The Make Money Fast Hall of Humiliation

January 22nd Update: see the bottom of this page for new information!

I'd like everybody to take a look at this Web site:

http://www.z91.org

Billing itself as "Wichita's New Modern Rock Alternative" and promising "50 Minutes of Non-Stop Modern Rock," this radio station Web site seems pretty straightforward and what you might expect from a radio station Web site -- plenty of eye-popping graphics, catchy slogans, and in-your-face attitude.

But after a cursory glance, things seem a bit odd. The band names referenced -- Tragedy Ann, 100 Million Eyeballs, Blindside -- might seem unfamiliar to most modern rock fans. Then there's the names of the DJs: The Preacher's Wife. Preacher Boy.

That's right...Wichita's Z91 is a "Christian Rock" station.

I really have nothing against "Christian rock," at least as long as nobody tries to make me listen to it. I think I understand why some people listen to it: they like rock music, but have a hard time listening to established rock bands knowing that the performers might, during their recreational time, be abusing drugs and liquor, steering motor boats with appendages not normally associated with nautical endeavors (if you're not sure how this can be done, see the Pamela and Tommy Lee video for a good example), and engaging in other behavior which is specifically outlawed in the Bible. By contrast, they can listen to Christian rock and know that the performers share the same beliefs, values and morals that they do (although if this page contains accurate information, Amy Grant sounds like quite the party babe), and if said Christian rock artists happen to be singing about, well, Christ or some of his pals, then it can be an uplifting experience, as well. Fine with me. Whatever blows your skirt up. I personally think that religion should be left where it belongs: in mandated prayer sessions at public schools.

I respect the owners and management of Wichita's Z91, and while I have absolutely no reason to believe that they are involved with chain letters or any other dishonest sort of business (let me repeat: I have no reason to believe that Z91's owners or management are involved with chain letters or any other dishonest sort of business), they've done themselves a disservice by associating themselves with liars, spammers, and scam artists.

Well, to be more accurate, it's just one fellow who, when not working for Z91, is able to find the time to be a liar, spammer and scam artist at the same time: Mr. Ken Rucker.

A perusal of his personal home page paints a picture of a confident man who's serious about his religious faith but who also likes to have a good time. The outward appearance of a metal-oriented lifestyle and the rather intriguing hairstyle in an older photograph is explained:

I also used to play guitar. Played professionally for like 12 years. Played with alot of the bands that were on MTV back in 1990-91 and such. I don't play anymore... just got into other things. God told me, 'I didn't call you to play guitar, I called you to be an Evangelist.'

Ken is the music director and a DJ on Z91. On the A Letter From The Z91 Music Director page, he goes into more detail on his transition from a metalhead to a saver of souls:

I eventually wound up playing secular thrash metal in a very popular band, recorded two albums, hung out with secular MTV stars, started drinking, doing and dealing drugs, got involved in the night club scene and all the fleshly sin that follows. I ended up getting married to an incredible woman (which ended in divorce only 3 ½ years later due to the sin that we bathed in daily). At a point after divorce and a few very ungodly decisions, my world just crumbled. I finally decided, this is evil, this entire crowd is evil, my life is full of evil. I am just going to leave and start over, so I did. I stopped contact with everyone, and started over.

Well put. While I'll take him at his word regarding his claims to have left the world of recreational sex and drugs behind, it's unfortunate that his outlook toward business dealings doesn't appear to fit in with some people's idea of Christianity.

You see, Ken's using his web space to promote the "four reports" chain letter. The more clever readers will notice that following this link reveals a missing page -- Ken deleted it during the time I was researching this MMFoW, but I got him to send it to me via e-mail -- more on this a bit later on. While his version doesn't mention our buddy Christopher Erickson, it's the same variant that Internet users are sick to death of, with the same four reports which we made public last week.

But, let's wait -- maybe Ken's not a spammer, but just a bit misguided and poor at math. After all, his Web version -- I really wish you folks could have seen it -- had a little "no spamming" logo at the top of the chain letter, along with the following diatribe (HTML formatting his):

NOTICE: SOMEONE WHO HAS JOIN THIS OPPORTUNITY UNDER ME IS SENDING UNSOLICATED PERSONAL EMAIL WITH REFERENCES TO THIS PAGE IN THE EMAIL. THIS IS NOT MY DOING. IF YOU ARE VISITING THIS SITE AS A RESULT OF ANY EMAIL CAMPAIGN, DO NOT ACCUSE ME OF IT. I AM AS POWERLESS AS YOU ARE AT STOPPING THE ACTIONS. DO NOT EMAIL ME AND SAY "WELL, YOU SHOULD REMOVE YOUR WEB-PAGE", JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T AGREE WITH MY PAGE. IT IS MY SERVER AND I CAN POST ANYTHING LEGAL I WANT ON IT. PERSON CONTACTING MY ISP MAKING ACCUSATIONS TOWARD ME FOR OTHER PEOPLES MAIL CAMPAIGNS, COULD VERY POSSIBLY HAVE SLANDER CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST THEM. THINK TWICE. BLESSINGS!

So apparently somebody who saw his page and thought that it would be a neat idea to take part in his chain letter spammed the 'net but included a link to Ken's page. That is, they added their own name to the top of the list, but then referred recipients to Ken's original page, which doesn't contain the spammer's information.

Okay, so nobody said spammers were smart. The important thing that Ken wanted you to know is that Ken wasn't spamming ads for his web page. And, no matter what you do, don't accuse him of doing that, or he might sue you for slander.

Oh, man. I just love it when MMFers start throwing around the s-word!

Near the end of the page, he again makes it clear that he's not advertising his chain letter via e-mail. He wrote (HTML formatting his):

I am placing this on the Web only and not sending this out via e-mail. If you desire to market this via an e-mail list, feel free to cut and past this page into an email message. MAKE SURE AND REMOVE LINKS TO MY PAGES AND ANY OTHER SITES. I DO NOT WANT TO GET BLASTED BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE DECIDES TO SEND UCE. Obviously you will need to move the addressed to reflect your participation.

But wait. It seems that Ken isn't against spam itself; he'd just never choose to advertise his chain letter that way. At the bottom of the page, he added:

If you chose to market via e-mail, check out the cheapest prices on the web for e-mail addresses. http://www.egnaro.com/MailLists/.

That last link doesn't work -- it seems that egnaro.com doesn't seem to have connectivity right now. More on this in a moment. I should point out that while the copy that Ken sent me via e-mail this week didn't contain that last "I am placing this on the Web only..." portion, coincidentally, this week long-time MMF HoH reader Binky forwarded a chain letter she received via e-mail which apparently had its genesis (umm...so to speak) with Ken's Web page, as it includes the "I am placing this on the Web only..." text as well as the link to www.egnaro.com. In that version, Ken's moved from position #1 to position #2, and slot #1 is held by:

Of course, there's not really a company called "Giagops Inc.," but the phone book does reveal that address to belong to a fellow named "Leroy Hawaryat," so by comparison "Giagops" isn't that funny-sounding. You can Giagops Inc. at (516)334-6573. Mr. Hawaryat also owns this lovely page which he's been advertising on those "free classifieds" sites all over the 'net, and can be reached at tutu2@ix.netcom.com or at freebee@pb.net.

Oh, sorry. We were talking about Ken Rucker. Anyway, on Ken's chain letter Web page, he then enticed us with:

You may also want in this opportunity http://www.compdrs.com/Mega/ As It Is Doing VERY Well!

That link took surfers to a Mega$Nets page. Alas, it's now gone as well. It was the "classic" version, including the "some of today's best whiz-kids have tried to break the system and failed" claim which was pretty much pointed out to be patent horse doody by my Hacking Mega$Nets page as well as the more mainstream media.

A visit to the home page of Ken's domain reveals that Ken also hosts the http://www.egnaro.com/MailLists/ page. That link looks just adorable above that "No Spamming" logo at the bottom of the page. Okay, so Ken wouldn't personally spam himself and is sufficiently anti-spam that he places an anti-spam logo on his site. But he hosts a site which sells e-mail lists. Fine; perhaps he's adopted an "anything goes" hosting policy. That would certainly explain why he also hosts the http://www.dailysportspicks.com/ site, which advertises a service via which you can dial a 1-900 number and, for a charge of only $19.00, be informed that the Raiders will lose in such a spectacular way that you might wonder if some of the team members actually think that they're supposed to be playing baseball.

Okay, so those two sites don't seem very Christian-like when compared to another site which he hosts, http://www.wolm.org. WOLM is the World of Life Church, in which Ken holds a high rank. This is, after all, Wichita, which only in 1982 got indoor plumbing and paved roads, so perhaps Ken's domain is the only game in town for Web hosting, so he's hosting them all, good or evil -- but that's as far as it goes.

But if we go to the Web Designs By Ken page on his server, we see that Ken actually designed the "Daily Sports Picks" site.

Oh yeah, Ken also lied when he wrote that he was placing his chain letter on the Web only and not sending it out via e-mail.

This was revealed by dropping a note to Ken at his krucker@compdrs.com address. I got a reply back the very same day. Ken sent it from his mailbox at the radio station, ken@z91.org, where he's known as "Ken Mann."

(Adopting on-air personality names is quite common in the radio business. It could be worse; he could have called himself something like "Mancow.")

Here's his reply. I've boldfaced the crucial part. The lines beginning with ">" are my original questions::

>Ken,
>
>Neat page! Just a couple of questions if you don't mind:
>
>1. That "four reports" money-making plan sounds intriguing. Honestly,
>how much money have you made from it?

I sent out about 20,000 emails about 5 months ago, and then just left that page up. I think I have made about 40 bucks so far but, have not gotten any orders for report 2, 3, or 4 yet. Not been totally pleased but, I spent 20 and made 40 and still got orders for 2,3, & 4 to recieve. I am sure I could do well if I actually advertised. The same as any business, even a pizza business franchise.

>
>2. How much money have you made from the "MegaNets" program?

Not much. I think about 40 bucks. A lady in above me made pretty good money. Good idea... think I got in to late.

>3. I tried your link to www.egnaro.com/MailLists/ but it doesn't seem
>to be working. Any idea if they're still around?
>

See http://www2.southwind.net/~ctraffas

>Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you!
>

Blessings.

Note that Ken has a habit of adding "Blessings" to his writings, even when he's threatening the world at large with a slander suit. Once Ken's seen this site, I eagerly await e-mail from him that goes something like "I hate you! I hope you die! I condemn you to hell! You are evil! Blessings."

Hmmm. $40 from Mega$Nets, the program that was, according to Ken's Web site, "Doing VERY well."

It was around this time that Ken's MMF page went away. I dropped him a note asking if it had really been taken down or if I'd just mistyped the URL and Ken wrote back:

Yea, I nuked it because I already have anough people for report #1 and someone hyperlinked to my page on a spam email message so, I was getting flames from thousands of people who thought I spammed them. Here's a copy of it. Blessings, Ken

Yeah. Flames. I see. As opposed to flames from those 20,000 people he spammed five months ago.

I've used this phrase before, but I've never meant it more than now: I really don't know what to make of this guy.

Well, he's removed the chain letters and the scams from his Web site, although he's still cheerfully sending out the "reports" letter on demand. I think there may be hope for him after all, although it will probably help his reputation as a man of God if he gets rid of that "sports picks" page on his site (isn't gambling a sin?) and drops the nasty habit of lying when there's a profit to be made. After all, he's a programming director for a Christian radio station, not a product marketing manager, for crying out loud.

Let's pray for him -- I'm sure he'd do the same for you.

And now, from the home office in Wichita, Kansas, here are my personal top ten favorite Christian Rock song titles, from Z91's own playlist. I swear, all of these song and band names are absolutely for real!

10.	18 BULLET HOLES (UM.. SURE JETHROE) by the band WATERDEEP
9.	PERFECT NIGHT FOR A HANGING by TOURNIQUET
8.	THIS IS NOT MY HOME by THREE CROSSES (only because it sounds like a Talking Heads song)
7.	MY CAR MAKES ME SIN by SILAGE
6.	DAVE'S NOT HERE by T-BONE
5.	DEMON EXECUTER by T-BONE
4.	CRAZY HISPANIC by T-BONE
3.	HIDE THE BEER, THE PASTOR'S HERE by THE SWIRLING EDDIES
2.	I BLEW UP THE CLINIC REAL GOOD by STEVE TAYLOR and my personal #1 favorite...
1.	QUESTIONS by THE CIRCUMSISED!

January 22nd: I am genuinely impressed -- Ken Rucker took the time to write a rebuttal to this week's MMFoW. If you follow the link to his original chain letter at http://www.compdrs.com/krucker/make50.htm, you'll see it. It documents a conversation which a reader of this site had with Ken, as well as Ken's explanation of why he decided to get into chain letter.

Ken began by quoting a letter written to Ken by a reader of this site. It's the one which starts with "I wanted to let you know that at [ URL ] you are the featured person for your involvement in the Make Money Fast letter that you sent out." Ken apparently thinks that I'm said author, even though, in his e-mail note to Ken, he wrote that "it truly hurts to see someone who doesn't know Jesus [umm, that would be yours truly, I guess] so ready to point out anyone to confirm his own biases." MMFers mistaking my readers for me has happened several times before. Apparently an initial reaction of MMFers (Carl Jung would call this the "denial" phase), upon learning about the MMF HoH, is that I'm some crank who, after writing an MMFoW feature, creates multiple e-mail accounts for the express purpose of sending the MMFer e-mail. Often they're surprised that the MMF HoH is an actual public site that has actual readers. In fact, while this site doesn't have the traffic of, say, the Netscape home page or probably even this site, each MMF of the Week is read by a couple of thousand different people during the week after publication.

I kind of like the guy, and I appreciate his efforts to stand up and tell his side of the story. I had a few problems with his page, though, the first of which is the general tendency of my eyes to glaze over whenever I read tracts that are sprinkled with Biblical quotes to back up the point being made. While the Bible does include lots of good stuff ranging from timeless, universal things like How To Be a Nice Person all the way to stuff of rather ephemeral relevance like how to keep your camels from getting pregnant on long trips through the desert, its sheer size means that one can use it to back up virtually any argument. Regarding the topic at hand, I think it's put pretty well in Job Chapter 19, Verses 5 through 6 (go ahead and look it up):

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net about me.

But, of course, Ken might retort with a quote from Acts 8:33:

In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation?

And, he can take comfort in Sir. 2:5:

For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.

See? Your eyes are glazing over! It's not just me!

Ken cleared up his position on e-mail spamming:

The idea of purchasing email addresses and sending messages via email, is no different morally than buying a mailing list and sending it via U.S. mail. I get ads in the mail everyday and none of it I am interested in. I would imagine people yelled loud when they started getting junk mail in the U.S. mail at first too.

This is, of course, precisely the same argument that professional spammers use: it's just like postal junk mail. Just hit the DELETE key. Never mind that you're paying to receive it; that's your problem. Buy a bigger hard drive and a faster Internet connection.

Ken then goes on to insinuate that the majority of the headaches suffered by system administrators is not from the spam itself, but by people who complain about spam. Really.

Anyway, whenever I cover an MMFer whose output includes a hypocritical mix of pyramid scams and deeply held religious faith, it always results in some interesting e-mail. In my musings about the appeal of Christian rock, I wrote that I believed it was because the lifestyle of many artists conflicted with the values of many Christians. Reader B.T. replied:

Actually it has very little to do with that. I don't presonally listen to the hard rock Christian music, but I do like other kinds of Christian music. (Jars of Clay, Steven Curtis Chapman, DC Talk, etc) The reason I listen to Christian music isn't because I focus on the secular musicians lifestyle, first of all it is because music was created by God to glorify Him. So why should I listen to anything that doesn't glorify him? Secondly, why would I want to listen to anything that preaches a lifestyle contrary to what Christ shows us?

True story: Jars of Clay is a Christian band which had a song this year which was a mild crossover success on many rock / modern rock stations. In fact, I liked it quite a bit musically and almost bought the album. It wasn't until Billy Graham was doing his cross-country tour with musicians in tow that I realized that Jars of Clay was a Christian band. By that time the song had dropped from radio playlists, but I happened to hear it last week when I was driving in to work. I made an effort to pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and -- I'll be darned -- the song is about the great flood! I still think it's a nice song, even though it doesn't explain how the marsupials got on the boat.

Reader D.S. wrote:

Being both a Christian and an avid fan of your site over the last year, I appreciate how you handled Z91 in this week's MMFoW. I don't agree with their 'eXtreme' Christianity, as the only extreme Christianity Jesus practiced was telling the religious leaders of His country to their faces that they were hypocrites. Well, you could call raising from the dead extreme, but that's a different story."

From the Top 10 playlist that you compiled, the only song I recognized was 'I blew up the clinic real good' by Steve Taylor. The man is known for his satirical lyrics. Some other song titles by Steve Taylor that you might enjoy are:

This Disco (Used to be a Cute Cathedral)
I Want to be a Clone
Jim Morrison's Grave
Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better
Jung and the Restless
Meltdown (at Madame Tussaud's)

His greatest hits album in 1988 was titled, "The Best We Could Find".

Just thought I would pass this along.