Interview with Ben Montgomery on Launching and Growing a

Hellooo Mets! This is Jesse from Rock Sugar and

you're listening to the GeekCats Radio Network.

Keep it right here. TF2 and Mike here ladies

and gentlemen and I wanted to come to you before

this episode of studio 2009 really quickly to

let you know as I'm in the middle of editing

this I hear a bunch of noises on my end and things

like that and I Was very scatterbrained even

though I sound like I'm being a professional

when talking to mr. Ben Montgomery from records

revisited podcast I Needed to do something and

I just started fiddling with a bunch of stuff

on my desk as I was talking to Ben. This, I hope,

in no means takes anything away from the podcast.

Sadly, as you will hear, Karen, my wife, did

pass away. When we recorded this, we weren't

sure if she was going to live or die, but as

I am recording this new little intro clip, ten

days after she has left us, Yeah, that didn't

go so well, obviously. So forgive any sounds

or noises or whatever, I'm so sorry. Ben, I'm

so sorry. I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, I'm

not worthy. I hope everyone still enjoys this

episode with our podcast approach here on Studio

2009 from the GeekCast Radio Network. There is

nothing wrong with your podcast player. Do not

attempt to adjust the volume. Hello and welcome

to Studio 2009. I'm, of course, TF2 Unmiked.

Joining me for our latest podcast approach is

that host from the right coast. We welcome Mr.

Ben Montgomery from Records Revisited Podcast.

Hello, sir. How are you? I'm doing well. How

about you? Uh, oh, well. Is that a loaded retort?

That's a rather stocked question, but I think

the real term is fully loaded. It was knee -jerk

reaction. No, no, no. Absolutely. No, no, no.

I mean, listeners are going to know eventually

anyway, but life is not going so well for the

Blanchards right now. Hospice is making her comfortable.

I will go into more detail way later down the

line, folks, and you'll hear all the whole story.

So this is Podcast Approach. It is 30 questions,

how you got into listening and or producing podcasts.

First of all, what t -shirt are you wearing?

Tonight I am wearing my Mammoth WVH t -shirt.

So that is Wolfgang Van Halen's. new band and

I had an opportunity to see them about a month

ago and they're awesome very good good good band

rocking so Definitely definitely go check them

out. They're coming back to Orlando here February

February I think time frame so I will be I will

be seeing him again real soon Very cool. Very

cool. If I had any concert t -shirts that actually

still fit me, I'd probably be wearing a Nickelback

shirt, most likely. Okay. I won't judge. At least

right now, I'm not going to judge. Silently,

he's judging, folks, as is the rest of the audience.

All right. When did you discover podcasts and

what was the first one you listened to? You know,

I was trying to think back on this a couple days

ago, because I figured this was going to be a

question you were going to throw at me. And I

think that it was probably 2005, 2006, and I

was looking for some stuff on... I think the

TuneIn app is still a thing. That's still a thing,

right? I think so. It was back then. I don't

know if it is now. Yeah. So I would, I would

listen to tune in to try and get Washington Husky

football games or minor league teams on the West

coast that, you know, I couldn't get out here

in Florida. And I recall, I stumbled on a podcast

program, whatever you want to call it called

radio nowhere. It was a music. program from the

UK. They had a couple different offshoots or

programs related to it. The one big guest for

the one big personality was Christopher Laird.

I remember his name. They also had a soundtrack

slash... Movie score program as well and that

kind of got got me started into podcasting Listening

to that and then it kind of morphed into listening

to some business podcasts which morphed into

listening to a podcast called I hate my boss

because Okay, I kind of hated my boss at the

time. So it just seemed apropos And then I kind

of morphed into other things. I'm a big Survivor

fan, the TV show. I mean, I'm a big Survivor

fan, you know, the band as well. But there's

a former contestant who has a podcast called

Rob Has a Podcast. It's all All Survivor and

Big Brother and that kind of crap. Then I just

started listening to more comedy podcasts and

more music podcasts. Years later, really the

only thing I listened to outside of revisionist

history from Malcolm Gladwell is music podcasts.

That's really kind of my wheelhouse now. About

how long after you started listening, did you

want to start your own? Um years It really came

down to I I started getting bored with some of

the podcasts I was listening to and I I tried

to find some other music podcasts that I would

enjoy and I enjoyed some of them but it seemed

like the the the the hosts were more into trying

to swear as much as possible on their podcast.

That was a big turnoff to me. It wasn't until

I stumbled on a couple that were more, I won't

say family friendly, but they were cognizant

that they were trying to keep it PG -13 where

I'm like, there needs to be more PG -13 music

podcasts. I started I started thinking about

doing something and came up with this idea and

pitched it to one of my friends and took a lot

of convincing for him to do it and glad he finally

acquiesced. Absolutely. Yeah. I had been listening

since about 2006 to about the fall of 2008 and

by December depending on whichever document you're

looking at or whichever feed you're looking at,

either December 8th or December 12th of 2008,

so about two years from the time I started listening

until I actually started my own. It was probably

a good 10 years before I'm like, I could probably

do this as well. I had always wanted to be in

radio. And I knew I was never going to be in

radio and when podcasts came around, I'm like,

Hey. And I also was like, look, I'm not going

to say, you know, the Tourette's lady from whatever

movie that was where she's like, you know, all

those curse words, all at once, the stream of

consciousness that she spews out in whatever

movie that was. I forget which movie it is, but,

um, I have always said, I want my podcasts to

be explicit because of the fact, not because

we say. SDF this whatever, it's because of the

innuendos and the innuendons. So taking innuendons

however you want to take it, but it's like, you

know, if we come down to some dark, dark humor,

then I believe that's an explicit podcast. Like

if we say something so damn off the wall, you

know. So yeah, that's that's how I I approached

it But you know, hey look, you know a lot of

people want those PG 13 or PG podcasts and that's

yeah, that's great There's a market for all of

us. Yep. Absolutely What was your plan in getting

your podcast off the ground? There was a plan

There wasn't really much of a plan it was it

was We thought hey, let's let's put together

what we usually do when we start chatting about

music and we'll throw it on tape and see if anybody

actually listens to it. So there wasn't really

much of a plan. I think it kind of evolved. I

kind of mentioned to you, because you were asking

me, hey, where's episode three or whatever? I'm

like, it's not out there. Like, I don't know

if I even have a copy of episode three anymore.

I mean, because we didn't really know what the

heck we were doing. I knew that I wanted to have

good audio quality. That was kind of the big

thing because that's a big turnoff for me for

some podcasts where it's just really... Yeah,

you can tell that they recorded it in their basement.

You don't need to broadcast that I recorded in

my basement because look, Wayne records it in

his office at home. I record my portion in my

office at home. They don't need to know that

we're doing it pretty cheaply. This is not professional

studio or anything like that. Yeah, we didn't

really have much of a plan. I think it kind of

morphed after a couple episodes where we're like,

okay, I think this is, this is our format. And,

and then we started inviting guests on and it

just kind of snowballed from, from there. So

how many titles did you go through before records

revisited became the title? I don't know. Honestly,

I don't remember. I knew that I wanted to have

something in the title that really explained

what we're doing, which is we're talking about

records. For most episodes, we're just talking

about one particular record. Bob Dylan's Highway

61 Revisited sounded. I always thought that was

cool. And then one of my favorite bands, Carbon

Leaf, when they re -did their Indian Summer album,

they ended up renaming it Indian Summer Revisited.

And I'm like, all right, Records Revisited has

a cool sound to it. And so I'm going to go with

that. Awesome. Very cool. Very cool. Which do

you prefer audio or video podcasting as a fan

and a producer? I don't watch any video podcasts.

It's audio only for me. I know that there's been

a few people who are like... Hey, are you ever

going to record the video portion of your conversations

and put it on YouTube?" I'm like, I have enough

problems trying to get my episodes edited for

audio. You think that I'm going to do it for

both video and audio? That's pipe dream. That's

not going to happen. That's why everybody's like,

oh you want to come on my stream? I'm like, yeah,

sure. I'm audio only they're like really I'm

like, yeah, I don't even have a camera on my

computer I haven't had a I haven't had a webcam

on my computer in over a decade Yeah, yeah, I

get it What kind of setup did you have when you

started podcasting and what do you use now it's

the same I've got a I have to even look here.

It's an Audio -Technica microphone. Pretty, pretty

simple microphone. I think you can buy it on

Amazon for about $1 .25. I will say I do have

a swivel arm now for the microphone, which I

did not originally. But yeah, it's pretty much

the same. We still record. My co -host is in

Washington State. I'm in Florida. We still record

online. That hasn't changed at all in three years

that we've been doing this. We haven't really

evolved. I know that we've talked about possibly

doing more remote type of... a setup where maybe

we'll invest in a Zoom and some better microphones.

But honestly, we're good with the setup that

we've got. This took me about three months to

figure out back in 2008. Well, I should say 2008

into 2009. Between Christmas and my birthday,

I figured it out. I haven't always had headphones.

I used to have the audio coming out of my speakers,

but I have headphones now. I have a nice pair

of JVC headphones. I've had those. I've gone

through actually two. This is my second pair.

I've had those since 2014, but the microphone

I've had since 2009, it is a CAD U37 condenser

mic and I've bought it three times. Once for

myself in the beginning, once for myself in the

beginning, I bought it for a buddy of mine who

I had listened to for years and then I had to

buy it again for myself because in the process

of moving and storage and whatever. things were

lost and everything and whatever, so I had to

rebuy it. But essentially, I've had the same

equipment since 2009 as well. Yeah. Look, if

it ain't broke, don't fix it. Exactly. It's worked

well for us. Sure, I probably would like a better

microphone, but it does the job. Absolutely.

Speaking of which, if your headphones or microphone

breaks down, would you buy the exact same setup

or would you upgrade? I would probably upgrade.

Yeah. Here's hoping nothing breaks. Yeah, exactly.

Did you just jinx me? I hope not. Thank God it

hasn't been seven years since my mom has passed.

Yeah, lots of jinxing going around here, folks.

Not intentional. Did you think you'd be podcasting

for as long as you have? No. I mean, the short

answer is no. The long answer was this was only

something that Wayne and I did as a creative

outlet. because some of our other creative outlets

were not doing the job for us creatively at the

time. I thought that this would be a nice placeholder

for a little while, while I got my mojo back

and figured I also write. So I had some writer's

block that was going on at the time, which is

kind of how the podcast came to fruition where

I'm like, I need a creative outlet and I need

to get excited about something. And I honestly

thought that it might be maybe an 18 month to

two year cycle and we'll call it good. That's

not happening. Hey, like you said, as long as

it keeps being interesting, you keep getting

interesting guests, you have albums you can talk

about. There are so many albums in the world.

We have 50, 60, 70 years of music history. Oh,

we haven't even touched the surface. We're 200

episodes into it and we're still getting people

going, hey, how come you haven't done an episode

about the cranberries or how come you haven't

done something about big country? I'm like, dude,

I want to. We just haven't gotten to it yet.

We're 210 episodes into this and we're just now

doing a Kiss album. We're recording that next

week. We still haven't done any Pink Floyd. We

still haven't done any Queen. We still haven't

done a Rush album. Van Halen has not been done

yet. We've only done one Rolling Stones album.

There's a lot of albums that we have not even

thought about doing yet. where somebody will

bring this up and we're like, yeah, totally.

I'd love to do an episode on that. We'll get

to it. I forget off the top of my head, because

I'm not looking at anything other than my own

script, who was on your Born in the USA episode

with you guys. But after listening to that, I

took the song selection choices. Made born in

the USA the right way playlist on Spotify. I

love it based on I'll have to share that I thought

I I sent that to you on Twitter I think I don't

know if you saw but I'll send it to you again.

But yeah, that was that was a cool cool episode

That was John Latham John that's who John Latham.

That's who it was. Yeah Have your podcasting

goals changed since you started compared to now

Yes When we first started, it was just me and

Wayne. Occasionally I would have, like I did

a special episode with my brother to celebrate

my dad. Did a couple episodes with my best friend,

Jeff. Then when I was like, Wayne, in order for

us to get some extra promotion, I think we need

to have guests on. Our original plan was we'll

have guests on like twice a month. It'll still

be you and me chatting about music, but let's

get some guests on so that they can go promote

it to their friends. maybe we'll get some momentum

out of that. We didn't know what kind of Pandora's

box we were opening with doing that because there's

a fellow podcaster here in Central Florida who

does the Scotch and Good Conversation podcast,

which I'll occasionally listen to his podcast

based on the guests. He asked all of his guests,

The referral question which we started using

where it's like, who do you know that? I don't

know who should come on my podcast and and so

we started using that and Didn't realize what

kind of momentum we were gonna get So early on

we had Ira Elliott who is the drummer for the

band not a surf we've gotten friendly over over

the years and So I asked Ira, you know, I asked

him the referral question. So he referred us

to Doug Gillard of guided by voices. I didn't

quite realize how much Pull Doug had in in in

the music industry As soon as we took kind of

told people yet Doug's been on our podcast people

were like, oh cool you like you guys are legit

and So then we got in good with with the Americana

crowd and Again, that's that's just kind of blossomed.

I mean, I I don't know if I've shared on the

socials our referral trail that's come from a

couple different people that we've asked for

referrals. But one of the referrals, which started

with the drummer from Carbon Leaf, Jesse Humphrey,

I think there is about 40 guests that have come

from that one referral. Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah, who's then referred, you know, they'll

refer somebody else to us We've had a couple

people from that referral trail who have referred

multiple people because they're like I had such

a good time You should also invite so -and -so

on your podcast. So Yeah, it it so those kind

of those things have definitely changed. The

other thing I would say is We never thought that

we would monetize it That we always thought that

this would be a labor of love and then when we

started upgrading especially with upgrading our

Our podcast hosting because we wanted to make

sure that all of our old episodes were out there

And we also wanted to upgrade the online recording

service that we did we're like we got to throw

this out and see if anybody will actually sponsor

us or maybe we can get a Patreon going. We did

that, threw out some good rewards and our listeners

are essentially paying our bills, which is awesome.

I mean, never would have expected that. So that's

really cool. All right, let's talk about some

of your podcast listenership things. As a listener,

what defines a good podcast to you? As a listener,

what defines a good podcast is A, you're entertaining

and B, you're educational, especially when it

comes to music stuff. I want you to turn me on

to new music, but I also want you to educate

me on different things. I mean, looking at the

podcast that I listen to now, it fits both of

those criteria. And I hope that we're kind of

doing that with our podcast as well. That's what

I'm hoping. Absolutely. For me, with you guys,

and it's no offense to you guys, but it's dependent

upon the album. Like if I want to hear, you know

what I mean? If I've never heard, or I have no

experience with, let's just say, The Who, or

hell, we'll even go on better, The Guess Who,

or whatever, you know what I mean? I may check

that out to see if I want to look it up, or I

may look up the album before I listen to the

podcast kind of thing, but mainly I'm looking

through your catalog, hence why I was looking

through the back catalog, trying to figure out

what the first episode was and blah, blah, blah.

to find album, like I said, Born in the USA.

What was the first Matt Nathanson one you had

him on? You did Acton Baby. You too. Acton Baby.

Yep. Yep. Because Mysterious Ways. I know I think

Matt said something or you guys all said something

about Mysterious Ways is okay, but it's whatever.

I forget what you said off the top of my head.

That song. was licensed through to TNT, I believe

it's in 98, the Witchblade series with Yancey

Butler. The old Witchblade series in 1998 on

TNT with Yancey Butler. It is the very first

track as she's getting ready to go out as Sarah

Pizzini to the police station and it's her riding

through the city on a motorcycle and that song

plays and I'm like. I haven't heard that song

in at least 10 years. I was 18 at the time, but

I hadn't heard it since I was like 8 years old

and 88 or something or other. I was like, oh,

that is so cool. 91. 91. 91. Yeah. Okay. Well,

oh, I'm mixing up Acton Baby with Joshua Tree.

Okay. 87. 87. Yeah, that's why I said 88. I was

like, oh, yeah, 91. You're right. You're right.

What does a podcast have to have to draw you

in? We heard what defines a good podcast to you,

but whatever that first episode is that you listen

to, what does that one episode have to have for

you to want to listen to the next one? I think

the same thing. It's got to be entertaining.

It's got to keep my attention. I'm hoping that

it will be hooky enough. Have me coming back

for more. I kind of say that when we when we

talk about these great records I'm a sequencing

guy so so last last last song on a record Has

to be memorable and for me as well. You can't

just throw a filler song on as the last song

No, you can't that that's just not that's not

going to fly with me. I think that's kind of

the same way that I look at with podcasts is

hopefully there's a hook there that makes me

want to come back and check it out again. I mean,

you kind of brought up the fact that you're going

and looking at albums that you're familiar with,

that you want to kind of relive a little bit.

I get it. I mean, I can honestly count on one

finger how many podcasts that I've listened to

every single episode or at least a portion of

that podcast. So I know from a listener standpoint,

I know that people are not going to listen to

every single episode. It's a rarity. It depends

on the podcast you have, I feel. Maybe, but even

with podcasts that kind of draw back the curtain

and are more personal so that you kind of really

get to know the podcast host, I'm still not going

to listen to every single episode. It's just

not going to happen. Maybe that's just me. Maybe

that's the mentality and philosophy that I brought

into my own podcast where I'm not naive to think

that everybody is going to listen to every single

episode. Look, I get it. You're going to go listen

to Born in the USA. However, there are some other

episodes that I would tell you. go listen to

this particular episode because A, the guest

was awesome, and B, the album that they picked

was an absolute discovery for us. Yeah, I mean

like I said it for me it depends on Okay, so

the reason why I say it depends on the type of

podcast and not all podcasts do this But a buddy

of mine who I had podcasted with multiple times

over the years He'd get out of it and he didn't

want anything to do with it And then he you know

life changes happened with him and he's going

to start a podcast with his buddy So they started

and I this is not a self promotion for them,

but I'm just gonna say it Mike Laidman, Chris

Blonsky, they started part -time nerds, full

-time dads. And the very beginning of their podcast

is them talking about their wives being pregnant

and that whole process and then going to the

hospital and the babies being born and this,

that and the other. So it's been like this three

year journey with them where I think I. first

started listening by the time they were on episode

80. I listened because I have no life. I am only

a podcast producer. I don't have a real job.

I have no life. I listened to the first 79 episodes

within 72 hours. I know I'm not everybody and

I get it, but that's what I mean. If it's a story

type podcast where you start with your... your

family growing and then the process of all of

that. That's what I mean. I wonder if that's

a byproduct of the way that I got introduced

to podcasting where I'm like, I don't need to

know the backstory of the podcast hosts. I don't

need to be sucked into their lives. A couple

of my kids are really big into certain YouTube

creators, which they give them a peek into what

their life is like. I just don't have any need

for that. I would say with our podcast, Wayne

and I divulge just enough about our personal

lives so that you get to know us, but that's

not That's not the theme. That's not what we're

going for Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean if you get

to the I'm sure you guys have already thought

of this but because I use this often on Certain

in you and don'ts that we have around here at

the gate cast radio network I'm sure if you get

too close to that personal edge. You can just

insert a record scratch And get back on track

As a listener, do you prefer short 30 minutes

to an hour and 30 minute shows or do you prefer

longer podcast episodes as in two hours or more?

Depends on the topic and depends on the podcast

I'm Look, we're I always I always say this to

to people We're not bite -sized morsel type of

podcast. I've had a couple of my friends who

are like, yeah, I'd really like to hear your

thoughts on the cure. However, I don't want to

listen to an hour and a half of it. And I'm like,

okay, then you don't want to listen to my podcast

because we're long winded. We overanalyze everything

and we're not for you. Like I flat out have told

a couple of my friends who are like, I wish that

your podcast was 20 minutes long. I'm like, yeah,

I don't think we would cover everything in 20

minutes. Yeah. Most albums aren't 20 minutes

long. No, I mean, okay. As a listener, do you

still, we kind of already answered this, but

As a listener, do you start at the beginning

of a podcast, the most recent episode, or do

you jump around, jump, jump, jump around? Oh

God, that was horrible. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm crisscross.

I jump around. As a listener, how many hosts

are too many on one episode? Two. Really? Yeah.

Two, two. Um, that's, that's too many for me.

Um, I will say this, we do on occasion have four

people, five people on an episode. It can get

pretty daunting. I know that I've told, when

we do those episodes where there's multiple guests,

I flat out tell them at the beginning, I'm like,

just so you know, I may not call on you for every

single song. Like if you don't have, if it's

a song that's middle of the pack for your scoring,

I may not call on you because obviously this

was not a song that you were passionate enough

about scoring it high and nobody really wants

to hear somebody just go, yeah, it's an okay

song. Yeah, that's true. I find that three, So

you have three people to bounce off of is, is

good. Four is pushing it five, unless it's a

format, which we've actually kind of perfected

this, unless it's a format where you can just

go around the table. Like you have one like yourself,

if you're the main host and you say, okay, what

are your thoughts? What are your thoughts? Then

it's okay. Like we do. Yeah, four people on a

podcast is about as much as I need. I'm going

back to your, I guess I'm being literal on your

question where you're like, how many hosts? It's

me and Wayne. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't

know. Okay. So when I use the term hosts, I mean,

technically people that are on the show or on

that episode. So yeah. Yeah. Four is as much

as I want. Yeah. The only time we have had five

or more is if it's like I was saying a second

ago, we've kind of on our network perfected the

thing of doing like top 100 lists. Like we've

done top 100 animated series. We've done top

100 villains. We've done top 100 TV shows. We

just wrapped up top 100 Transformers characters.

So basically you have one person who is driving

the show. And that person will then say, like,

what's the Kiss album you guys are doing? We're

doing Alive. All right. Kiss Alive came in at

number, oh, screw it, 69 out of the top 100.

Yeah. So, okay, that person will then, you know,

the host will then say that and they'll say,

so Mike, what do you think of that? Or so this

person, what do you think of that? And then we'll

just go down the line and everybody gets, so

we've kind of perfected the whole multiple host

thing, but I do agree. As a listener, I prefer

three or less. There are only a few select people,

and I know I'm not one of them because I tried

to be, and I'm not. There are only a few select

people that can do one man or one woman shows

in my mind, and I listened to few and far between

of those. Like you said, two. Go ahead. I don't

listen to any single host type of ... type of

podcast, with the exception of Revisionist History,

which is more of a 2020 or a Dateline type of

format. I try to listen to Bill Burr's podcast

where it's basically him just ranting about whatever.

I didn't enjoy it. No, that's I found out the

hard way that yeah I found out the hard way that

one man show one one person shows Are you trying

to one yourself? Oh, yeah, my very first one.

Yeah, and my first thought was I'm going to sound

like the guy before Robin Williams shows up in

Good morning, Vietnam. I'm going to sound like

the drooling news announcer person. Right today

in Vancouver, Washington. It's going to be seven.

You know that and I eventually found co -hosts

found friends and we've perfected it to this

point. I think I at least I hope we have. Yeah.

When do you stop listening to a podcast altogether?

That's a great question. I don't know why I stopped

listening to certain podcasts. I mean, I stopped

listening to I Hate My Boss because I felt like

I wasn't getting anything out of it anymore.

I stopped listening to the Survivor podcast just

because, I don't know, it just felt like it was

a lot of the same stuff that they were talking

about. But I mean, a lot of the ones that I've

stopped listening to, I don't know. You kind

of get an idea when the podcast hosts are kind

of running out of juice. They're kind of running

out of ideas or they're kind of running out of

just motivation to keep the podcast going. And

you can sense that. I mean, I've listened to

a few of our episodes while I'm editing where

I'm like, man, I did not give 100 % on that.

And as soon as that kind of starts happening,

I'm tuning out as well. So I think that that's

kind of where I jump off as well. For me, I don't

ever stop listening. I don't intentionally stop.

I just get so far behind that I never actually

catch up with listening. No, I get that as well.

One of the podcasts that I listen to on a regular

basis is called Rock in the Suburbs. They do

an episode every weekday. It's 20 to 30 minutes

long. You can tell that they're recording it.

all in one shot on a weekend or whatever and

breaking it up. But I don't have a commute anymore.

So I do have to pick and choose a lot of what

episodes I'm going to listen to because I can't

listen to them every single day. If that's the

case, then that would be the only podcast I would

listen to. Okay, so speaking of what you're currently

listening to, what are you currently listening

to? I've been rocking the suburbs for years.

They're one of my go -tos. I would say that I'm

still listening to Revisionist History. That's

still a show that I listen to on a regular basis.

Don't know there. There's there's a couple friends

out there that That I listen to on occasion again.

Don't listen to every single single episode but

playlist wars Gotting good with with those guys

over the years one of the hosts used to do a

podcast called tune styles and so we We kind

of bounced ideas off of one another. I've been

on his show, he's been on mine, et cetera. My

best friend does one called Who Did It First.

I probably listen to every episode of his. There's

another fellow Central Florida podcaster who

goes by the name Jason Earl. He does a podcast

called The Marinade where he talks to creative

people and kind of picks their brains on how

they create stuff. I would say I listen to them

on a regular basis. The Hustle with John Lammerow.

I listen to most of his episodes. Again, another

friend in the podcasting. World think that those

are it every once in a while. I will stumble

on something else that that that interests me

right now I'm I'm listening to If you remember

Dave Holmes, oh, yes, so he's got a podcast right

now talking about the East Coast family Okay,

so There was a band called sudden impact that

was in the Boyz II Men Motown Philly video. They

were touted as being part of the East Coast family

and never put out an album. He's trying to figure

out what the hell happened to them. Why did they

never hit it big considering that they were part

of Bevan's groups that he was trying to promote

that kind of deal. I'll stumble on stuff like

that. I'll listen to other things on occasion,

again, depending on what the topics are. I've

got a bunch in my feed, that's for sure. Awesome,

awesome. All right, folks, we're at the halfway

point. We're going to take a quick break and

we'll be back after this. Hi, I'm Terry Smith,

the host of Music Talks, the podcast where I

ask guests a simple but beguiling question. Choose

a song from each decade of your life and tell

me why these songs mean so much to you. Guests

and listeners love this format, and if you want

to find out why, then take a listen at musictalkspod

.buzzsprout .com or use your favourite podcast

app. Just search on Music Talks, Terry Smith.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show and...

Then send me a tweet at MusicTalksPod. I look

forward to doing some music talking soon. Thank

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No, they won't. No, they probably won't We are

back here inside studio 2009. It is time to get

Ben's thoughts on being a podcast producer as

a producer. Do you find yourself listening to

podcasts less and less? Only because I only have

so much time in a week. So I can either edit

and produce my own stuff or I can listen to other

people. So it is a. divide and conquer type of

deal. I did have a couple weeks off from producing

and that was kind of nice. I did catch up on

a few podcasts that I've been meaning to listen

to, but yeah, I would say I listened to fewer

because I just don't have the time for it. Yeah,

absolutely. As a producer, are you a podcast

planner or do you just like throwing stuff at

the mic to see what sticks? Total planner. Same

here. When we started almost 13 years ago, we

started doing a movie podcast called Movie Week

in Review. At the time, I had over 200 DVDs.

I just looked at my shelf and I made a list of

200 podcast episodes that would take us over

two years. You know, so yeah, podcast planning,

it's key, folks. It is. As a producer, are you,

well, we kind of talked about this already, one

man show or kind of host. Do you prefer working

with co -hosts? Yeah, totally with co -hosts.

It's the bouncing off of one another. Wayne brings

in a lot of extra things that I don't. I'm more

of the the the radio personality guy as opposed

to he's kind of the He's kind of the color guy

and I'm the play -by -play guy is how we we we

kind of we kind of say it And it gets knocked

right out of the park folks Thanks, man absolutely

so How do you okay? So this is more so like okay

for me when I Think about answering this question.

It's more of I Catered my shows to who I think

wants to be on that. Whatever. How do you go

about finding your co -hosts? Well, it's I Mean

typically my co -host is Wayne, right? I mean

he's on 90 % of the episodes when he does have

an occasional week off for vacation or whatnot.

I typically will ask other podcasters to step

in for him. That's my way of throwing a bone

to other podcasters because I'm super appreciative

of a few of the breaks that we got early on and

now we're at that point where we're kind of the

mentors as opposed to being mentored. And so

I'll throw that out. If you're asking the question

about how do I get guests, are you asking that?

Yeah, I mean, it's all one thing because like,

okay, so this show specifically myself and my

buddy Steve Megatron are the hosts of the show.

But my co -hosts are whomever else is on with

us. Yes, they are technically guests, but I list

everybody as under one, one thing. So yeah, we're,

we, we consider it just, um, just a, you know,

we're the co -host, we're the co -host and you're

the guest. Yeah. As a producer, do you feel you

need a mixing board and all the fancy stuff that

would essentially be found at a radio station

or are you good with a great mic and headphones

set up? For now, we're okay with the good mic

and a setup and hopefully we can Make any of

the alterations we need to an audacity for our

guests that I would say that that's the only

That's the only downside of not having a studio

is I can't control what my guests setup is going

to look like. Some of the audio that we've recorded

has been complete garbage and no amount of cleanup

on my part helps. But yeah, that's the only downside

on that. As a producer, how much time do you

put into the editing of the show? Way too much.

Dude, you have no idea. Way, way too much. I

would say here, here, let me, let me give you

an example. So did you listen to our episode

that we did with Mark Bryan from Hootie and the

Blowfish? Yes. I must have spent 15 hours in

the editing for that. No, no joke because he

I believe it so so he lives in the middle of

nowhere outside of Charleston where the right

where the internet is not great and It was clipping

and it was he would fall off It was just a complete

nightmare When he did some really good analysis

of certain songs, because he was the one who

picked that record. He loves that record. It's

very inspirational to him. There were a number

of times where he just kind of went off on a

song and why he loves this song so much. The

problem was his internet just sucked. Part of

the problem there was with the recording service

that we use, we record in separate channels.

If you fall out during the recording process,

that recording service doesn't pick up. all of

that stuff. His particular channel was completely

different than ours as far as the length. There

were a couple of times where the recording service

didn't capture everything. However, we were still

capturing stuff. I do an Audacity backup. I've

found that out the hard way of losing stuff.

I'm not going to mention any names of who you're

recording with right now, but we had to divorce

them a while ago because of some lost audio.

It was a nightmare. It literally took me 15 hours

to piece everything together for that. I'm still

not happy with the total mix. I've had a lot

of listeners who have told me. Um, it was fine,

dude. Like, I don't know why you're stressing

out about it. I'm like, I'm stressing out about

it because I have high standards and I want to

make sure that each of my episodes sounds good.

So yeah, there's an example, long winded example.

No, it's perfect because not that I want to beat

anybody in the, in the editing phase, but again,

we do every now and then every few years we do

large top 100 countdown projects. Yeah. When

Steve Megatron and I got together back in 2008

Transformers is the thing that we bonded over.

Yeah, so the geocast radio network at its heart

is Transformers Gotcha when we finally got I

mean we have other shows that talk about other

things we have It's a whole story. It's not I

can tell you off air whatever but the point is

is we finally got it took us 12 years to get

to do a top 100 Transformers characters countdown

in total the finite final finished audio that

people will hear on wherever they listen to podcasts

in total for the six episodes is 11 hours 58

minutes and 48 seconds of published audio That

took me 100 hours Yeah, I believe it. I believe

it. Yeah, that took 100 hours of work. So yeah,

no, trust me. When you say, I know exactly what

you're talking about. Actually, one of those

was I sat in this chair for 13 and a half hours

straight with only getting up from the bathroom

like twice. Anyway. I would say whatever you're

seeing on your feed for how long The particular

episode is times that by at least two and a half

times. And that's how much time I've spent editing

it. Absolutely. So you mentioned earlier about

remote recordings or doing it over the internet.

And the next one is, as a producer, do you prefer

in -person or over the internet recordings such

as via Skype or some Lord Zedian kind of connection,

Zoom, whatever? Yeah. I think just because we're

used to us doing it remote and not being in the

same room, there's a comfort there. I have recorded

three episodes with Wayne in the same room when

I go back to Washington to visit family. We have

recorded a couple times at his house together

And it's fine like it it's it's it's fine But

I think that there's just a comfort where it's

like I'm in my element. He's in his office You

know if I need to you know most of the most of

the records that we talk about I probably have

a physical copy of it either on record or on

CD So it's really easy for me to grab a copy

of it and listen to it and whatnot. So I don't

know. I think if you threw us in a studio and

let us do that for a couple episodes where we

got a kind of a feel of how to do it, we'd figure

it out. But we've been doing it for over 200

episodes this way. So there's a comfort level

there. Yeah, absolutely over the internet remote

whatever you want to call it is definitely my

comfort zone as well. I've only ever done Two

in -person recordings one was right after I had

gotten married at the time with Steve because

he came up and was my best man at my wedding.

And the other time was I had interviewed a local

barbecue business guy up there in Waukegan, Illinois.

It's Big Ed's Barbecue. Big Ed, awesome, awesome

dude. If you're ever in Waukegan, Illinois. I

don't know where that is. It's north of Chicago.

It's the north side. It's the north suburbs.

It's just maybe an hour away from Wisconsin.

Gotcha kind of thing. Okay. So yeah, very very

cool and that the because the thing with in -person

recordings is that you have to Focus on the person

and focus on the microphone at the same time,

or if you're reading from a, not saying that

you're reading from a script, but if you have

a script for notes or whatever and you have to

glance at it, it's like, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going

to look over here, but I generally tried to do

that. Like when Steve was talking and I wasn't,

but it's still, it's too much back and forth

for me. Whereas I can just sit here. Look at

my screen and i'm still talking to you like i'm

a normal human being and i am not a robot i promise.

As both a listener and a producer do you prefer

one feed have everything or should each type

of show have its own feed so i know you guys

are a one show thing. But if you and Wayne or

you and whomever were going to do something that

had like movies, music, TV, comics, cartoons,

would you want each of those things to be its

own separate feed or would you want it all in

one? Separate. Yeah. Same here. That's the other

thing I told Steve was if we're doing separate

shows for separate things, I want people to be

able to go to each show and give each show its

own love and or hate. I've gotten plenty of hate

iTunes reviews over the years. That's a story

for a different day. How do you use social media

to promote your podcast? So I'm pretty active

on Twitter. I typically take the same content

and throw it over at Facebook. We have some devoted

listeners on both of those platforms. I would

love to get rid of Facebook. I hate Facebook,

but I've got a bunch of loyal listeners over

there that only use Facebook and don't use Twitter

and vice versa. Wayne does the Instagram. I don't

really do Instagram. He's taken over the channel

over there, so it's different content over there.

He doesn't post quite as much as I do. He doesn't

work from home like I do. I'll throw a picture

of whatever I'm listening to while I'm working.

It's all about engagement, just trying to get

people engaged. I will say this. I think our

Facebook listeners are more listeners as opposed

to the Twitter. folks who I feel like they just

want to comment on my pictures and whatever I'm

listening to as opposed to really actually listening

to the podcast. That's the only downside I think

of social media is even though we're promoting

these episodes out there, people are not necessarily

coming to our social media for that. Yeah For

me if If a podcast Advertise and I know you guys

advertise your email. I just haven't had time

recently to send any email But normally if I

listen to a show and they advertise whatever

they want to be, you know use as connections,

I will go there after listening to an episode.

Like I said, I tweeted at you guys after the

Bruce Springsteen episode, the Born in the USA

episode. I'm like, hey, look what I did based

on what was said in this episode kind of thing.

It doesn't matter if it's Facebook or Twitter.

It just depends on which one I get to first.

It really doesn't matter. I know everyone wants

to get rid of Facebook, but sadly, I think Zuckerberg

and his minions are taking over the world. We'll

save that for another podcast. Yeah, that's a

whole other bag of worms, folks. I already know

what the answer is to this, but I have to ask

it anyway because I don't know if you're going

to do any other podcasts in your future. Not

that I ever want there to be an ending to Records

Revisited because you guys have so much to do,

but what is your favorite topic to discuss on

a podcast? It's music. Um, we, so I'm a big baseball

fan as well. Uh, in fact, last, last year I started,

I started recording, um, interviews with individuals,

uh, from the 1977 baseball season. And, um, so

I've, I've got, I've got a few episodes already

kind of written. and mapped out based off of

those interviews. Then my producer and researcher

unfortunately bowed out due to some personal

things. I was left holding the bag and it hasn't

come to fruition yet. We'll see. We'll see if

it ever Finds a light of day, but I I was thinking

about doing something in addition to records

or visit it was not going to be an either or

it was going to be both and Right. Yeah, it just

hasn't hasn't happened yet. So we'll we'll see

if it we'll see if it ever gets done. Hmm. I

don't think there was a moment like this, but

Again, these questions are basically modified

for podcasting based on other questions that

I've done. I have a Comic Origins episode format.

If you've been reading comics however long, there's

25 questions there. I transplanted them from

either show kind of thing. Was there ever a moment

where you felt like you were done with podcasting?

Yeah. Really? Yeah Yeah, we I kind of got burnt

out at the beginning of the year and I Yeah,

I I seriously thought that maybe we were we were

gonna be we were gonna Maybe turn it into maybe

a monthly podcast or a semi -monthly podcast

as opposed, you know, we do we do weekly And

then I threw out the idea of doing a Patreon

and seeing how loyal were our listeners. And

if they were willing to help defray the cost

of producing a podcast like this, and they exceeded

our wildest dreams on that. So, for now, I'm

still motivated to do it. We're kind of in a

lull right now. I feel like we haven't been able

to get any what I would call big name guests

lately, just because everybody is back on the

road now, after having not been on the road for

a year and a half. Right, right. And so, trying

to get somebody in the caliber of, you know...

Matthew Sweet or Ron Pope or Glenn Phillips of

Toad the Wet Sprocket or Matt Nathanson or somebody

of that caliber has been a little tough lately.

That's the only frustrating thing that we've

got right now. Not to say that our guests that

have been coming on haven't been great. people

like to see a little star power. So, you know,

when people saw that we had Matthew Sweet on,

they were like, oh, great Gatt. I mean, that's

awesome Gatt. Yeah, absolutely. It is. Yeah.

Yeah. When I first heard that first Matt Nathanson

episode, I'm like, hey, wait a minute. He's how

old? Yeah. Like, no, seriously, I am OK. So I

have only ever heard used to be. I need to check

out his other stuff and I plan to, but I only

ever heard used to be because it was on something.

I don't remember what it was on. It was on a

TV show. It was in a movie, something. I forget

what it was, but it was something that mattered

to me. It was something I was enjoying watching.

And then this song comes on. I'm like, Ooh, what

is this? I like, maybe it was in an episode.

I don't think it was this, but maybe it was in

an episode of the flash or something. I don't

remember what it was. So that's how I've known

his name because of that song. And I saw that

on the show. And I'm like, really, really? And

I listened to the episode. I'm like, holy crap.

He's like, literally, I thought he was like 30,

you know, 25 or 30. He's not. He's up there.

Yeah, he's not going to want to tell you how

old he is. I think he and I graduated high school

the same time, and I'm in my 50s, if that tells

you anything. Yeah. Hey, you know what? If I'm

still in my 50s doing this, I'll be happy, sort

of, I think. What do you see as the differences

being in podcasting versus doing a radio show

kind of thing? The flexibility of being able

to do it whenever the crap we want to. Yeah,

absolutely. That's the big thing. Being able

to do whatever we want as well. with our format,

we'd ever be able to do a radio show because

look, I mean, some of our episodes are an hour

long. And then there are some guests like Matt

Nathanson, like Scott Terry of Red Wanting Blue.

I mean, Scott is not, he's not somebody that

you're going to do an hour long episode with

because we just start vibing and talking and

And, you know, all of those episodes with Scott

are two and a half hours long, so. Yep. Fun.

Absolutely. They're fun. Yeah, absolutely. They're

fun, but they're a lot of work. That's right.

What advice do you have for new and veteran podcasters

in the art of podcasting? I would say for all

of the new podcasters is consistency, just making

sure that you are putting out an episode every

week, just being consistent with that, being

consistent with your format as well. Just consistency.

That's for the new ones. For the older podcast

podcasters, I'm just coming off of a trip of

about two weeks where I really didn't do much

for podcasting. I did all of the editing of episodes

prior to me leaving on my trip because I didn't

want to do any of it while I was on vacation.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. I just wanted to be

able to be in those moments. Take a break. That

would be my recommendation. Take a break. If

you feel like you're getting burnt out of what

you're doing, just take a break. This probably

goes contrary to what I was saying with the consistency

thing. Look, if we miss a week, I may get a couple

messages from some of the loyal listeners of

why wasn't there an episode, but I think for

the most part, nobody's going to pay attention.

Seriously, I don't think anybody's going to pay

attention because we've been doing it for so

long and been consistent for so long that if

we miss a week, I don't think people are going

to go. Are they done? But for early on, you've

got to make sure that that content is, you're

staying relevant, you're staying on top of it.

I would say for other younger podcasters, there's

so many things that have been done to death.

Like we we wanted to do something that was a

little bit different There's a ton of there's

a ton of podcasts out there that talk about albums

and go through the full albums I Think what we're

doing with our scoring. It's a little different.

Yeah, it's very different and and So don't don't

try and and do something that's already been

done, be a little bit different and find a niche

that's a little bit different. I mentioned Playlist

Wars. Give them a little plug. The previous podcast

that they did was TuneStyles, which was a music

podcast. They would do some interviews. They

would do some topics. It honestly was very similar

to other podcasts that were out there. But then

they latched on to this new concept where everybody's

got to put together a playlist, and then they

let the listeners vote on which of the playlists

is the best. And it's different. It's interactive

with your listeners as well, getting them to

vote. It's different and you've got to have a

little variety. You've got to have a little different

spin on whatever the topic is to make you stand

apart. I think that they've done a really good

job of being able to stand apart in a very short

time because they have that really great concept.

Yeah, absolutely. The other show and this will

be before the final question here The other show

that I know that I started listening to is music

talks podcast with Terry Smith He basically has

any guest on it doesn't matter who it is. It

could be his friends. It could be whomever I

was on there for an episode Where he takes you?

Through the decades of your life through music

you pick however old you are, you know You start

in the 50s, you pick 50s until the 2020s, and

the 2020 choice is kind of like a catch -all,

like what's the one song that you're kind of

listening to kind of thing, and then you tell

the story of your life through music. Yeah, it's

a different concept. Yeah, it's a different concept.

It's a unique format that both guests and listeners

really enjoy doing. All right, final question.

I thought we don't already know this, but some

people may not know. Where can the people find

your show? Just go to recordsrevisitpodcast .com.

That'll take you to our Potamatic page. We're

on every major platform. Just look for Records

Revisit Podcast. I've already mentioned Twitter.

I'm at Podcast Records there. We have a page

on Facebook. Just search for records or visit

podcasts there and then search for records or

visit podcasts on Instagram to find Wayne's content

as well. Absolutely. All right, folks, that's

going to do it for us. Thank you for joining

us here inside the studio. If you'd like to get

in contact with us, we'll leave feedback for

the show. There are several ways to do so. Visit

the website geekcastradio .com where you can

listen to... and comment on all of our content.

Send email to feedback at GeekCastRadio .com.

You can listen to us on all the podcast platforms

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to whatever. Follow us on Twitter at GeekCastRadio

is for the network at itsitsstudio2009 is for

the show. I am at TFG and Mike. Become a fan

of Facebook, go to facebook .com slash geek cast

radio network. You can also search out studio

2009 podcast over there as well. Coming up next

folks is probably going to be another podcast

approach because they are the simplest episodes

to do and they are really fun. And there are

things going on in my life that I will reveal

at a later date that require me to not have to

think so much. Although I will say. what Ben

has said with his story with podcasting and with

talking about Records Revisited and all the fun

they're having over there. It has been very enlightening

and it has kept me going for the last hour or

so before I just break down and start screaming,

but that's a story for another day. For now,

I'm TFG1 Mike with - This is Ben McCormick from

Records Revisited Podcast. You'll hear us back

in the studio soon.