Fueling the Addiction

EXTREME SPORTS 24-7

Insomniacs and adrenaline junkies have never had it so good. Just a year after its launch, Fuel, the 24-hour action-sports channel from Fox Cable Networks, is being piped into 13 million U.S. homes. There are 16 original series—such as Firsthand, which focuses on the daily routines of action-sport stars such as Rob Machado and Beau Young, and Concrete Wave, which highlights the latest trick riding from the best skateboarders on the planet. And in the all-important broken-bones category, there's First Aid, a compendium of 60-second clips of terrifying and gruesome wipeouts by everyone from BMX and motocross riders to skaters and surfers. "We look at our audience as being divided between the 'doers'—people who actively participate, whether it's once a week or seven days a week—and the 'viewers,' those that don't participate but are connecting to some of the attitudes and have adopted the dress and the language," says vice president of programming and marketing C. J. Olivares, an Orange County native and lifetime surfer. "You can't go into a high school anywhere in the United States and not find a kid in skate shoes and baggy jeans and a T-shirt. This isn't unique to the U.S. It's a global phenomenon. There is so much real culture being driven by these sports."

Fuel's biggest contribution to the extreme-sports culture has been its packaging of footage with cutting-edge music and graphics. Visual artists create animated segments and videos specific to the culture and community, thus branding Fuel with its own iconography. And each show has its own soundtrack. "A lot of the music you hear is stuff that you can't hear on the radio," says Olivares, "but it's great music—a lot of indie labels, a lot of bands on the rise. We call it the best radio on television."

KRISTA SMITH