About THe UNcharted Zone
It all began on the Kattline, Phil Thomas Katt's answering machine. In the mid-80s, Kattline developed a huge following that helped fuel local sales for Phil's cassette "Nine Lives", a local hit at the time. PTK wanted to help other local artist have success, as he did, so he debuted The Uncharted Zone on the Kattline.
In the early 90's, PTK returned to Radio and brought The Uncharted Zone to his late night show at WXBM. His show became the highest rated overnight show in the history of Gulf Coast FM Radio. In 1996, The Uncharted Zone came to television and was broadcast continuously for over 15 years. The show even spawned a spin-off in 2001 with The Weekly UZ Top 10 Countdown Show, a weekly countdown of viewer favorites. The Uncharted Zone began uploading videos to YouTube in 2007 and the show's success became worldwide.
In 2009, Mark Gormley's music videos found global success on UZ's YouTube channel. Many other UZ artist started getting a lot more views as the channel's reach expanded. UZ caught the eye of several National Networks, including G4's "Attack of the Show" who aired a segment on the show featuring PTK and Mark Gormley. The segment also included other UZ artists, such as Ken Manning, Crystal Miller, and Southern Breeze. Weird Al Yankovic parodied Mark Gormley on another G4 show called "Web Soup." MTV also featured UZ on the show "DJ & The Fro."
As UZ's name grew, bands from outside of Pensacola, FL began travelling just to be on UZ and have a music video directed by Phil Thomas Katt. Some of these early bands include Cruiserweight of Austin, TX, and Downtown Brown and The Hard Lessons, both of Detroit, MI. In 2010, a New York Record Company commissioned PTK to direct a music video for their artist, Cast Spells, of Chicago, IL. The video starred Saturday Night Live alumni, Horatio Sanz.
More recently, bands such as mewithoutyou (Philadelphia, PA), Greasy Grass (Portland, ME), and Manhattan Murder Mystery (Los Angeles, CA) have travelled to Phil Thomas Katt's green screen set to have him direct their music videos. Local musicians and artists continue to thrive on The Uncharted Zone as well, such as Michael J. McCartan, Noiseheads, and Ricky Whitley. The Uncharted Zone also receives video submissions from artists around the world ( like Gene Willow of Ukraine, Nilsen's Southern Harmony of Norway, Dylan Mars Greenberg of Manhattan, NY), bringing together the musical community to embrace the "uncharted artist."
