April 13, 2001 10:00am
Naked News Names First Nude Male News Anchor and Launches Program II Link on NakedNews.com Web Site
Source: NakedNews.com
by: Company Press Release
(TORONTO) -- Naked News today named Lucas Tyler, age 33, as the site's first nude male anchor, and debuted Program II, which links visitors to the male edition of Naked News.
Tyler's first Webcast airs today on Program II and introduces ``Nude Views,'' a new segment with Tyler and Diane Foster in a ``he said, she said'' battle of wits over contemporary news topics.
Program I remains unchanged and features the site's original team of female Webcasters.
This past February, Naked News placed an ad in Toronto newspapers calling to hire men and women for broadcasting positions with the company. Tyler, who had recently resigned his job as an investment adviser with one of Canada's leading banks in order to pursue his creative side, saw the ad and responded.
One of more than 200 men who applied, Tyler auditioned Feb. 21, reading the news from a teleprompter, clad in a pair of shorts. He was called back March 27 for a second audition and performed nude. On April 2, Tyler accepted Naked News' offer to become its first male anchor.
``Naked News was the answer to my quest to do something that was both creative and challenging,'' explained Tyler, ``but after I auditioned, I thought that's the last I'll hear from them. To my surprise, they called and asked me to come back again, this time to do a reading in the nude.
``Getting naked was disconcerting at first,'' admitted Tyler, ``but the atmosphere was so professional that I quickly forgot that I was undressed and focused on speaking my lines. When the job offer came, I was floored. Training started right away and I've rapidly come to an appreciation of the subtleties in using the body as a communications tool, especially without a suit, desk or other props to hide behind.
``I'm proud to be the first man selected to be part of Naked News and its groundbreaking format.''
``Our female viewers clamored for a male segment,'' stated Kathy Pinckert, Naked News director of Public Relations. ``And with Program II, we are pleased to deliver. Lucas was selected as our first male anchor because he exudes just the right balance of poise, intelligence and style that make for an outstanding Webcaster.
``Women will definitely find him appealing, and men can admire him because he has a daring, risk-it-all attitude. With full frontal male and female nudity, Naked News is absolutely the program with nothing to hide.''
Naked News (www.nakednews.com) is produced in Toronto, and is free to online viewers. It is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, with nearly 6 million monthly unique visitors.
The program is the brainchild of Naked News Creative Director Fernando Pereira and Web Developer Kirby Stasyna, both from Toronto. They conceived the idea in summer 1998, began beta testing in May 1999, and went live in December 1999.
Naked News and its intellectual property is owned by eGalaxy Inc. and is managed by its fully owned subsidiary, eGalaxy Multimedia Inc. Naked Broadcasting Network is responsible for daily news production.
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