By Jeff Gilder, WingDing MEDIA™ Founder, President, & SEO
The Long Road to the “Digital-First” Revolution
When we first started pushing digital media back in 2006, I felt like I was speaking a different language. Traditional broadcasters and advertisers looked at digital as a side project — something they’d “get to eventually.” Meanwhile, My son, Dustin, and I were convinced that the future of media would live online, where content could be created, distributed, and consumed without the barriers and costs of legacy systems.
Between 2008 and 2012, something remarkable happened. The global recession forced businesses to rethink their advertising strategies. Budgets were tight, and for the first time, digital marketing got its real shot. It wasn’t because the world suddenly understood its power — it was because we were more affordable. But affordability turned into efficiency, efficiency turned into results, and results turned into credibility. That’s when everything started to shift.
Before “Podcasts” Were Podcasts
Long before podcasting was a household word, we were already doing it. At Zeus Digital Marketing (ZDM), via Zeus ((Radio)), we were producing more than 30 “internet radio shows” every week. We didn’t know what to call them back then — but the moment I heard the term “podcast,” I thought, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We were creating serialized, on-demand audio content before the platforms, before the hype, and long before the ad dollars followed.
Those early years were a grind. The tools were primitive, the audience was skeptical, and bandwidth was expensive and lightweight. But we kept building, because the vision was clear — the future wasn’t on airwaves, it was online. And that conviction became the foundation of what would eventually evolve into the WingDing MEDIA™ ecosystem.
Born in the Digital Space — Not Adapted to It
While legacy broadcasters are now struggling to downsize infrastructure and retool for the digital world, we started here. Zeus Digital Marketing built Ultimate Long Drive (ULD) and WingDing MEDIA™ inside a digital-first framework. We weren’t forced to change; we were built for this environment from the start.
That’s a critical difference. Traditional broadcast television depends on costly distribution models and shrinking audiences. Their systems were designed for a world that no longer exists. Many of them are still trying to compress 20th-century infrastructure into a 21st-century reality — and some won’t survive the transition.
We never had to pivot. We were already there.
WingDing MEDIA™ represents the realization of that vision — a lean, adaptive, multi-platform network that reaches viewers across OTT, mobile, web, and social simultaneously. It’s what television would have become if it started today.
The Digital-First Ecosystem in Action
Through WingDing MEDIA™ , Ultimate Long Drive, and the countless digital initiatives that ZDM helped create, we’ve built more than a media company — we’ve built a digital-first ecosystem that connects content, community, and commerce.
- Zeus Digital Marketing (ZDM) — the strategic and creative engine that powers digital growth.
- WingDing MEDIA™ — the distribution platform bringing content to OTT, mobile, and social audiences worldwide.
- Ultimate Long Drive (ULD) — the sports model built on digital participation and storytelling, not just television.
Together, they form an integrated system that functions in perfect sync — content creation, digital distribution, data-driven advertising, and audience engagement all feeding one another. It’s the future of media, built years ahead of its time.
We Were Right — And the Timing Finally Caught Up
After nearly two decades of pushing digital forward, we’re finally crossing the barrier of recognition and legitimacy. The world has caught up to the idea that media doesn’t need to live in a cable box or on a broadcast tower. It can live everywhere — in your hand, in your car, or on your TV — and it can be targeted, measurable, and interactive.
That’s where WingDing MEDIA™ thrives. It’s not the evolution of broadcast — it’s the replacement for it. The digital-first ecosystem we envisioned years ago is now the foundation of how audiences connect, how brands engage, and how communities grow.
We didn’t just predict this shift. We built on it. And it’s working.
Conclusion: Right Place, Right Time, Right Vision
When we started building WingDing MEDIA™ in 2000, we didn’t know if it would land. It was uncharted territory. Sure there were successful independent streaming models out there, but none that encompassed the WingDing MEDIA™ model. But today, I can say with confidence that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be — in the right place, at the right time, with the right vision.
We were early. We were patient. We were right.
Now, we’re leading.
The Eleventh Commandment: Market Thine Own Self
For most of my career, I’ve been reluctant to take credit. I’ve preferred to stay focused on the work — to build, refine, and let results speak for themselves. But there comes a point where you realize that if you don’t tell your story, it might never be told the way it deserves to be.
I sometimes joke that there was an Eleventh Commandment chiseled on those stone tablets: “Market thine own self.” Somewhere between the mountain and the valley, Moses stumbled, and that one broke off. Maybe that’s why so many of us struggle to give ourselves permission to acknowledge what we’ve built.
But after twenty years of pushing, proving, and persevering — it’s time to live by that 11th carving. Because the truth is, we were right. We were early, misunderstood, even doubted — but we were right. And that deserves to be said out loud, not as ego, but as gratitude for every lesson and every step that led here.
WingDing MEDIA™, Ultimate Long Drive, and Zeus Digital Marketing exist today because of a belief that never wavered: that the digital frontier wasn’t a fad — it was the future. And now that the world has caught up, it’s time to step into the light and own the story we’ve written.
After all, that 11th commandment wasn’t lost — it was waiting for its time. And that time is now.
From internet radio shows to a full digital-first media network, Jeff Gilder’s two-decade journey from Zeus Digital Marketing to WingDing MEDIA™ proves that the future of broadcast is already here — and it’s digital.