The Tyler Woodward Project

1. 36
   New

   Let’s Open a Video Store

   Aug 4, 2026 ·26 min

   Who killed the video rental store? Not Netflix, at least not the way you've heard it.

   Blockbuster grew to 9,094 stores on the back of an $800 million a year late fee business, 16 percent of their revenue. They dropped late fees in 2005 and posted a $57 million quarterly loss almost immediately. Then they built Total Access, a mail plus in-store hybrid that was better than anything Netflix had, and killed it themselves over a fight about the CEO's bonus. Hollywood Video went to Movie Gallery, which won the bidding war and went bankrupt twice carrying the debt. Dish bought the corpse for $320 million in 2011, promised 1,500 stores would stay open, and closed everything by 2013.

   I also get into what Friday night actually looked like. Two movies and a game, picking a PS2 title off the cover art, the carpet and popcorn smell, the clerk who'd tell you what to rent instead. Hollywood Video at 8025 W Hillsborough Ave in Town 'n' Country, Tampa, with Nick and James, taking turns on GTA until somebody got too many stars and died, eating James's dad out of hot dog buns and Spam.

   And we never escaped the fees. US households average around $69 a month on streaming now, and 68 percent of subscribers are on an ad tier.

   Also, seriously, who wants to open a store with me.

   Shout out to Friends Who Pretend, the actual play podcast from Nick and James: https://linktr.ee/friendswhopretend

   • Blockbuster 2000 10-Q, late fees at 16.3 percent of revenue - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001085734/000093066100002038/0001.txt
   • Q2 2005 loss after eliminating late fees - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna8883899
   • Antioco bonus fight and the end of Total Access - https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/how-netflix-almost-lost-the-movie-rental-wars-to-blockbuster.html
   • Dish wins Blockbuster at bankruptcy auction - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dish-network-agrees-to-acquire-blockbuster-assets-119311844.html
   • Dish closes all remaining stores - https://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/06/blockbuster-close.html
   • Deloitte streaming spend and ad tier adoption - https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/how-much-us-households-spend-streaming-video-deloitte-study-1236694151/

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2. 35

   Why Internet Radio Licensing Got Riskier

   Jul 28, 2026 ·18 min

   I ran my own internet radio station back in 2009, legally, through a licensing aggregator that later got caught skimming the royalties it was supposed to pay out. This episode looks at what happened to that station, and why the math on doing it again today is so much worse.

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3. 34

   How MySpace's HTML Bug Taught Us Web Design

   Jul 21, 2026 ·19 min

   "The MySpace About Me box bug let anyone override their entire profile with raw HTML and CSS, and that accidental hole taught a whole generation of teenagers how to build web pages. I dig into how the bug worked, why it stuck around, and what it did for self-taught web design.

   Then I trace what got lost when every platform after MySpace decided customization was a liability instead of a feature, and what the move from personal pages to locked-down templates cost the open web."

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4. 33

   A Personal Update: Why The Show Is Changing

   Jul 14, 2026 ·14 min

   Quick heads up, this one's a personal update on where the show is headed. No guests, no explainer topic, just me talking through some changes.

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5. 32

   What Happens When Your Radio STL Link Fails?

   Jul 7, 2026 ·19 min

   The studio to transmitter link is the one cable that can take a whole radio station off the air, and it is usually the cheapest fix that gets ignored. Everyone assumes the STL just works, until the day it doesn't, and when it fails none of your other equipment matters. I've seen systems from the 80s still humming along because nobody touched them, and when I ask about backup there usually isn't one, or there's one nobody trusts enough to actually use.

   In this episode I get into what actually breaks that link, how licensed microwave STL stacks up against IP based options, and why running a second path isn't a luxury anymore. Even a small internet circuit can work as real backup if you set it up right. I cover the risks of going cheap on internet service, why diverse backhaul matters, and why losing the link doesn't just cause a hiccup, it can put your whole station off air without anyone noticing until it's too late. If you're a broadcast engineer tired of gambling on your STL, or a manager who wants things to stay running when something breaks, this one's for you.

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Friday night meant driving to the video store and walking the aisles until something grabbed you, and if you were lucky a clerk who had actually seen everything on the shelf told you what to get. I get into what that ritual did that an infinite scroll of thumbnails can't, and why having every movie ever made somehow leaves me watching nothing. Streaming won on selection and lost on everything else.

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By the Numbers

Episodes

39

Of Audio

10.6h

Weekly Since

Jan 2026

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