337 – The 15th Anniversary Of The GeekCast Radio Network!!

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

Starscream, and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. You're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Unleash the geek in you. Welcome

to GeekCast Radio. This is the 337th episode.

Probably not in a row, but it is episode 337.

I'm, of course, Steve June Mike, and returning

for a second time in a row is Mr. Steve Megatron.

Hello, sir. How are you? Yo. Yo. I kind of forgot,

and I didn't listen to before to get it, but

I was like, ooh, we should go back to the old

days. This episode of Geekcast Radio was recorded

on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I forget how

we used to do that. That was ATTF. I know, but

we used to use it on other things, too. Yeah,

so as you're hearing this, folks, it'll be June

1st, which means 15 years. God, we're old. I

was. I just turned 29 and you just turned 29

minus 6. I don't know. 23? Yeah, I think that's

right. Wow, I can't believe I do math after 10

p .m. at night. Holy crap, folks. So how the

hell have you been? Pretty good. Working on a

new GCRN business card thing to hand out to people

when they're like, oh, you podcast? Oh, cool.

Yeah, I... I didn't forget how we started out

on the network and everything else, but some

of these early topics, I'm like, oh my god. And

we were very venomous. Well, yes, but not that

they're bad or anything, but like... The fact

that I had to do a .5 episode for the iPad way

back when in 2010, but... And the funny thing

is, is we... The website went online June 1st

of 2009, but every episode we did before and

after that, nothing is actually listed at June

1st for a podcast episode. And we started with

G .I. Joe Resolute. So we started with G .I.

Joe. Yeah, I remember that. Yep. We went to Star

Trek, television technology, the iPhone. I don't

even use Apple anymore nowadays. Hell no. Thing

is rotten in my mind, but it is what it is. I

was forced to use it for a laptop. Macs are alright.

They're just ass backwards. Yeah, they take twice

as long to do work. Is there the entertainment,

supposedly? Yeah. Faster and cheaper on a PC.

That's true. That's absolutely true. Holy crap,

15 years. Well, the website has gone through

a bunch of changes in 15 years. You want to talk

about that? You mean like back in the day when

I used to have to hard code the main page? That

sucked. Yeah. Like whenever we published a new

episode, I had to do it. Yep. It's not that I

didn't want to. I dumb. When it comes to that

kind of stuff. It wasn't even that. It was just

that there wasn't a lot of the automations that

there are now. When we started it, there were

no automations, pretty much. It was kind of the

Wild West. As far as... podcasting and WordPress

and stuff like that. Yeah. WordPress was a whole

hell of a lot different back then than it is

now. Like you, you had to have a plugin to put

YouTube videos. Now it's built in. You used to

have to have separate stuff for RSS feeds. Now

it's built in. So absolutely. And we wouldn't

be here without all the people between Optimus

Solo and P. Garcourt Michael, later on Movie

Revolt slash the comic concierge Dan Clark, everybody

that's ever joined me on the pull bag, everybody

that has ever joined us at all, like Lady Rack

and Beatles Diva and all those people. Booth

Ninja. Yep, Mike Booth Ninja Powers. I forgot

he was on the My Network TV Has Gone Down the

Tubes episode of GCR because, wow. Network TV

back in 2009 -2010, folks, it was a strange set

of circumstances. That's an understatement. Yeah,

absolutely. And, yeah, so... We've just done

so much in 15 years, and every time anyone approaches

us about the network, it's like, we got 15 years

of content. What? Huh? What? Oh, I know. When

I went to go port over recent content, they're

like, yeah, you have a lot of episodes. And I

was like, that we do. Yes, we do. And I think

it's a... Testament of what we've done all these

years, but most people, most web hosting services

and whatever else, like when you go to them and

say, hey, we have this number of episodes, blah,

blah, blah. Most people just start one podcast

or maybe two, maybe three, and then they'll start

one, they'll finish it, they'll go on to the

next one and create another new one. We're insane.

And we launched, with the network, we launched

Geekast Radio. ToonCast, Movie We Can Review,

and Optimus Solo launched the Telecast in the

first, before the whole first year was even done.

Like, when we launched on June 1st, I think MWire

came in July, but I think on that June 1st or

right around there, it was GCR, ToonCast, and

MWire, and then Telecast, and then MWire was

in July of 2009. And we've just, I said to somebody

the other day, I said, I don't know if it was

Kai or somebody. I was saying, so when we started

and throughout, I would say our first seven years

at any one time, we had 20 different shows, 20

different unique podcasts going at one time.

Yeah. I mean, at least, I mean, we usually had

like 13 at least concurrently going on. So I

was going through my photo archives, and I'm

sure you have this as well. You have plenty of

photo archives, but this is from a GCRN Year

9 folder where you just made one entire graphic

of all the shows. So at the time, way back in

Year 9, Altered Geek, All Things Transformers,

Beyond the Night. Comic concierge, cinema geeks,

double feature decades, which I never actually

did. I'm actually going to take that idea and

fold it into Studio 2009, but that's a topic

for another day. GCR and retro, not GCR and retro,

what the hell is this called? Well, it was after

2009 because... Altered Geek didn't exist until

like 2012, 2013. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. This

is year nine of the network is what I'm saying.

This is where this image comes from. No, no,

no. This is year nine. This is where the image

comes from. Extreme Retro Gaming, which was Booth

Ninja and Art Danner and Joe Reed. Extreme Retro

Gaming was never lifted off the ground. They

did off the cuff. I mean, it started as XRG,

but it came off the cuff. And then I was going

to revive the name. Yep. We got Mayhem Mics for

wrestlers. We got Legends of the Dark Knight.

We get Pixels in the Animation. Podmeets, Podcaster

Meets World. I can't say Podmeets World because

it's from shows, not us. Powers of Greyskull

series, thank God by now we're done. We actually

finished, outside of some of the Netflix shows,

we actually finished the initial run of that

with Optimus Solo and myself. Initially, we were

going to do the two filmmation shows, New Adventures,

and the 2002 Mike Young production show. And

then Netflix was like, hey, we have the Masters

of the Universe license. We're going to put more

shows out. I'm like, okay, fine, whatever. Let's

see. Remote Control, Showtime Synergy, Beast

Unleashed, ToonCast, ToonCast Beyond. You never

did do the Cyber Dragon Ball. I did one episode.

One episode of it? Yep. Transformation Animation,

obviously where I started, TFG1 Podcast, Talking

in Circles, Podcast, The Pull Bag, and Secret

Origins. So at least that's what's on this image

I have in front of me that I've plastered all

over social media at this point, most likely.

But yeah, it's been an interesting 15 years,

to say the least. Yeah, it's definitely been

that. Yeah, I think I counted at one point, but

I'm not going to count now, but over 20 or 30

or maybe even 50 voice actor and other interviews

that we've done and people I never thought we

would get to talk to. David Kaye, Gary Chalk,

Larry Kenney, Ian James Corlett, Maurice LaMarche.

Oh boy, I've told that story plenty of times.

If this is the first time you're listening to

the Heatcast Radio Network, folks, I thought

Maurice LaMarche was going to fly from California

to Kentucky to kick my ass. Because we broke

the news that he was the voice of Mr. Freeze

in Batman Arkham City. David Kaye has been in

three times. Rob Paulson's in once or twice.

Josh Keaton, Steve Bloom, Tara Strong. And that's

just the voice actors. We've done plenty of stuff

with Shout Factory way back in the day. You did

some specific other interviews for geeks and

things like that. Just very, very cool stuff

that you never thought you were ever going to

do. And thank you to everybody who has come on

for an interview with us because every single

one of them has been a blast. Not to bring this

show down, but I look at this interview page

and I'm like, that person's no longer with us,

that person's no longer with us. I think we've

got two or three people that we've interviewed

in 15 years that they have passed since we interviewed

them. Two of the biggest ones that I can remember

off the top of my head is David Wise and Larry

Dottilio. What else? What else? We've done, well,

part of that first year, in 2009 and 2010, Kevin,

I think you and Kevin, or maybe it was just Kevin

at first, sat through clicking through 100 pages

of a top 100 animated series list, and then he

was like, we can do this better. Yeah, I think

we both did. Yeah. I think I looked at it and

I'm like, okay, let me just see what's on page

56 just to see what that number is. I skipped

around. I was not clicking through every single

page of the IGN Top 100 Animated Series list

at the time then or now. But we have, I think

it's Toys was our eighth countdown overall. Yeah.

Yeah, it was the eighth countdown overall because

we had Toys, Transformers. A bunch of animated

series, animated films, animated characters.

We never did do a top 100 video games. You did

a top 50 video games two -part series that you

did. We've gone through so many different web

designs since 2009. I don't even remember what

it is now. I think it's just a world behind the

page here. That actually has been around for

quite some time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but

I'm saying, like, I don't, that's what I'm saying.

It's been around for so long that I don't remember

some of the older ones. I think that what I do

remember is when you tried to get all the animated

characters on each side, there was an animated

character, like, you threw Beast Wars Megatron

in there, you threw Beast Machines Megatron in

there, because you had shown them to me before

what the background itself would be behind what

the actual website is. So I remember some of

them, but man, oh boy. Those were the good old

days. Yeah, and what's funny about some of that

is do you remember when I used to have to handwrite

the RSS feed? Mm -hmm. Yep. You hated that. Oh,

yeah. Yeah, you hated that so much. I was like,

dude, this is over. We're done. I think that

was like year two, maybe by the time year two

rolled around, you were like, whatever. We won't

last 15 years later. Well, I did figure out.

automations i'm still working on patients pretty

much any way i can make it happen yep absolutely

absolutely and it's it's just been a blast i

can't see myself doing anything else really and

like you said in the last episode of geek cast

radio about when you were talking about the website

updates and things like that and where you're

like yeah you kind of took over the because i

need stuff to do i don't have a regular job this

is my quote -unquote job So I need to fill my

time with some stuff. And I remember you taught

me a little bit of how to hand code because I

remember some of the HTML stuff that I would

have to do to go in to change things and move

things around. Yeah, it was not a lot. No, no,

no, no. It wasn't. No, I'm not saying you turned

me into a super genius or anything. I'm just

saying you did. If you couldn't, like if there

was a day or whatever, because you were working

two or three different jobs back then where you

couldn't get to it, you're like, here, just do

this. And you show me an image or you'd write

it out. And I'm like, okay, fine. I can do that.

I learned some stuff. The editing has always

been an evolutionary process for me. I think

finding Levelator 2, which I forget when you

showed that to me, but ever since then it was

like, okay, if the audio is not leveled after

this, then it's not my fault. Yeah, it's just

not happening. I mean, I... And for me, I listened

to every single second going for like every episode,

no episode is more important or less important

than the next episode. I listened through every

single one of them. And now because we record

on two tracks, I have my editing process now

is insane. So I take one section of, I take one

file, uh, whatever in, in Adobe edition, I open

it up and I leave three tracks. Two tracks, like

if it's just a conversation between you, like

last episode of Geek Cast Radio, it was a perfect

example with two people. I took my track and

I took your track and I made sure they lined

up and everything else. And then I just listened

through them. And if we had an ad break or if

we had a thing where you had to go check on one

of your kids or whatever, it doesn't, I'm not

saying you did. I'm just using that as an example

or something like. I would just, in that third

audio track that I left open, I would just put

in a sound effect. So that way, once I export

it, and then take it through the Levelator, and

then put it in the actual episode project, I

know exactly where to edit that out, because

the transform sound might be somewhere in there

or something. So, yeah, my editing process has

definitely changed over the years, This is probably

plenty of things I still can learn, but I still

have the process of... This is why I don't listen

to our episodes after they're online. Because

I've already listened to them like four times

to make sure it's correct before it goes online.

And I get that. But I wouldn't want to be doing

anything else. We are in the middle of a... Well,

by the time you hear this, hopefully it'll be

finished. But as we're recording, we're in the

middle of a whole... migration thing. And when

you said that, and you're like, yeah, don't do

anything new with the art, I'm like, okay, fine.

I'm just like, okay, well, it means I can get

to writing. Yeah, that's true. That's not impacted

at all. No, because ever since 2019, I don't

know, it was right before the pandemic started.

At the end of 2018, going into 2019, I needed

to do something different. I needed to try to

do something different. different at the time

back then I was still listening to like morning

radio and stuff I don't listen to it anymore

because I live in a town where I don't know any

of the whatever nowadays but I would listen to

them like oh that's a good idea I should do that

and then I was like okay tf2 and mic 365 and

the whole idea is I write something one entry

per day for 365 days the entire year I think

in 2019 I got out like 60 days so two months

worth of writing versus a whole year uh from

2019 to 2023 i was going through a bunch of stuff

out in life so didn't do anything with that and

then 2023 when things finally settled down i

decided to bring it back and i think i wrote

something like 64 66 days so And as of right

now in 2024, I don't even know what it's up to

now. But the thought is you wake up, you either

look at something on the Internet and you give

your opinion of it or whatever. Or if you like

lately, I've got so many ideas in the boilerplate

for. And at this point, I'm just backdating the

writing. So if it's day 10 and whatever. Uh,

like, um, later this year, it's going to be interesting.

I'm going to do an episode, uh, entry where I

talk about the fact that it's been 30 years since

I first started writing in 1994. 1994 was the

first time I started writing poetry back in,

say I was 14. So that would be middle school.

Good Lord. I'm so old. So yeah, I used to write

a lot more than I do now. I used to edit a lot

more too, but yeah. I'll slowly get back there

again. That's funny. I remember a couple of times

when you wanted to get back into the editing.

I'm like, I use this, this, and this. Oh, you're

still using that. I'm like, yeah, it works. I'll

use that. As long as it works, I'll use it. Don't

need to go out and find new stuff if the stuff

we've been using for so long, like intro clips

and things like that. You're like, oh, that's

the ATGF. Yeah, that's the ATGF theme I'm using.

You're like, that's from like year three. I'm

like, hey. You know, I've gone through and I've

created a few new ones and done a few different

things and everything else. But none of this

wouldn't be, you know, between all the work you

put in, all the work I put in, and honestly,

all the work Optimus Solo and Dan puts in and

Pecan Court Michael and just everybody that just

shows up to talk, even if they're just showing

up to talk with us. Thank you to everybody because

this journey would not. And thank you to those

who have listened to us. My buddy Joshua Leonard,

he listens to us all the time. Who else? There's

Bondo Mike. He listens to us all the time. I'm

trying to think. I think what's interesting for

me, when I was a podcast listener from about

2006 to 2008, every podcast I listened to, I

interacted with. Maybe it's just how I am, but

if they wanted me to send a feedback email or

if one's social media really took off between,

Twitter and Facebook and all that stuff. It's

like, oh, send us a tweet or do this or that.

I was always so active as a listener, giving

feedback or giving thoughts as I listened to

episodes, things like that. And that's one thing.

We've gotten a lot of feedback in 15 years, but

not as much as I would have thought we would

have gotten. Well, we don't get as much anymore.

Right. As we used to. Yeah. And hopefully that'll

change this year. I've already noticed an uptick

in downloads since I essentially neutered the

ads. I'm still waiting to hear back from our

present host. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The less said

about that, the better. And we... Like I said,

we've created a bunch of new shows. We've brought

back some shows that were retired, things like

that. It's just fun. At the end of the day, even

though it's a lot of hard work, it's just still

fun for me to do it. The entire process. No,

and I agree with you. There have been some shows

I've tried to retire. There's been some shows

I've had to bring back. It's ETF. Um, but I mean,

like I, I still enjoy talking about some of them.

Yeah. Like in some of them we've, we've actually

retired. Yep. Well, and that was the thing. Like

not every show has to be currently as of 2024.

There hasn't been any new Knight Rider stuff

in a long time. I mean, unless I'm just going

to go unless, Dion and I are just going to go

to YouTube and search for Night Rider remixes

and review people who have done remixes of the

theme song. There is no Night Rider television

show to my knowledge. Currently there is no Night

Rider comic. There was one. It got two collected

editions out of it. Lion Forge used to do that.

I don't know where that license is now. You and

I kind of... Been talking Power Rangers lately

since you've been into that, but like Scotty

and I haven't done it from the command center.

I don't know. Scotty has had whatever life stuff

going on with him. I don't know. I haven't really

caught up with him that much. I actually tried

to. I asked him, what do you like to do? Because

I think as of right now, I have to look at a

different thing here, but I think we're, as of

right now, either right. Whatever the next episode

was going to be from the Command Center was going

to be the 70th episode, and I had messaged him,

and I said, hey, you want to come on and do kind

of a catch -up? Well, I don't have a computer

to do this, or I don't have a computer to do

that, or whatever it was. And I'm not blaming

him. That's just what he told me. I'm like, oh,

okay. But you and I did some of the comics, and

then my buddy Jesse Raz and I did the comics,

and we finished those off for Power Rangers.

Legends of the Dark Knight. Again, some of these

things were meant to be. Wanted like mass mayhem.

There isn't, I mean, yeah, we could cover the

mass comics that IW did briefly, but like once

you run through those 75 episodes, there's that

it's a single end point. Showtime synergy, unless

there's Jim comics out there right now, which

I know there aren't, uh, you know, it's the 25

episodes for the television show and then whatever

other episodes for the comics at the time. Beast

Wars and Beast Machines with the Beast Unleashed.

There's only so much you can do with that. Yes,

we did bring it back with the Beast Wars comic

that IDW did. Same thing with TFG1. I still plan

on... That's an interesting thing, though. TFG1

was only 24 episodes initially, not counting

supplementals or any kind of update episode,

but generally, from Season 1, Episode 1 to Season

4, Episode 98, that was it. That's all it was

going to be for Generation 1, whereas now I'm

thinking, oh, we could do 15 years of TFG1, and

we could interview people about their thoughts

on Generation 1 or whatever. I haven't really

done anything with that yet, but that was the

thought of bringing that back kind of thing.

And probably what I'm going to do is I'm going

to put this episode, as you folks are hearing

it, on all of these feeds. At least most of them,

not all of them, but most of them. So that way,

everybody's like, oh, it's been 15 years. We

should check in with them. Yeah, you should.

But, like, and the same thing with transformation

animation. Animated had, you know, however many

episodes Transformers Animated had. Like, we

specifically were doing start, end. for certain

shows, whereas Geekcast Radio or Tooncast or

Movie Week in Review or Altered Geek or All Things

Transformers, hello, it's in the name, All Things

Transformers, there's tons of Transformers stuff

happening all the time. So there's... That there

is. You know, and to a certain extent, same thing

with Star Trek. I know there are plenty of people

out there besides us that do a whole Star Trek

podcast all the time. with the various things,

but, you know, it is what it is. And it just

kind of worked. It just kind of worked for us,

where we could go and talk about general geeky

things on Geekcast Radio, or bring up geeky topics

on Altered Geek, or get certain interviews for

any of the shows. Like I mentioned earlier, after

15 years, I can't believe half the guests we've

gotten. It is quite surprising, to be honest.

Yeah, there's still plenty out there that we

would love to get, but... Very grateful for the

ones we've gotten. And as I mentioned, David

Kaye's been on three times. I think, and I'm

not trying to brag or anything about this, but

I think we have the Guinness Book of World Records,

potentially, and I doubt this is actually true,

but the Guinness Book of World Records... of

interviewing stan bush i know he is the one of

if not the longest running recurring interview

guest because every time the man puts a new album

out i'm like hey stan you want to come on the

show and talk about the new album and he shows

up stan bush here and you're about to transform

and roll out only on the geekcast radio network

And it's just fun because you create a rapport

with these guests and you tell them, hey, next

time you want to come on to promote something

or any new projects or any anything, let us know.

And that's how we've gotten those return guests

and things like that. We've had plenty of collaborations

over the years outside of the network. Mark Baumgarten,

Eduardo M. Freyer, and everybody over at MarkWho42.

We've been syndicating their stuff for years

now, and that's something we don't do. Okay,

so I tried Doctor Who, but... I don't know if

it was the way somebody told me to watch the

thing or if I watched it wrong or whatever, but

basically someone was like, oh, you just need

to watch this one episode, then watch this, then

watch this. And this is the specific 2005 and

forward. This is not classic Doctor Who from

the 60s. This is the modern one that they told

me to do. And somebody told me to listen to the,

not listen to, to watch the, I think it was the

Rose episode or something or other. And I was

just like, yeah, the same for me. And that's

the greatest thing about our partner program,

even though we don't promote it as much as we

should or as much as we used to. We can have

people like Mark and his team come in and we

can have a Doctor Who podcast on the network

that isn't you and I doing it because even I

get stretched thin at times. And it gets, you

know, there's certain topics we just don't care.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, and that's fine.

Like we, even though we would love to be the

ultimate geek hub, we can't fit all of geekdom

into the geek cast radio network. It's just not

possible because geekdom is, is just so large.

Like there's 7 billion people on this planet

and at least God knows what the percentages of

that is, is, is our geeks, no matter what age

they are, young, old, whatever. And that's why

I like going, like, if I go on somebody else's

show or if you go on somebody else's show, usually

it was, when we would do that, it was usually,

like, something we don't talk about. But we were,

we may have watched it or we may have heard it

or we may have this or we may have that kind

of thing. With the name, I do remember this email

thing. I don't think we ever did anything with

it because I think we actually turned it down.

Apparently, somebody thought we were a radio

station once. Because I remember you forwarded

me an email. Yeah, I remember you forwarded me

an email. Just if you use that part of the name,

they assume that it's a radio station. I just

had to explain to them, no, we're a podcast network.

We talk about movies and TV shows and cartoons

and many geeky different things. So where the

future goes, I don't know. Yeah, we don't know.

You know, it's all about that imperfection when

it comes to futures, right? Yep. Life is like

a box of podcasts. You never know what you're

going to listen to. And only time will tell.

I mean, we played around with a bunch of different

ideas over the years, like possibly doing subscriptions,

possibly doing live streams, possibly doing some

other stuff. And one, it helped me. in my job

market because i knew how to do some of these

things but i got to play around with it i got

to set it up i got to try it out and it worked

i just i could never pull the trigger on the

live stream because we just didn't have the infrastructure

at the time to do it right and then uh as far

as the membership thing I thought about like

selling like bonus content for us and having

like memberships and subscribers and that kind

of stuff. And then I was kind of looking at where

people were, you know, career wise, economy wise.

And I was like, this is not a great idea. Yeah.

And we ended up scrapping the idea. Yep. And

funny enough, now podcast hosts are like, hey,

let's charge people to watch your shows on top

of commercials or aside from commercials. And

I'm like, I don't know, man. Yeah, I don't I

don't see it taken off the way people think.

Yeah, not not for us specifically, because. A

perfect example, I don't care what podcast it

is, I don't care what video series it is, whoever

it is, I don't care. But if somebody has a Patreon

and they say, oh, well, if you pay us a dollar

or two dollars, you can get the episode early.

I'm going to do all the work on the episode and

put it out when I want to put it out. You'll

get the damn podcast when I give it to you. I

don't think anyone's going to pay me for two

-day early access kind of thing. And honestly?

Most of the time, because my recording is such

as it is, where I'm recording all the time most

of the time, there was a week and a half to two

weeks at the end of 2023 where besides what you

and I do with Altered Geek or with ToyCast or

with Studio, whatever we're doing, outside of

the nights that you and I record, I was recording

every other single night. For like two and a

half... Studio 2009... I said this in, I think,

last week's episode. Well, I can actually look

now that I have the website pulled up. But Studio

2009, I think... I think it had close to 17 releases

between Halloween and New Year's Eve last year.

What? Only because I was doing so many things

with it and so many whatevers with it and...

And, yeah. I just normally, and I've said this

before, and people know this for the last 15,

16 years I've been doing it, normally I slow

down. By Halloween, I'm like, okay, it's turning

into holiday season, and no one's really going

to, even after coming out of the pandemic and

everything else, no one's really going to pay

attention to stuff that much during holiday time.

Sometimes they might. Most times they won't.

And it is what it is. Normally by Halloween,

I slow down for two months between Halloween

and New Year's Eve. I'm like, okay, let's cut

back. Let's do a little special thing here. Let's

do the Christmas episode if we want to do one.

Let's go ahead and do the New Year's Eve episode

so we can close out the year and go into the

new year kind of thing. Yeah, starting November

30th of last year, there were, between then and

December 31st, there were at least 11 new episodes

of Studio 2009. I just kind of went hog wild

and I'm like, okay, let's just do it. I don't

know if it was something where I just needed

to get through Christmas or if I just needed

to do whatever, but I just was on a recording

kick. I've tried to, like if I do a whole recording

week, like I said, if I record with you, if I

record with somebody else, if I record with somebody

else, I, unless the episode has to be out that

week, Most of the other recordings I'm doing

are pre -recordings, so I can just leave it until

the next week. And then that next week, I'll

do one or two shows recording. But the rest of

that second week would be me editing stuff and

getting it ready to go. And we don't even want

to bring up the top 100 Transformers characters

countdown. That was insane. You want to talk

about insane. I was out of my mother. Mind. Mother

Megatron mind. Because, yeah, 100 hours it took

me to do that, and I was counting it in real

time. I think it was the first time, by the time

I published this article, which was March of

2022. So in 2021, I'm about to lose my voice,

so start talking. Ooh. Technical difficulties.

Let's move on, shall we? Yeah, you're talking

about the top 100s, right? Yeah, the Transformers

one specifically. Yeah, that one, I remember

you spent way too much time on that. But so did

I. I did a lot of the numbers by doing the voiceover.

Yeah. Yeah, you did. But, like, what does it

take to produce a podcast? Outside of the recordings

that we record, what does it take? Well, for

the Tom 100 Transformers Characters Countdown,

How we've always done our countdowns when animation

is or live action or whatever is involved we

usually get a clip of the character so we need

a clip for Barricade we need a clip for Megatron

we need a clip for Soundwave we need a clip for

Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime and all this stuff.

So that was the first part of it, was getting

all the clips. And getting all the clips for

the intro, because those, I think it's seven

episodes for the Top 100 Trips? I don't know,

whatever. Anyway, you know, we did a specific

intro where Optimus Solo or myself or you would

say something, and then a clip of whichever character

would interrupt us kind of thing. But yeah, I

remember between those seven episodes, like I

said, in total, Over a week and a half, it was

100 hours of work. And I'm not complaining when

I say that. I'm just stating the fact. It was

100 hours worth of work for just under 12 hours

of published, produced audio content. And I remember,

I think it's either part four or part five. One

of the parts I was following at the time, because

this was when Karen was still alive. She's like,

are you coming to bed? No, I got to finish this.

30 minutes later, she walked out 30 minutes later.

Literally, my head is hanging down like this.

She's like, are you awake? I'm like, yeah, yeah,

yeah. And I had to realign four different audio

tracks because I fell asleep editing with my

hand on the mouse. And then for some odd reason,

I kept clicking and clicking. I had to go back

and fix stuff. And yeah, that was a lot. But

at the end of the day, though, I'm still really

proud of that. Regardless of whatever I went

through during the production, we have what I

would like to think is the ultimate Transformers

characters countdown. I'm not going to sit here

and say it's the best overall blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. But we have a full -on audio -produced

countdown that if people want to listen to it,

if they want to hear... our specific opinions

on what these 100 Transformers characters are,

here you go. The top 100 Transformers. Any of

the countdowns, honestly. Any of them. And, yeah.

So, it was just one of those things where I was

like, I don't know if I'm going to finish this

tonight. I don't know if I'm going to... I remember

there was one, it was either episode 3 or 4,

where it literally was, unless I had to go to

the bathroom, I was awake for 13 and a half hours

editing one of those episodes. I just had to

do it. I'm trying my best, even though we are

explicit here at the Geek S Arena. I just had

to fucking do it. I just wanted to get it done.

I wanted to get it to the point where I could

export the damn thing and just have it be done

before I go to sleep. I remember that night.

That night or that morning or whatever the hell

it was, Karen went to bed at the time, and by

the time she was getting up for the next morning,

I was going to bed because it was just like,

yeah. And I think I slept for like a day and

a half after that because I was tired as hell.

But everything I've just said, folks. It's not

a complaint. I'm not complaining about it at

all. It's just how it was. That was just what

I was doing because I wanted to get it done.

Not that there was a deadline or anything or

all that. I just want, as we recorded those parts,

if we recorded parts one and part two, before

we recorded part three, I had parts one and part

two edited and complete. By the time we finished

recording part three and we were starting to

record part four, part three was finished editing

and ready to go. I just wanted to have some sort

of linear thing of doing it on top of the other

one because if I waited too long, we published

that during the holiday season that year. I remember

that. I would forget. That's what happens a lot

of times nowadays ever since. So this was 2021,

two years before that I had brain surgery. If

it's not right in front of me and I'm not working

on it right then and there, most of the time

I will forget. Thank God spoilers don't affect

me. Spoilers never really affected me anyway,

but I always tell people now spoilers won't affect

me because by the time I get to reading or listening

to or watching whatever it is or playing whatever

video game it is, I will have forgotten whatever

the hell was spoiled to me. That's just the way

my brain works. What else do you want to say

for the 15th anniversary, or are we about done?

I think that about wraps it. I mean, I've got

a ton of ideas planned for this year as we eclipse

the 15 -year mark, so we'll see what happens.

I can only imagine what five years from now is

going to happen. I bet my beard will be whiter

than it is now. You never know. Hey, you never

know. Maybe it was just a Santa Claus filter.

Who knows? I don't know. Again, folks, thank

you so much for listening. Thank you to everybody

who has ever contributed, even if you're just

someone who threw in a top 100 list to us. Like

I said in the beginning of the show, Peacock

Michael, Optimus Solo, Comic Concierge, slash

Moverable Dan. Everybody that I've ever had on

the pull bag, Ryan, and even Flo Merkley, Ryan

and I have done a lot of stuff with the pull

bag, and that just hit its 12th anniversary?

No. 11th. I don't know. What the hell? 2013 to

2024. Yeah, 11th. Yeah, in the 11th year. Whatever.

Anyway, it's funny. I actually just released,

I just wrote up a road to 600 and 700 episodes

for the pull bag. I don't think any of the other

pod... No one's as ambitious as I am with the

pull bag. I don't think any other podcast that

we ever do is going to eclipse the pull bag's

episode number. I'm insane. So they say. But,

yeah, stay tuned, everybody. We got a bunch of

cool stuff coming this year for 15 years and

other stuff. We are still in the process of figuring

out relaunching Future Imperfect, which is now

Altered Trek. So we've got that going on. The

Pull Bag, we've got whatever I'm doing with the

Pull Bag. ToonCast, we're going to record something

for that recently. I forget what the hell the

topic was, but we're going to record an episode

of ToonCast. And I'm sure we'll have a whole

bunch of other stuff for this year as well. And

yes, folks, this was actual intelligence, not

artificial intelligence, that brought you this

podcast episode. Close us out. Thank you, as

always, for listening to Geekcast Radio and the

Geekcast Radio Network and all of the podcasts

on the network. We thank you greatly. You can,

of course, comment on the episode on the website

or on our social media platforms. You can subscribe

to us on your favorite podcatcher, as long as

they don't go out of business. I'm looking at

you, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts. Yeah, Google

Podcasts. But, yeah, so until next time, unleash

the geek in you.