Today’s “What in the World” is a little different from previous articles.  Today, I’m putting on my suspenders, doing my best Larry King impression and sitting down to interview someone we are all familiar with: Matt Hochberg.  Matt is the webmaster of studioscentral.com, host of the WDWToday podcast, and owner of several other Disney-MGM Studios related sites.  I caught up with Matt during a recent trip and this is a transcript of our discussion:

Glenn: Thank for you taking the time to interview with me – and unlike Barbara Walters, I will try my best to not make you cry too much during this interview. No promises.

Matt: [laughter] I appreciate it, Glenn.

G: First Matt, why don’t you briefly discuss how you became a Disney-phile – was it something that happened when you were a kid or were you a little older before you became a real fan?

M: Well, I did go to Walt Disney World as a kid and my family and I liked it a lot.  My family even bought a time share down there off-property.  I would say we went down there either once a year or every other year, but that wasn’t my family’s exclusive vacation destination.  I guess it wasn’t until college where I really began to enjoy Walt Disney World as much as I do now.  I went down with a buddy of mine (who ended up absolutely hating his entire time there) – and had a really good time.  There was something about it; I couldn’t get enough of it. 

When I returned home, I was on the internet and found a site that provided a deal on website registration.  I thought about what I could register for and what kind of site I wanted; it literally took days.  I thought to myself “I had a good time at WDW, why don’t I write a WDW website…” That really got me into WDW.  The more I got into making this website, the more I really enjoyed WDW.

G: What are some examples that made you appreciate what WDW had to offer when you were in college compared to when you were a child?

M: I think what it was as a kid is that I was too timid to try new things.  Characters scared the living hell out of me.  I didn’t know why anyone would want to go near them.  While I was in college, I was impressed with WDW’s attention to detail.

This was also a few years after the first Pixar movies.  I really fell in love with Toy Story and still think it’s a great movie.  Even before that, the Lion King came out; my friends and I in middle school or high school quoted lines from the Lion King because it was so well-written. 

I also gained an appreciation for Epcot.  I fell in love with the Studios.  I hated the Animal Kingdom (but nothing has changed since then).  These things really allowed me rediscover WDW.

G: When did studioscentral.com launch?

M:  I registered the domain name on March 26, 2002 and the website launched in April 21, 2002.  I was all bright-eyed and bushy tailed about it.  Let me say though that it was far, far, FAR from complete, but I was comfortable enough that I had sufficient content when I launched it.  

So that was a little less than a month.  But being a college student, what else did I have to do?  Being the nerd that I was, I went home and worked on things, hammered out the details and created content.  At the time, I wanted to get the basics done.  I had reviews for all of the attractions and I had basic reviews for some of the restaurants when I launched.

G:  While you were making the content before launch, did you make a special trip down to WDW for research, or were your reviews based on recollection?

M: A lot was based on recollection.  Back then, I never thought that anyone would go down to WDW by ones self.  It just seemed weird at first. 

I didn’t make my first “research trip” until Feb. 2003.  While I was creating the site I was basing it on my own recollection of things and going to other websites to refresh my memory on subjects like official names, etc. that I could not remember.  

Writing reviews of attractions was based on what I felt about that attraction.  Some attractions that I hadn’t either done or couldn’t remember for the life of me was a different story. This was pre-YouTube and it would have been a lot easier with that site back then to experience those attractions I couldn’t remember or had not experienced. 

G:  Now that you’ve been running the site for almost five years now, do you find the process easier because you have all this experience, or is it more difficult because the site is more complicated?

M: [laughter]  There was a point after I first launched for about a year where I was in the “What haven’t I gotten” mode.  I would have to include new pages now and then about something I had forgotten to comment on.  I was always trying to plug up the holes. Then I reached the point, either in 2003 or 2004, where I realized that I had finished the encyclopedia side of it.  Then what I decided to do was refine the site.  I wanted to go back to the stuff I already had because I wasn’t happy with it – usually because it was a placeholder so that I could get as much content up as possible at first.  I went into the refinement stage for a couple of years. In the past year or so, it really has been about staying on top of things. 

The beginning was harder because it was daunting.  There is so much ahead of you – I have to write this, I have to write that.  There was a huge stack of stuff to do.  Now, it depends on what time of year it is.    Right now, from about February through about June we’re entering what I call Star Wars season. Information about Star Wars Weekend is going to start flying in.  We also had ESPN the Weekend last week.  After June and Star Wars Weekend, the summer time is pretty quiet and things die down until news comes out about Super Soap Weekend in the late summer/early fall. 

G:  I wanted to ask about the site administration, specifically about the people that help – I mean, myself excluded -  

M: [laughter] Employee of the month, right?

G: Exactly!  Anyway, can you talk about some of the people that help the site like the moderators or any other contributors?

M: Sure.  First of all, you do help me out tremendously with providing content.  The best people to provide content are the people you don’t ask to do it.  The content side of things has really been my emphasis and goal for the past year. 

On the forums side of things, there are a lot of people who have contributed.  The biggest contributors really came at the beginning of the site.  I’d have to say that the first and foremost, there was Josh, who is a moderator.  He joined the site two days after the site and has been around ever since.  I also I have another moderator Jeanne.  I’d also be remiss if I did not mention my fiancé, Marissa who was a user first and is now a moderator. I always told her that the site was just a front for meeting women. 

G: [laughter] I’m sure she appreciated that.

M: [laughter] Yea.  Whenever I said that, she would reply by saying “Well it’s time to take the site down then!”   

All the moderators help with two major aspects: they direct users and fight spam.  If someone posts something on the wrong forum they direct them to the proper place or if a user has a basic question, they can answer it.  But really their primary mission in life is to deal with spammers and they help me out tremendously. 

There have also been a number of other contributors.  In 2003 or 2004, the site had only been up for about a year or so, and I definitely did not have an ego about the site…not that I have one now…

G: Mmm-hmm.

M: [laughter] You’re fired, Glenn.  Anyway, do you remember the old Disney Magazine?

G: I do, yes.

M:  It came out four times a year.  It was a great publication.  I remember that there was an issue that came out about the Studios.  Specifically, obscure pictures of the Studios like our Picture of the Week.  Someone I had never met emailed me and asked if I had seen the issue.  I replied that I hadn’t seen it because I did not have a subscription.  About a day later, he emails me back and says that he contacted the magazine, told them who I was and that they gave me a lifetime subscription.  And I was like, “Wow!”  Clearly I wasn’t the only person they were giving the magazine to because they went out of business a year later.  [laughter]  But there have been so many people that have contributed to the site and have made my life infinitely easier.  I wish I had enough time to list them all.  It’s great that I have had and continue to have so much help. 

G:  This portion of the interview I wanted to talk about the future of studioscentral.com, for example, the fifth anniversary of the site is coming.  Can you talk about some of the stuff that you have planned?  Will you have a table for the site at Mousefest?

M: I would have loved to have had a table at Mousefest this past year, but I don’t have anyone to do it except for me [laughter].  They need me for the podcast, so there isn’t anyone to man the table.  Do you know what I mean?  Hint hint, Glenn.  Time to go to Disney World.

G: [laughter]

M:  For the fifth year coming up, one thing that we can look forward to is that there is going to be a very, very special event at Mousefest 2007.  studioscentral.com will be at the forefront of it.  So if you have an appreciation for the Studios, you are going to love this special event that we will be holding.  I’ll have an announcement for that sometime soon. 

Other than that, my real goal is content.  That is what a lot of people enjoy and it works hand and hand with bringing people to the site and then they can hopefully join the forums and the community.  Creating new content five days a week is what I am looking at and that is my goal every week.  On a good week, you’ll have your wonderful column on Monday, then I pose Ask Matt on Tuesday, I do Studios Weekly on Wednesday (and depending on the week that can be easy or hard), Thursday and Friday I have to rack my brain for something else to come up with.  I’m hoping we can plug some other people into those spots. 

I really want to grow the community.  I’ve met such wonderful people on the site and I just want to keep that going.

G:  Excellent.  In regards to the Mousefest announcement, you’ve heard it here first folks!  When can we expect a formal announcement? 

M:  To be honest, I don’t know.  I’d expect it would be within the next month or two at the most.  Its going to something that, even you Glenn…living all the way in Hawaii…will want to come see.

G: Yea, I definitely want to go to Mousefest…I’ve never been.  This past year I missed Mousefest by a week so I was not pleased. We’ll see what happens though. 

Since I don’t want this interview to get too long…I wanted to rap it up James Lipton style and ask you a few simple questions. 

M:  Sure.

G: Matt…if you were an attraction at Walt Disney World…what would you be?

M: [laughter] I know what the answer would be; I would be Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Play It.  I’d have to bring myself back from the dead first though.  I just love that attraction so much.  I mean Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n Rollercoaster are great attractions but Millionaire had such energy to it.  It was different, it was fun, and you could win a cruise…you can’t get better than that.  There’s no where else you are going to win a cruise.  I couldn’t get enough it.  I was almost bummed when I got in the hotseat because I knew for the next 30 days I would be ineligible to play again because of the rules.

G:  The rest of these questions can be answered with one or two words if you’d like.  Favorite ride outside of the Studios?

M: [45 seconds pass – as a result of being stumped by my question] I’ll say Splash Mountain. 

G: That’s mine favorite attraction as well…I mean…outside of the Studios of course [loud coughing]

M: [laughter]

G:  Favorite live show on property?

M: Beauty and the Beast.  The production value is excellent.  The Voyage of the Little Mermaid is a close second.  I love how they do that puppet thing in the dark. 

G: And finally, while I think I know your answer already, favorite fireworks show?

M:  [laughter] Actually you may be surprised.  I think Fantasmic! is good, but if I could only watch one it would have to be Illuminations.

G:  That’s all I have right now, Matt.  Thanks a lot, and maybe we’ll discuss your podcast and your other sites next time.  Until next time, this is Glenn Sonoda for studioscentral.com, signing off.

Agree with what I said? Disagree? Have a story to share sparked by this column? Share your own idea by posting a comment below.