when the two sessions were held, "Current Affairs Express" finally caught fire.
At the press conference, Wu Xiaoli was crowded in the press group, and she raised her hand several times in vain.
In a moment of despair, Premier Zhu Rongji suddenly spoke:
"If you take care of Miss Wu Xiaoli of Phoenix Tv, I really like to watch her broadcast (that is, "Current Affairs Express").
Wu Xiaoli stood up flattered:
"Thank you Premier Zhu, first of all, I want to say that you are also my idol."
Next, Wu Xiaoli did not play cards according to the routine, she asked three questions in one go, and according to the rules, she could only mention one.
These three problems can be summarized as follows:
First, how will the central government respond to the economic difficulties facing Hong Kong this year?
Second, the outside world says that you are the iron-faced prime minister and the economic tsar, what is your own opinion on this?
Third, talk about your journey in promoting reform.
The Prime Minister patiently answered this question, and finally he said the famous words:
"Whether it is a minefield or an abyss ahead, I will go forward bravely, without hesitation, bow down, and die."
As soon as the prime minister's voice dropped, thunderous applause rang out from the audience.
On that day, Hong Kong's stock market, which had been hit hard in the Asian financial turmoil, actually rose 340 points.
4
In fact, before this popularity, the fledgling Phoenix Satellite TV had already fought many "beautiful battles".
At the end of June 1997, on the occasion of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, more than 8,000 journalists poured into Hong Kong from all over the world.
Because in the early morning of July 1, all media will usher in a once-in-a-lifetime "battle of the century", Phoenix Satellite TV must participate, and it is a live broadcast.
But at this time, Phoenix Satellite TV had just been established, and compared with those old media, it was a fledgling dick youth.
This kind of super-large live broadcast, Phoenix Satellite TV is still the first time to engage.
The live broadcast tests not only the technical and team cooperation and combat capabilities, but also the vision and realm.
Later, they formulated a plan for a general film called "1997 Hong Kong's Return to the Century Report", which will carry out a 60-hour live broadcast from 12 noon on June 30.
In the early morning of June 30, Phoenix Satellite TV rushed out, and they divided into 11 routes and rushed to the "battlefield":
Wu Xiaoli and Dou Wentao stayed in the base camp to conduct live broadcasts;
Xu Gehui was sent to the studio of the Convention and Exhibition Center;
Chen Luyu was on standby at the hotel where the state leaders were staying;
Zeng Hanyi squatted at the dock where Prince Charles, Governor Patten and others boarded a ship and left the port...
At 11:50, Wu Xiaoli sat in front of the camera:
"Phoenix Satellite TV Century Report, 60 hours non-stop, hello, I am Wu Xiaoli ..."
Immediately after, Dou Wentao also ran into the picture and high-fived Wu Xiaoli.
After the live broadcast started, everything went smoothly.
But since it is a live broadcast, there must be an accident.
For example, the host was broadcasting the ceremony of the Governor-General of Hong Kong to bid farewell to the Governor's Palace, when a new instruction suddenly came from the headset:
"The Chinese government delegation landed at Kai Tak Airport, we want to add this picture, Xiaoli and Wentao to explain."
Such a situation is very common, Wu Xiaoli and Dou Wentao can only make up the new instructions while listening to the new instructions.
One thing, it is estimated that Dou Wentao is sweating when he thinks about it.
At 9 p.m. that night, Dou Wentao, who had been fighting continuously for several hours, was getting up to go to the toilet, when suddenly someone stopped him, because they had received a signal that the advance team of the Plapuers garrison in Hong Kong was stationed in Hong Kong and needed to be reported temporarily.
Dou Wentao, who looked confused, had just sat in the studio, and the picture cut in.
Dou Wentao did not have time to think deeply, and could only open his mouth to come, which was 40 minutes, until the last military vehicle drove into Hong Kong territory and the picture ended.
Fortunately, the night before, he had read a stack of newspaper materials that were one foot thick, otherwise he might have thrown his face to his grandmother's house this time.
In addition to calmly coping with various unexpected situations, many details, Phoenix Satellite TV also handled well.
At 00:40 on July 1, Prince Charles and the recently outgoing Governor-General of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, and his family boarded the deck of the Britannia.
They waved goodbye lonely, and Patten's daughter couldn't stop crying.
These have been reported in detail by Phoenix TV and have become classic pictures.
Before Prince Charles and others boarded the deck, the host of CCTV published a comment on "Hong Kong's Tomorrow Will Be Better" and hastily ended the live broadcast.
The same contrast occurred on the afternoon of June 30.
At that time, The Patten family bid farewell to the Governor's Palace, and according to the custom, before the Governor left office, he would take a car to circle the Governor's Palace three times, but Patten's car only circled twice before leaving.
For this picture, CCTV explained it in sharp and spicy language and sonorous and powerful tone:
"Patten got on the bus, and the car circled around the Governor's Mansion and turned around again, but everyone knows that the wheel of history does not go around in circles in the same place...
Patten left the Governor's Mansion with the flag that had just been lowered, and behind me, the bauhinia flowers were blooming. ”
In the same picture, Xu Gehui of Phoenix Satellite TV also said a similar sentence:
"Patten got on the bus, and the car circled around the Governor's Mansion, but in fact, this is the custom of every Governor of Hong Kong when he leaves office, the only difference is that this time, the Governor of Hong Kong has no successor."
But the difference is that Xu Gehui's tone is more peaceful.
At the same time, Phoenix SATELLITE TV also captured a lot of details.
For example, Patten wiped the rain from his face (or maybe tears). For example, when the car leaves, the window of the car is printed with Patten's farewell arm.
Compared with many mainstream media at that time, Phoenix SATELLITE TV's broadcast methods appeared independent, rich and delicate.
At the same time, many of the commentaries of Phoenix Satellite TV are temporary, while the commentaries of mainland TELEVISION stations are prepared in advance, not only are they not grounded enough, but they also fall into the cold field from time to time.
In this way, Phoenix Satellite TV quickly went out of its own way.
From left to right: Bu Bangyi, Wu Xiaoli, Liang Yonghui, Xu Gehui, Liu Changle, Dou Wentao, Chen Luyu, Li Hui Tuyuan Phoenix Private Manual
5
Liu Changle often hangs a sentence on his lips:
"We must do what we cannot do."
Especially when someone asks him for money.
Because of the lack of money, cost control has always been the "only important yardstick" of Phoenix Satellite TV. Liu Changle wants results, but he will never give you more budgets.
Therefore, in the early days of Phoenix Satellite TV, there was a saying circulating:
"In the beginning, the phoenix took the corresponding money to do the corresponding thing; later, it became taking other people's money to do its own thing;
Later, it is to spend other people's money, to do their own things, and to earn other people's money. ”
So everyone thinks every day: without giving money and adding people, what new things can we make?
"Phoenix Morning Train" was born in this context.
Once, when Liu Changle went to the United States, he found that most of the money-making programs on the American television network were morning news. In China, CCTV has also begun a new exploration with the program "Oriental Time and Space".
So Liu Changle said that Phoenix also wanted to run a morning news.
But at that time, Phoenix was a reporter and editor of the news, a total of less than 10 people, and the evening "Current Affairs Express" was too busy to come, how could anyone be drawn to engage in morning news?
You know, CCTV's same program, at least more than 40 people.
But Liu Changle insisted on making morning news, and he knew very well that in the near future, people would turn on the TV with the remote control as soon as they woke up, just like they habitually turned on the radio.
In the end, the plan of the morning news was decided, and the name was called "Phoenix Morning Train".
Liu Changle only sent two people to this show:
Anchor Chen Luyu, and an editor-in-chief.
Two people support a show, and sure enough, how bold the boss is, how productive the company is.
Chen Luyu's main business was originally to engage in entertainment programs, such as hosting "Music Unlimited". As soon as she heard that she was going to do "Phoenix Morning Train", she was anxious:
"Just kidding! Give me such a bad time in the early morning, so I don't do it. ”
That being said, Lu Yu still went honestly. But the manpower is really limited, and the recitation of lines is too boring, Chen Luyu ran to Dou Wentao to discuss:
"You say, can I get the news out of the way without a draft?"
Generally speaking, there are writers behind the anchors, and Lu Yu's approach is somewhat similar to the self-written and self-directed talk shows.
Dou Wentao, who was not too big to see the hilarity, said, "Of course! ”
Later, Chen Luyu rehearsed several times, and the effect was not impressive, but Liu Changle was very supportive, because he could save a writer's salary.
Chen Luyu was also angry, and on the day of the broadcast, she got up at 4 o'clock and memorized the news in the newspaper of the day.
The first live broadcast of "Phoenix Morning Train" was not a success. Liu Changle almost shed tears of excitement, and he publicly encouraged Chen Luyu, who saved money for himself:
"Lu Yu said that the style of journalism will occupy its place in the history of Chinese television!"
Since then, Lu Yu has been sleeping at more than 4 a.m. every day, stumbling out of the residential building, and at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, he came back with heavy makeup to make up for sleep.
One day, the janitor couldn't help himself, so he asked her:
"Girl, what do you do?"
"Phoenix Morning Train"
6
Of course, Liu Changle is not dead set to the end.
He was sometimes willing to spend money, for example, to set up a 24-hour non-stop information channel.
In 1986, American Turner founded CNN, the world's first 24-hour, full-time television channel. At that time, many people did not understand, thinking that fools would watch the news all day long.
But CNN succeeded.
The last 20 years of the 20th century were an era of big news: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the explosion of the Challenger spacecraft, the Gulf War...
The 24-hour news turned viewers into participants in the events that were happening, and CNN became one of the world's largest and most profitable media giants.
CNN
This is the background of Liu Changle's insistence on starting an information station, for which he spent 100 million Hong Kong dollars.
On December 8, 2000, Phoenix Satellite TV Information Station began trial broadcasting.
The information desk is brightly lit 24 hours a day, and more than 100 directors, editors, reporters, and videographers work three shifts a day. Later, many famous mouths of the Phoenix Platform entered the Phoenix at this time, such as Yang Jinlin, Zeng Zimo, Hu Yihu, He Liangliang...
After the establishment of the information desk, great events continued to play out around the world.
On July 11, 2001, Lu Yu, Dou Wentao, and others boarded a plane to Moscow. Everyone was thrilled because two days later, the IOC would vote in Moscow for the host city for the 2008 Olympics.
This Olympic bidding topic was originally a cooperation between Phoenix Station and Beijing Station, Beijing out of equipment, looking for venues, Phoenix out of the host.
But they were provisionally notified that "there was no consent from above."
This is very embarrassing, because there is no host in Beijing, and Phoenix has no equipment and no studio, and after 36 hours, the live broadcast will begin.
Liu Changle, who was at a loss, came to Red Square, and when he saw that the Russian Grand Hotel was in a very good location, he had a sudden idea:
If it is broadcast live on the top floor of the hotel, it will be at a glance from the top floor of the hotel, and moscow's Red Square will be at a glance!
Liu Changle used his negotiation skills to talk with the hotel manager about Sino-Russian friendship and the importance of this live broadcast, and also gave a price that the other party could not refuse:
Ten thousand dollars.
What's even more remarkable is that Liu Changle didn't know where to get the Russian film factory's broadcast truck, and the camera's big swing arm also moved into the "studio", a studio that was too simple to be simple, and it was built quickly.
On the morning of July 13, Lu Yu and Dou Wentao appeared in front of the camera on time:
"Hello everyone, it's now July 13 at 8 a.m. Moscow time... Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows behind us, we can see Red Square, the Moskva River, the Kremlin..."
At 6 p.m., when Samaranch said the word "Beijing", the whole audience boiled, and Dou Wentao watched as Chen Luyu, a "close friend in the boudoir", and the goddess Li Wei pounced on Zhou Xingchi in unison, and he could only shed tears of excitement alone.
This picture was taken by Wang Jiyan, but two photos are virtual, vague and can only see the shadows.
Wang Jiyan said:
This picture of mine is a masterpiece.
Because, at the moment when the coalition army landed in Normandy, the photojournalist was excited, his hand was shaking, and the photo was also virtual, so it was more commemorative.
Celebrating the success of the 2001 Olympic bid, image source "Phoenix Private Handbook"
7
Before founding Phoenix Satellite TV, Liu Changle, Wang Jiyan, and Yu Tonghao drew a cake for themselves:
We want to run a television station that is famous all over the world.
This dream was actually realized on Phoenix Satellite TV.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the sun shone brightly in New York.
Pang Zhe, a financial reporter at Phoenix Information Station, was conducting a routine interview at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, when suddenly, there was a loud noise in the air.
Pang Zhe thought that somewhere was the celebration, but soon, she found that something was wrong, so she immediately reported the news to the headquarters:
"A plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, and now all I see is confetti and smoke."
After Liu Changle received the news, he did not know what the specific situation was, but he knew that this must be a major event that shocked the world.
Liu Changle immediately decided to broadcast live.
At this time, the host Wu Xiaoli has already sat in front of the camera, and there are still a few minutes, and "Current Affairs Express" is about to start.
The staff wrote down pang Zhe's narration on the paper, and did not care about the camera, so they handed the paper directly to Wu Xiaoli.
A few minutes later, at 21:03 Beijing time, the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center, and Liu Changle concluded that it was a terrorist attack.
At 21:10, the Current Affairs Express sent its first message about 9/11:
"The World Trade Center in New York was attacked and set on fire."
This was the earliest broadcast of the 9/11 incident by The Chinese television media in Hong Kong, the mainland and even the world.
It was also the first time in history that Chinese mainland had seen a live television news broadcast of a major emergency simultaneously.
At this time, Hong Kong's "wireless" was still broadcasting TV dramas, and it was not until an hour later that they came back to Life, and the live broadcast of "ATV" was slightly earlier, while CCTV did not broadcast live.
Once upon a time, the Gulf War made CNN famous overnight.
The "9/11" incident also made Phoenix SATELLITE TV instantly become a world-class media.
At that time, Huang Haibo, the editor and director of CCTV, in order to watch the news, also deliberately shared a room in the hotel with several colleagues and watched the live broadcast of Phoenix in front of the TV.
At this time, CCTV is still broadcasting golden TV series.
Huang Haibo did not call a place, he pretended to be a spectator, and called CCTV:
"Hey, I'm the audience, the United States was attacked by terror, the whole world has turned upside down, how can you be so strong?" What do you do?" We protest! ”
As he scolded, he scolded himself and cried.
Later, he also jumped ship to Phoenix TV.
9/11
8
As an overseas television station that started from entertainment, Phoenix Satellite TV not only dares to grab "hard news" with big stations such as CCTV, but also deserves to give in cultural programs.
In January 2001, Phoenix SATELLITE TV launched the "Century Lecture Hall".
The original host of this show was Ah Yi, and later changed to Wang Luxiang.
Although Xu Gehui and Zeng Zimo, the two beautiful hosts, also briefly took over this show, it is Ah Yi and Wang Luxiang who can really take on the weight of this show.
Ah Yi's real name, zhou Yijun, graduated from Peking University.
In the eyes of his classmates, Ah Yi is the kind of person who "if there is no integrity and kindness, that little bit of intelligence is not enough", for example, when playing cards, he will lose happily.
But there are two kinds of people in the world, one is a fox and the other is a hedgehog. The clever fox knows a lot of things, while the humble-looking hedgehog knows only one big thing.
Ah Yi is the hedgehog.
The "hedgehog" may seem less clever, but it has a characteristic - it likes dead arches.
Vigorous force may not be able to produce miracles, but the dead arch can often arch miracles. So the last laugh is often the hedgehog.
At that time at Peking University, Ah Yi did not hear anything out of the window, and only arched the sage book.
Arching, he arched himself into a Peking University talent.
He once wrote a 365-episode large-scale historical feature film for CCTV, "Miracles Under the Bright Moon - A Hundred Years of Hong Kong", and because of this work, he was targeted by Phoenix TV.
Later, on Phoenix TV, Ah Yi was like a fish in the water, not only as a planner, but also as a host.
In 1998, Ah Yi served as the planner and chief writer of Phoenix TV's 16-episode large-scale historical feature film "One Hundred Years of Peking University", and later served as the host of "Century Lecture Hall".
After Wang Luxiang took over as the host of "Century Lecture Hall", Ah Yi continued to write for the feature film of Phoenix Satellite TV.
"The Three Brothers of Zhou", "The Story of Nanda In One Hundred Years", "One Hundred Years of American Wind"... These influential large-scale feature films are all from his hand.
Wang Luxiang, like Ah Yi, is also a talented man from Peking University.
In the year when the national college entrance examination was resumed, it was said that he took the top 40 in the country, but he was "assigned" to Xiangtan University to study Chinese department.
Since the beginning of college, he has been nibbling on "Historical Studies", "Philosophical Studies", "Literary and Art Studies", "Pipe Cone" all day long...
Later, when he went to Peking University to study philosophy, he got up at 5:30 every morning to read a book, and then saw that the lights went out at 11:30 at night.
It is difficult to define the identity of Wang Luxiang, who is not only familiar with philosophy, aesthetics, history, painting, archaeology and other majors, but also has worked as a program planner, choreographer, writer, host, cultural consultant...
Before joining Phoenix, Wang Luxiang wrote for CCTV's feature films in anonymity.
In the circle, he is recognized as the highest paid copywriter, but he doesn't actually get much money. Because in the television industry, planners and writers take the least money, far less than voice actors, lighting engineers, videographers...
Wang Luxiang worked hard to write a month's manuscript, and the money he earned may not be as good as the voice actor's daily income.
"So someone like me who buried his head in writing is still poor."
Wang Luxiang once laughed at himself in this way.
In 2001, he joined Phoenix TV as a senior planner.
As mentioned earlier, cost control has always been the most important principle of Phoenix Satellite TV. If one person can do the work of three people, then Liu Changle will never let him do the work of two people.
In order to "give full play to his talents", in many programs, Wang Luxiang is both a planner, a writer, or a host... For example, "Cultural Grand View Garden", "Across China", "Forever Three Gorges", "Century Lecture Hall" and other programs.
These programs reflect the thickness of Phoenix SATELLITE TV.
9
In addition to the heavy sense of culture, Phoenix TV has another side to it:
Sharp and spicy, laughing and scolding.
For example, "Wind and Cloud Dialogue" is bold and has a hard neck.
The soul of this show is Ruan Cishan.
Ruan Cishan not only has a Japanese name, but also looks like a Japanese, his brain is very bright, and he still has a beard under his nose.
Someone asked him: Do you have anything to do with Japan?
He was furious at once:
"Ouch! where! The second mountain, ancient, the great literary scholar and poet Yuan on the occasion of the Golden Yuan, is a good question, and he is called the second mountain. ”
Ruan Cishan is indeed a pure-blooded descendant of Yan Huang, whose ancestral home is Hainan, was born in Guangxi, and when he was 4 years old, he went to Vietnam with his father and later to Taiwan.
Since middle school, Ruan Cishan has begun to "write for a living".
After graduating from National Chengchi University in Taiwan, he went to the United States for further studies, studying East Asian culture and international politics.
He has also served as Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. World Journal, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of los Angeles-based Newspaper, and Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Taiwan's Taiwan's TaiwanNews.
The first on the right is Nguyen Tsit Son
In 2001, he also joined Phoenix TV.
Phoenix TV's "Wind and Cloud Dialogue" is extremely harsh on the selection of guests, and must be those in power, or people who play an important role in some major international politics and news events.
In the years of hosting the show, Ruan Cishan had a "storm dialogue" with more than 300 "most critical, frontline, and most sensitive" big people such as Gaddafi, Carter, Putin, and Lee Kuan Yew.
What impressed me was the interview with Gaddafi.
In July 2010, the U.S. civil war in Libya aimed at overthrowing Gaddafi had not yet begun.
Nguyen Tszc son ran to Gaddafi's old camp in Libya, where Gaddafi rushed into the interview scene in a very windy robe and drove a battery car, and then he sat on a chair with his buttocks, grinning widely on his legs, and talked about his political ideas in a spirited manner.
A year later, he was shot.
In stark contrast to Dialogue is The Threesome.
Ruan Cishan in "Dialogue of The Wind and Clouds" is the image of a "middle-aged old man" who "does not talk much", and his Mandarin is not good.
And Dou Wentao, the soul of "Threesomes", is a sneaky young man, and the characteristics of this show are "not seeking height, only seeking breadth; not seeking depth, only seeking temperature; not seeking conclusions, only seeking fun."
As soon as the lecture began every day, Dou Wentao said without moving:
"Threesomes, you can say anything..."
Then he led the two guests and began to talk nonsense.
For example, in the Spring Festival of 2016, Xingye's "Mermaid" was just released, and "Threesomes" was launched with two programs.
As a result, they talked about whether "The Mermaid" was funny or not, talked about why the current Chinese need comedy; finally, they talked about the jumping incident of hong Kong college students, and analyzed the counterattack plight of Hong Kong's low-level people...
In Dou Wentao's own words, it is "off-topic running non-stop.".
They seem to be "pulling from east to west", but they can also poke at the key from time to time, and they are very grounded, and they have gathered a group of "knowers" such as Liang Wendao, Xu Zidong, Wang Shuo, Chen Danqing, Ma Weidu, etc., so they have gained a lot of fans and influenced a generation of media people, such as Luo Zhenyu, Gao Xiaosong, Xu Zhiyuan...
In addition, Phoenix also launched "Lu Yu has a date", "Celebrities Face to Face", "Li Ao has something to say", "Current affairs to talk about", "Military Intelligence Observation Room" ...
They may be gentle and generous, or laugh and scold, or sharp and spicy.
Anyway, there is always one that allows you to open Phoenix TV.
"Threesomes", "Threesomes"
10
Of course, Phoenix TV has never been something you want to see and can watch.
Because it is impossible to "land", for a long time, the phoenix is a bird without legs.
In the eyes of the mainland, it is a "foreign media," and in the eyes of Taiwan, it is a "bandit Taiwan."
In Liu Changle's planning, the target population of Phoenix Satellite TV has never been the millions of people in Hong Kong, he is positioned as a global Chinese.
In fact, Phoenix SATELLITE TV is not in line with the tastes of Hong Kong people, so the uncle who guards the door will not know Lu Yu and ask her: "Girl, what do you do?" ”
If you can't land in the mainland and Taiwan, and Hong Kong people don't like to watch, then Phoenix still plays a ball?
In June 2002, the financial statements showed that Phoenix Satellite TV lost 160 million Hong Kong dollars.
Television media is already a very money-burning industry, especially the operation of news channels.
According to statistics, CNN has more than 4,000 employees and 42 press stations around the world, CNN spent $25 million in the 1991 Gulf War, and $35 million in the 2003 Iraq War.
In 2002, because it was too poor to do anything, Phoenix Information Had to lay off twenty or thirty people.
It wasn't until the end of 2002 that the good news came from Beijing:
Phoenix Information Station can land on the mainland.
However, before the two words "landing", two terrible words were added - "limited".
But the word "limited" is not the only enemy of Phoenix Satellite TV, because its greater enemy is the other two words:
era.
When the times want to slap you, it may not even say hello.
For example, those media giants who used to be fanned by the times one by one.
In 2010, the Washington Post Company sold its "Newsweek" for $1;
In 2011, the New Zealand Newspaper Association, which had been in operation for 132 years, was officially closed.
In 2012, the 67-year-old Frankfurt Review closed down;
In the same year, CNN set a record low in 21 years, with viewers falling from 15 million in 2008 to 580,000.
We no longer guard CCTV, Hunan Satellite TV... Watch the news broadcast, the weather forecast, the Golden Theater, "Hundred Forums", "Happy Base Camp"...
The times are still rising, but the people who record this era may no longer be the media giants of the past.
American media scientist Neil Bozeman once said:
There are two ways to make the cultural spirit wither:
One is to make culture a prison,
The other is to turn culture into a stage of entertainment to the death.
Unfortunately, what he said was later fulfilled.
Once upon a time, many literati like Ah Yi and Wang Luxiang who wrote for tv stations would laugh at themselves, saying that they were the bottom of the media industry, eating grass, but squeezing out ink.
Now, even the opportunity to squeeze ink is less.
TV shows are getting more and more lively, who will sink their hearts to make a 365-episode large-scale historical feature film "Miracle Under the Bright Moon - A Hundred Years of Hong Kong".
Even if it is done, who will see it?
Nowadays, phoenix satellite TV's ace programs such as "Three-in-One", "Eight Minutes of Opening", "Century Lecture Hall", and "Li Ao Has Something to Say" have been suspended successively.
In 2018, Li Ao passed away;
In 2020, Nguyen Tsit Shan passed away;
Cao Jingxing, Yang Jinlin, Liang Yongbin and other well-known hosts have left the phoenix one after another;
Dou Wentao imitated "Threesomes" on Youku and made a "Round Table Pie";
A few days ago, Tencent launched an overseas cultural experience travel talk show "Gong Gong Xing Tianxia", which was still dou Wentao and Xu Zidong of that year, but there was no longer the taste of that year;
Liang Wendao and others have also made a "look at the ideal"...
Who cares about Liu Changle's great ideal of that year - "running a world-renowned television station"?
It is undeniable that Phoenix's "one madman and 500 crazy people" have indeed worked hard and struggled.
Even in 2015, when Phoenix Satellite TV engaged in finance (the business scope includes insurance, financial management, investment and other fields), at the Phoenix Financial Summit and the press conference of the A round of financing, Chen Luyu, Dou Wentao, and Hu Yihu also came out together.
Other hosts have also made credit endorsements for Phoenix Financial on different occasions.
When someone asks, "Why does Phoenix do finance?" ”
Xu Gehui said: "Of course, it is to give you a better life!" ”
Wu Xiaoli said: "Serve the global Chinese and create a better society!" ”
Zheng Hao said: "Let's start a rich life together!" ”
Because of its strong appeal, Phoenix Financial has been online for only one year, the number of users has exceeded one million, and the transaction amount has exceeded 7 billion.
Liu Changle, who has been in the media for decades, may realize at this time:
It turns out that the business can still do this? Money can still be earned like this?!
I just didn't expect that 5 years later, netizens actually began a huge condemnation:
"Phoenix Finance pays back, Liu Changle pays back!"
"Phoenix Satellite TV Group defrauded me of my hard-earned money!"
It turned out that since September 11 last year, Phoenix Financial has suddenly removed the wealth management products, suspended the payment of principal and interest to the lender, and at the same time, in the past 20 days, the platform has not made any announcements, and the lenders cannot view the lending contract.
Panic began to spread among more than 70,000 lenders, and to this day, they are still condemning through various channels.
But their condemnation may not wait for a good result.
Today, the market value of Phoenix Satellite TV is only 5 billion, the market value of Phoenix New Media is only 1 billion yuan, and the balance of Phoenix's loans is as high as 9.77 billion yuan.
To tell the big truth, even if you use the way of equity pledge to repay the money, it is not enough to repay.
According to the announcement of Phoenix Satellite TV on February 10, they are considering appointing a new person to elect the position of chief executive officer, and the actual controller Liu Changle and his family management personnel may withdraw from the Phoenix Satellite TV Group.
In fact, as early as 2013, media tycoon Murdoch had completely escaped from Phoenix TV and abandoned his ambition to enter the Chinese television industry.
Liu Changle's ideal may have come to an end.
It's like the golden age of the media that's gone.
Although some people joked:
"If Phoenix Finance is willing to report on 'Phoenix Finance' in depth", its attention will return. ”
But everyone knows that that era will not come back...
-END-
bibliography:
1. "Deciphering the Phoenix", Shi Yonggang
2. "Phoenix Satellite TV These Years", Zhang Lin
3. Phoenix Private Handbook, Phoenix Satellite TV Holdings Limited
4. "Liu Changle: The Phoenix Folds Its Wings and the Old Horse Gets Lost," Ibn said
5. "Behind the 9.7 billion financial thunderstorm, Phoenix Satellite TV went to a "dangerous moment", chopping pepper entertainment investment
About author:Uncle Liang, founder of Million Users New Media, author of the best-selling book "Super Individual: Build Your Multidimensional Competitiveness", former Fortune 500 executive, founder of Lianghan Business School.