The Spies Channel

Under development the Spies Channel will be the home for adventure, suspense, intrigue and challenges, the hallmark of the world of Espionage Entertainment. From the heroes of the black and white movies of the 1940's to the Bourne and Bond movies of today the fascination of fictional Secret Agents has been at the top of audience interests. But Spies also chronicles the successes and failures of intelligence gathering through the ages. Alan Simpson is seen here with a real intelligence agent, Werner Jurtezko and Barbara Feldon, or Agent 99 from the TV series "Get Smart".

It will be the place to learn about the real world threat of espionage in the workplace as well as on the battlefield. The consequences of espionage have been thrust into the media spotlight with huge fines on the New England Patriots, and the McLaren racing team. There are millions more out there stealing industrial and trade secrets and costing us Trillions of dollars.

Spies Channel continues it's development creating programs, interviews and movies from around the world. Old favorites such as the Spies Cafe series are being redeveloped for new audiences. The Spies Club series, slanted at a younger audience is targeted even further as the High School Spies Club, with a group of High School students saving the planet from unscrupulous corporate villains. The very popular Spy Games continues it's development of role playing games, and of course Spies Train and Spies Cruise are searching for locations and plots.

Spy School is launching an awareness program for the workplace, and sports arena with awareness stickers featuring our Spies logo. This reminds everyone that we are constantly targeted by spies.

Join with us in building Spies, the Spies Channel.

The Long Road - Creating the Spies Channel

by Alan Simpson

The Spies Channel is working with studios, broadcasters, museums, authors, collectors and the leading experts in the world of espionage, and military intelligence.

The Spies Channel is the media link for the many collections of artifacts and displays from the World Wars, and the Cold War, as well as the many organizations dedicated to military operations worldwide.

Many former Soviet Bloc countries have been very forthcoming with offers of access, and resources to show espionage successes are not just one sided. This makes for interesting interviews and discussions.

Throughout the last five years former Secret Agents have been visiting Washington, DC to tell their story of the world of espionage to Alan Simpson and other interviewers for Spies Channel.

Many of these interviews were carried by print magazines around the world, including the story of Werner Jurtesko whose interview was profiled in the Eye Spy intelligence magazine.

The search also is underway to find lost espionage programs from television stations and independent producers. Long lost spy movies, television and radio programs are being discovered in archives around the world.

The Beginning

In the early 1990's in Orlando, Florida a group of Film and TV producers sat down together and discussed the need for a satellite television channel dedicated to the Spy genre, featuring secret agents, espionage and both fictional and documentary programs. The meeting was jokingly referred to as "Star Search for Spies" and the tongue in cheek photograph taken for the record.

The cost of leasing property near the major attractions was prohibitive, and the audiences were tiring of the worn Bond movies and weak plots based on secret agents. The Cold War was over and everyone just wanted to forget espionage, intelligence and conflicts. It was realized that there was a huge pool of programs, and untold stories out there needing a home.

In 1998 many of the programs were given their own websites in preparation for the launch. Plans were made to create an analog satellite television channel and The Spies Channel was announced in February 2001 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where many of the Spies Cafe programs were held. The move to Washington, DC was seen as an ideal springboard for developing the programming and many retired military and intelligence officers co-operated in developing the concept. The announcement was carried to the Intelligence Community by the AFIA Newsletter of 26th February 2001:

"SPIES CAFE" AND "SPY SCHOOL." According to its creator, Alan Simpson, his "Spies" project is the largest MEDIA venture into the worlds of espionage and intrigue, creating over 20 websites, TV and Radio, as well as adventure weekends, theme cruises, theme trains, clubs, and merchandising such as Spies Zone, the mall store, and Spies Books, the online book store. "Spy School" is the online learning resource. As it develops participants will be able to explore the craft, and learn the basics, enabling participation in the games. (It is also the name of the TV series from LTN, currently in pre-production.) (Macartney)

Unwelcome Delay

The attack of 9/11 put an end to the plans for widespread launch of the broadcast television Spies Channel for late 2002. Investors did not want to risk a project that could be remotely connected with terrorists.

Fortunately for us all the well funded International Spy Museum opened on July 19th, 2002 with massive public financial assistance from Washington, DC. This more than anything persuaded the public, and potential investors that entertainment based on espionage does not attract al Qaeda trainees!

The Spies media project was still very much alive on the Internet and in 2006 it was decided to move ahead towards creating a digital channel for the many long standing Spies programs, including Spies Cafe, Spy School and Spy Games. In 2007 SpiesChannel.com became available and was added to the Spies network of websites.

The rollout continues on the Internet, with live events in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York, in preparation for a digital entertainment channel, and associated merchandising.

Behind the scenes audio and video interviews, location filming and research into intelligence gathering, and espionage is moving ahead, as it has since 2001. At the same time the support material for Spies Club and Spy School is being updated and will shortly be available directly, and on Amazon and eBay.

Distribution and production technology is improving all the time, and the goal to launch a satellite and cable channel dedicated to both fictional and documentary works on espionage, games, competitions, interviews as well as behind the scenes of exhibitions, and spy based productions becomes closer every day