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On the Road with Tony Colombini
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Oct 21, 2024
Welcome to JC Whitney's "On The Road" Podcast! Stay ahead of the curve, hit "Subscribe" and keep up with the latest! On this episode of "On the Road," we're joined by Tony Colombini. He stopped by to talk about his publication (Blacktop Magazine), the classic cars that inspired him, and the automotive subcultures that he loves. Follow Tony on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BlacktopTV #TonyColombini #BlackTopMagazine #BlackTopMedia 00:00 - Introduction 00:25 - Origins of Blacktop Media 02:00 - Inspiration for Blacktop Media 04:06 - Angel’s Mentor 04:47 - Tony’s Motivation 05:29 - Kid Wrencher 05:52 - Standout Stories 07:27 - Car Culture Today 08:12 - What’s Next for Blacktop Media? 08:56 - Motor Minute
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello and welcome to J.C. Whitney's On the Road
0:09
My name is Angel Salabellin. I'm your host, and today we are joined by Tony Colombini
0:15
How you doing, Tony? Good, Angel. How are you? I'm doing well, sir. Great, great to see you. I got you on here as the founder of Blacktop Media and Blacktop Magazine
0:23
Yep. Yes, sir. All right, how did you get into all of that? Well, it's really more of a passion, you know
0:30
I was doing graphic design for a whole bunch of different companies back in the early 90s, mid-90s
0:36
And I had a business coach who said, you know, you should really focus on something you're passionate about
0:40
I said, well, I'm passionate about the automotive industry. So I just devoted everything, all my resources up to do work for the automotive industry
0:49
And thinking of a name, how to rebrand my studio and all, and I just thought, well, we do everything on the blacktop
0:56
So, let's call it black top. So in my mind, when I saw it, Blacktop was like synonymous with, hey, bringing this stuff that you may not know about in this culture, and I'm bringing it to the top
1:07
Right. Where you highlight a lot of custom car culture, custom motorcycle culture
1:13
We're talking tattoo shops. Am I missing anything? Who else is in there
1:17
Well, and also a lot of the cultures. So there's those custom culture artists and pin up models and that whole scene
1:24
Cars, bikes, everything. People like the magazine because it has. a little bit of everything in it, you know, like that
1:30
So if it was on the dirt, it didn't belong on the blacktop, it didn't go in blacktop
1:34
That's it. I'm with it. I'm with it. Your network highlights on manufacturers, builders, restores, some low brow culture
1:43
some tattoo shops. We briefly just talked about classic cars, motorcycles, that custom culture
1:50
Hot rods. And you've got 25 years of design and marketing experience
1:55
You've taught design. and you've brought all of that to your online publication
2:00
What do you look for when you're out and about and you find something to put on your publication
2:06
Well, that's a great question, Angel. What I look for most is that story, you know
2:10
that unique story, because we all have stories to tell. And I think about the people who come in
2:16
or I see at car shows and so forth, I ask them about their vehicle
2:20
and then they usually get into a little bit of a story about their family or it's been with their dad or grandpa
2:26
and then they got it now. So I'm always looking for a unique story to find and to highlight
2:31
Nice. If it's a person, a company, or a car. In today's day and age, we talk about NPCs, non-player characters
2:39
Oh, okay. Right? And so, like, the thing about walking through the world, right, you don't want to be an NPC
2:45
You don't want to be a non-player character. You know, you want to be active
2:49
You want to go out there. You want to do something. You want to, you know, play in the game that we call life
2:54
Right, right. And I feel like your online publication, you know, allows people to see, hey, man, maybe this isn't what everybody else is doing
3:04
This isn't what the Jones are doing, but it's still pretty cool. And there is a culture behind it
3:09
And it is welcoming if, you know, if you want to jump in
3:13
Yeah. And so that's what I, in my opinion, what I got from Blacktop magazine, it was kind of like a peeking glass into a world that I hadn't gone into
3:22
Right. Well, we have to differentiate ourselves always, right? And so what I like to find is those subcultures
3:28
So, yeah, the automotive industry is huge. And I've seen other episodes of this where you're talking about people who are with big publications or whatnot
3:36
and the general automotive aesthetic. But I like to dig down into the custom culture, hot rods, the guys that are riding their bikes across the country
3:45
or chopping up their bikes doing something different with it. And the artists that just struggle every day to live their passion, creating these really incredible
3:54
piece of work but they're not considered high art that would go in a museum
3:58
And so it fun to share those stories and people seem to dig it Oh yeah I dig it It super cool Yeah it is super cool I work for a guy named Jimmy and he from a long time ago old school guy
4:12
he moved to California from Virginia where, you know, I'm from, but he stole a motorcycle and he stole gas the whole entire way across the country, you know
4:23
Jimmy was one of those guys. He's a really cool guy, really, you know, a really great guy
4:27
And a thief. Yeah, but it's okay, yeah, you know, that story was all right
4:33
And for me, you know, that story was, was, it didn't define him, you know, because I knew
4:40
who's a good guy, but it was like, hey, man, you're living life, you're out here. I'm sure nobody got hurt, you know, you're okay
4:46
Yeah, yeah, ever since when I was young in my 20s in the 1980s, I'd meet these people
4:52
in the restaurant industry and people who walked across Canada. I remember meeting this guy one time
4:58
and just hearing that story. And then that kind of inspired me and my friend to say, hey, let's get together and buy a couple of ultralights
5:04
and fly across the United States. And we never did because you got to have money to do that
5:08
Yeah, right. But, you know, just that it inspires you. These stories inspire you
5:12
So I want to do that. I want to inspire people, especially younger people, yeah, in this automotive industry
5:18
Inspiration is so valuable. I mean, how sad would things be without inspiration
5:24
Yeah. We'd be dead. Yeah, it would be pointless. In my opinion
5:28
Yeah. We do a series called Kid Wrencher, where we bring those stories about people who bring their kids or grandkids or whatnot or nieces and nephews into the garage with them or taking the car shows, that sort of thing
5:40
It just shows it. You know, we've got to celebrate that. Yeah, you have to
5:45
Family, friends, community. We're all here sharing the space together, man. That's right
5:50
That's it. Do you have any stories that you've covered that stand out to you the most and why
5:56
You know, it's interesting because I've covered stories with celebrities in this industry
6:01
and they get a lot of attention, but it's more of the stories that I like that are, you know, the regular guy, you know
6:09
that's doing something different, building the car, going through those struggles and that sort of thing
6:14
I think what I need to do next is bring some of my own stories from my past that inspired me into the magazine
6:22
So that's probably more of a next realm going on. I think about my uncle who's only 10 years older than I am and when I was seven years old
6:31
he painted a 64 GTO competition orange with black lace stripes in our garage and we weren't
6:37
car people my dad had a four car garage he wasn't a car guy but he we had the space and my uncle
6:42
Doug said hey can I paint my car in here and when I saw him doing that especially with the lace I was like wow that's cool that's something different and so you know that inspired
6:51
me to get always and I had two older brothers too so we're always always in the cars in the 60s and 70s and that sort of thing
7:16
other stories that inspire me are these guys that have their car they've had since high school just recently I did a story of a guy who had a 67 Camaro he had since high school and it's just beautiful you see it come down the street go how that really sits nice nice stance to it and everything and then I go to talk to him and he's telling me this story it's like you would have never know if you wouldn't have gone up to him talk to him appreciated what this you know it's just another Camaro
7:24
Yeah, right, right. Yeah, if you would have just me like, whatever. Yeah. I think that's what's happening a lot more of now
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I feel like the personalization of cars, right? That history of cars, the way people just, look, if you're going to drive your car fast
7:37
drive it fast with some purpose, don't just dog it around. Right, right
7:41
Like, you know, come on, drive it fast with a little bit of purpose. And I feel like people have lost that connection to cars in that sense, right
7:49
It's more of like just like a means to get somewhere instead of... That's the challenge today
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you know is that people think of their car as a utilitarian tool it's not
7:58
necessarily an expression of self of you who you are so personalization is always important yeah and that what I like to cover and how they make that different I can see that I can see that And I could appreciate you doing that Yeah So what next What next for Black Top Media for Tony Columbini
8:15
What's next for you, sir? Well, we were printing a quarterly issue of Blacktop magazine until 2022
8:24
And at the end of 2022, I realized, you know, people aren't picking up. They love it
8:27
They think it looks beautiful and all that. But then, you know, to pay $10 or what I don't know, it's just, it's just hard
8:33
form. So I decided to go to quit the printing end of it and I was at the time doing also a monthly newsletter email newsletter and I thought well if I'm not doing that let's bump this up to weekly so now we're doing a weekly email newsletter and since I did that the website traffic is tripled. Nice
8:50
So I can see now with that much traffic what people are interested in. Yeah yeah yeah so earlier this year we started this thing called Motor Minute and it's really I go to a car show I see a car like that 67 Camaro. Yeah, I'll just have
9:03
have my iPhone. I used to bring all these cameras and stuff with me to the show
9:06
Now I just, my iPhone, I take pictures and video, walk around the car. They speak into the voice recorder on there, and then I edit it all up
9:14
And in a minute, you get to hear this quick story about a guy's car. And those have been a huge hit
9:20
Yeah, I actually crossed over a couple of those, and a couple of gentlemen were just
9:24
talking about their cars. And I was like, yeah, yeah, this is what it's about. Yeah. What I got from that experience was like, oh, okay, Tony's putting me into Tony
9:33
Tony's vision, Tony's perspective, and I'm experiencing this story of the car with Tony, almost like in real life
9:44
Right. That idea is great, and if you can incorporate some kind of like VR, right
9:51
Like it may even be weird, but VR or AR, augmented reality and record an augmented reality
9:57
Interesting. And then you can provide this augmented reality experience to people where like, okay, yeah, I mean
10:03
may not have been able to show up to Southern California for that car show with all those sick whips out there
10:09
But Tony gave me an AR experience and I got to hear the guy's story firsthand. Cool
10:15
I like that idea because I'm not one to shy away from technology or doing something different
10:20
I created my first website in 96 and that was really early in the web and that was called
10:25
Carshows.com, a car-hyphen shows.com. And I remember that first week that I put that out there, I got a car-shows
10:33
call from somebody in Wisconsin and I go well how'd you hear about my website I was
10:37
doing listing of car shows across the country and he's at this car show and they
10:41
made an announcement about it I was like my goodness you know it was nuts and ever since then I thought well this is something else the web is up there you know
10:48
yeah and again this is like what 28 years ago now and I remember going to car
10:54
shows and saying hey I've got this website going and talking to the vendors that are at
10:58
the car show asking of hey do you want to be a part of this we put a little ad space on
11:02
oh, we're not interested in the web. That's what a lot of them said. You know, the other than children said, you know
11:06
the car shows, oh, we're not interested in the web. That's just a fad, you know, and I'm like, okay
11:13
And then I, and so even today, you know, I talked to people about cars or, you know
11:19
I earlier had somebody on talking about electric cars, electric vehicles. And in my world, the hot rod, custom, chopper world
11:29
Electric is like the bane of existence. It is the thing everybody just hates
11:36
It's the devil coming in. But I see it as, I don't know, I like the
11:40
I've got loud pipes on my truck and on my 56th fair lane. I like the sound
11:44
I like the smell. But there's something to be said about that stealth quality
11:48
and that instant torque. So I immediately ask them, the guys who don't like electric
11:53
well, okay, what is it you like about your car? And a lot of times it's that put your seat in the back
11:58
because you hit the gas, right? Well, that's what these will do. Right
12:02
You know, so anyway, I always like to look at the future too
12:06
Yeah I mean we had a guest on here recently They were talking about Evie hot rotting and I was like what is Evie hot rotting Explain it to me please And it was a combination of things that regular
12:20
hot rotting is all about. And I gathered from him that the connection between electric hot rotting
12:29
and regular hot rotting isn't that different. Once you bridge the understanding between the
12:37
hot rotting. I think more hot rotters will emerge in the electric EV realm within America
12:43
I think so too. I think that people get over that whole initial shock of it, right? But it's
12:49
really about personalization. Hot rotting has always been about personalization. Sure, it's about
12:53
either the aesthetics or the GoFast feature. That's it. You know, the performance or the aesthetic
12:58
So I can see that happening. Yeah, I can see that happening for sure. So if the audience wants to
13:04
stay in touch with Black Top and what you guys are doing at Blacktop, or if they want to reach
13:09
out to you, Tony, where can they get any of this information from? Blacktop Magazine.com
13:14
Blacktop Magazine? That's really the place. You go to our socials from there. Okay
13:18
And then if there's somebody out there that needs help with a web design or graphic design of some
13:23
sort, I call myself a fixer in X. I get calls all the time, hey, can you fix this
13:27
And so I help them out with that. But you can find my Blacktop Media Network there too
13:32
All right. This is our last issue we did in December of 2022
13:38
And I got to say, something we haven't mentioned yet either is that my son is a big part of what I do with this
13:44
My son, Billy, he was paralyzed when he was 18 from the waist down, had a truck accident
13:49
And he's just been a lot of fun to work with. And so he's kind of like my editor that says, oh, this is cool, this isn't cool, you know
13:56
So, like, here's a story about this boss Mustang and all that
14:00
A friend of mine out of North Carolina, Mike Slade sent me
14:04
So we get content from all around, not just California here. Yeah, that's my neck of the woods, man
14:10
And you'll see pin-up models in there. I work a lot with Mitzi Valenzuela, a pin-up photographer, and others
14:16
Check out this beautiful Mustang right here. Yeah. Check that out. Yeah, there you go
14:21
Cover up your face, Angel. Oh, yeah, beautiful magazine. But yeah, so it was all self-published, 40 pages
14:29
and we did, you know, all kinds of articles, too, not just that
14:34
And then, you know, more pin-up model, stuff like in the centerfold always
14:38
And then I always like history articles, too. So I remember seeing an article about Raymond Lowy and just an incredible designer, American designer
14:49
and who designed a lot of stuff for Studebaker, the Exxon logo, Hoover logo, Nabisco logo, all this stuff
14:55
He had a great studio. So I like to throw in some history articles as well
14:59
Yeah. And here's a nice little hot rod truck, a friend Shiny Mike put together
15:04
So, you know, it's a lot of fun. Then we go to events like Born Free is coming up
15:09
It's a motorcycle show. And so it was just a really fun, I think, a feature of another photographer, Pat Nicole
15:20
She's just got a beautiful eye for stuff. And then speaking about my son, Billy, we were featured on Garage Dreams once
15:28
So that's a little shot there. That was a motor trend show based out of Australia
15:35
And just a really cool show. And that's us in our garage
15:38
No, super slick, man. So, yeah, it's a lot of fun. Beautiful magazine
15:42
Yeah. So now you can see all that content online at blacktopmagine.com
15:47
Blacktopmagine.com. Tony, thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, sir. It's been a pleasure
15:52
It's been awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you
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