The Evolution and Future of Podcasting

Hey everybody, it's Chuck and Stacey from VO

Buzz Weekly. And you are listening to Geek Geek,

Geek, Geek, Geek, Geek, Geek, Geek, Geek, one

more, one more. This part has been edited. Ha

ha ha, you'll never know what was actually here.

Maybe you should play something else. This is

Jason David Frank, and you're listening to the

Geek Cats Radio Network. I am too smart. S -M

-R -T. I mean S -M -A -R -R -T. Hello and welcome

to Geekcast Radio. This is episode 61. I am one

of your hosts, TFG and Mike. Joining me is Steve

Megatron. Hello. Hello. Oh my god, two episodes

kind of in a row. Yay! Plus we've had a couple

of interviews on this feed lately. Originally...

In the five years that the GeekCaster Radio Network

has been online, we have basically dropped the

football every year when it comes to April Fool's.

We've had so many cool ideas for an April Fool's

joke every year. And this year we were gonna

do, we're still gonna call it Podcast of Destruction,

but Podcast of Destruction originally was going

to be all of us saying, fuck it, we're done.

Five years and the network isn't gonna last anymore,

it's gone. Sadly, that's not what this episode

is going to be. And joining us for this is this

week in Geeks Birdman. Hello, sir. Good morning,

afternoon, wherever the hell you are in this

giant blue marble we call home. Blue and green,

yes. Well, I don't know about how much green

there is left. It's debatable. Yeah. And Podcast

of Destruction, Episode 61 of Geekcast Radio

Network is going to be, or Geekcast Radio I should

say, is going to be us talking about podcasting.

We've got several different topics here, but

first Steve what have you been up to? Working

on websites namely and What's the head namely

his because I don't know what I'm doing Yes,

I'm performing surgery with a pipe wrench That's

how we roll He's dead Jim Uh, yeah, that and

the process of buying a house. Awesome. And Mike,

what have you been up to? God, it feels like

forever since you and I recorded together. Yeah,

it really has been. For myself, well, doing This

Week in Geek still, depending on when this airs,

I think we should have our Harold Ramis episode

out. I've been playing a lot of video games and

playing a lot of a game called Titanfall, probably

one of the best multiplayer experiences I've

had in a really long time, and finally turning

on my PlayStation 4 after what seems like five

months to play Metal Gear, aka the glorified

demo, and kind of doing some other projects still

doing these warriors are terrible. with some

of the twig guys and some of the other people

that I work with. And yeah, that's been pretty

much my life ever since. Awesome. Awesome. All

right. So we are going to take a quick break

and then we are going to talk about the art of

podcasting after this. Hello, Geeks. Want a podcast

that covers a vast array of topics with no rhyme

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on the GeekCast Radio Network. Uh, Sage Orbis,

is it that time? The House Party Protocol, sir?

Correct. The Pull Bag is GCRN's comic book review

and discussion -based podcast. Join me, your

host, TF2 and Mike, and the rest of the GCRN

crew as we make our way through the comics we

are reading. Inside The Pull Bag, you'll also

find back -issue classics and origins episodes

of how we got into comic reading. You can find

The Pull Bag every Wednesday on iTunes and on

www .geekcastradio .com. Make your great escape.

into comics and jump into the pull bag today.

So first up the first topic we're just kind of

gonna go around the room and each of us tell

how we got into podcasting and since Mike is

well Mike actually went to school for broadcasting

so I think we should let him go first. What was

it? What started it all for you? I wanted five

percent added to my final grade. Yeah, that's

literally how it started. What happened is I

originally got started with my friend Steve Saylor

and he asked me to come on his show this week

in Geek at the time because his original co -host

bailed on him. I'm thinking, yeah, sure, I can

talk geek. Fuck, I can talk geek for hours. And

so January 29th, 2007 we did our first show together

and I originally went to school for television

I was the technical and audio director for Roger's

Owen sound and I discovered man radio is really

fun and Then Steve told me about this thing called

podcast. I'm like, well, what the fuck is that

and It turns out we can take recordings of our

radio show put them on put them on the internet

and people can listen to them and I'd only recently

become aware of podcasting because the only The

only podcast I was listening to was a show called

Star Wars Action News by Arnie and Marjorie Carvello.

And that's the only one that I really knew about.

So after doing podcasting for a few months, we

kind of expanded upon it and discovering you

can do enhanced podcasting. We could actually

do podcasting on location. This is before you

could stream audio too, really. I mean, other

than the kind of music. And we just found out

we could do so much with this format. And this

is really when, excuse me, when like audio podcasting

was just starting to get huge. Um, it was really

cool. Uh, we went to this thing in Toronto at

Ryerson university called a pod camp We went

there, spoke with all these other people who've

been doing podcasts for years, and there were

other people in our craft. One of the guys we

met there was a guy named Chris Brogan. Huge

podcast dude, does a lot of good work in the

community. Does a lot of really cool motivational

speaking about basically engaging tech companies

and engaging technology in your everyday thing.

And so me and Steve kind of integrated what he

taught us. And we just kind of kept going. It's

funny because when we finished the year at Niagara,

which is the college we are both going to, we

got our extra five to 10 percent on our on our

final radio grades, which is great. And then

we just kept doing the show during the summer

because we asked the school specifically, can

we podcast? If we have our own RSS feed, can

we? Can we distribute them? They're like, yeah,

sure. Why not? And we can keep the name of the

show, right? They're like, yeah, it's yours.

Ha ha ha, their mistake. And yeah, we've been

podcasting for seven years now. Awesome. Awesome.

What about you, Steve? Where did you start? Funny

enough, I got involved because I started listening

to This Week in Geek. I I have to preface this

saying that I was doing podcasts I actually started

out doing The voiceover thing and then I started

doing Podcasts on TF wire, but I didn't really

get serious about doing my own shows again Or

even a network until I started listening to twig

I used to punch in the the live stream right

into my iTunes and every morning I remember doing

those on Friday mornings yes and I would sit

there at work doing my job I would hurry up get

everything I need gathered at my desk so that

I could go sit down plug my headphones in and

listen to the show for an hour and then I'd have

to try not to laugh and I actually that's I think

how I got started with Twitter's because I heard

you guys pimping out your Twitter's and then

I was like oh I'll bullshit with them on there

and then that's pretty much how I got to speak

to both of you around the same time so yeah small

world I know yeah It's yeah, and then after that,

you know Steve had his show on on TF wire and

he had his own show all things transformers and

for me it was November December 2008 by that

time I had been listening to When I first set

out looking for podcasts, it was, oh, hey, I

can find my local radio station, or my former

local radio station in Boston that does morning

show, Lauren and Wally 105 .7 WROR. And I had

been listening to these guys as a morning show

in Boston for years, like since I was a kid.

So I was like, okay, I live in Louisville, Kentucky

now. I can't exactly get that radio station.

Unless you... pay for it. But anyway, it's one

of those things where I'm like, okay, well, I'll

see what's on here. And I started looking around,

looking around, and I saw something called World's

Finest Podcast. And I, at the time, the DC animated

universe was really huge. Justice League was

going strong, Justice League Unlimited. I'm like,

oh, okay, cool. So this is the creators talking

about their, and then I realized, oh no, it's

just two guys reviewing the show. And I was like,

okay, cool, I can get into this. They had...

a hundred podcast episodes dedicated to reviewing

every single episode of Batman the Animated Series,

Superman, Teen Titans, Batman Beyond, the digital

Gotham Girls series, the Lobo series, the web

series, Justice League and Justice League and

Lemon, and I'm like, all right, very cool. And

then I think after I started listening to them,

I had found This Week in Geek and talked to Mike

and everything else, and it's just kind of taken

off from there in December of 08. I found myself

in a fairly easy job as an apartment manager

that basically all I had to do was report crap

to my supervisor. I didn't really have to do

anything hands -on. And I'm like, okay, so I

have all this extra time. What am I gonna do

with it? Because I have a job that I basically

work like four hours a day. I said, okay, podcasting.

And one of the biggest points of advice that

Michael David Sims, the host of World's Finest

Podcasts on R2 .net, didn't say to me directly,

but said to his listeners was, find a topic that

you're passionate about and you can talk about

it. I'm like, okay, well, what am I passionate

about? Transformers, I can talk about the 84

Transformers G1 cartoon, that's easy. And then

Steve and I had met up on Twitter at some place,

and I'm like, because I was already following

you, Mike, and I'm like... Who the hell is this

guy? Who's this asshole? It wasn't really who's

this asshole. That's more of the Canadian thinking

process. But I was like, who's this guy? Do I

know this guy? And he knew, like... you know

jesse from tf wire and i kind of kind of didn't

know jesse personally i still don't really know

jesse personally but i you know i've known him

online a little bit and podcasted with him a

couple of times i'm like all right cool and back

in the old days in the early days i recorded

all my stuff and steve did everything else nowadays

i'm recording editing steve does editing still

uh and he does run the website very very smoothly

and everything else and we were like hey after

a while of getting tired of talking about Transformers.

We're like, hey, let's talk about other stuff.

Let's create a network. This was early, like

the first three months of 2009. And by June 1st,

we had the Geekcast Radio Network. We've been

going strong five years. We've had multiple review

shows, some good, some bad. We've got this flagship

show, Geekcast Radio. In the last five years,

I cannot tell you how many interviews I've done

with voice actors, musicians, writers. It just

astounds me how many interviews that I've done

in the past five years. But yeah, that's pretty

much how... I got started and it was it's still

a really fun journey for me I'm finding more

things that I I find that I've done shifts of

stuff where okay I'm really big on animation

so I'll do this show for X number of episodes

and then I'll put it on hiatus and come back

to it I'll do this toy podcast for X number of

episodes, and then, well, when a certain toy

company decided to screw me over, I'm like, oh,

no, I'm done with toys, and now I'm into comics,

and I'm going comics full tilt right now, both

new and old stuff with our show, The Pull Bag.

So, all right. So, Steve, what are some of your

outside of Mike and stroking his very, very large

ego? That's not all that's large. Is Canadian

testicles. That's right. Is Canadian bacon. Is

maple -y. Who were some of your influences getting

into podcasting? Who were some of your people

that you looked towards? Well, I mean, besides

Twig and the stuff that I learned from TF Wire.

Well, I listened to a variety of podcasts there

was Voices calm because I'm interested in voice

acting so I listened to that I would also listen

to There were there were various transformer

ones like transformers anonymous Which kind of

started around the same time that I did all things

transformers Or at least started that show there

was also I had listened to this week in tech

Because it's basically like tech TV the screensavers

or That kind of show I used to listen to a lot

of that It's it's been kind of a multitude of

those I mean it's been mostly tech shows or geeky

shows, but I find that As I go on, there are

certain shows I just don't listen to anymore.

Yeah, I've found that too. But I would say that

it was pretty much those shows. I do have to

attribute that a lot of it's been the fact that

I did TF Wire and I listened to Twig, so that

kind of set me off on that mission. What about

you, Mike? Who were some of your podcasting influences?

I mean, yeah, sure, you guys get started in college

radio, but after that, taking Twig on your own.

Truthfully, nobody, because I didn't really listen

to a lot of people for podcasting. I did. I did.

However, I would say there's some radio influences.

I would venture. I would say Wolfman Jack could

be one. Howard Stern is a huge influence on me.

And you can tell just by the way that I talk.

I'm trying to think of other people. You know,

I really don't have a lot of good answers for

this question, because like I said, at the time,

I didn't listen to a lot. I would say our...

Arnie and Marjorie Carvello, because I liked

how informative they were in in their shows.

They're extremely well researched. So that definitely

influenced me in terms of getting shit right

as often as you can. And when you don't know

something, tell people. Howard Stern, I'd say

when it comes to my sense of humor, because I

figure if. If you're going to be funny, be all

in or all out. It's sort of the whole I can't

remember who said it, but it's something like

you can either make fun of everything or you

can make fun of nothing. You can't draw that

line in the sand. The whole freedom of speech

thing. And I'm trying to think of other people

who would be an influence on my broadcast career.

I would say people like Eddie Murphy, for sure.

The guys who did South Park Prince, anybody who's

controversial. I would say is someone that I

kind of look up to. The Jerky Boys, if you remember

them from way back in the day. Oh, yeah. Oh,

my God. I was the king of prank calls. But yeah,

I mean, stuff like that is where I'd say I've

drawn a lot of my influence. Now, I'd say more

recently, people that I like to kind of grab

little bits and pieces from their stuff is I

like listening to Mike and Ming on I sell comics

on Smodcast. I also like I think I'm actually

gonna open my my like iTunes. I want to see who

I'm subscribed to I only listen to podcasts when

I'm cleaning My like really? Yeah. Well, that's

the only time I really do is cuz I cuz I can

sit there Listen to that while I'm doing something

else because I don't have to have the visual

component with it I also listen to another show

done by Pat the NES punk and that's Pat Contri

and his friend Ian Ferguson and they're the completely

unnecessary podcast and they cover a lot of subjects

in video games like video game collecting pricing

stuff like that and I really like how once again

well thought out Pat is when it comes to how

well research is because he's such an authority

in the retro gaming community. in terms of knowing

his shit. He's the guy to like go to besides

him and maybe Gamester 81. I watch more video

podcasts than I used to. I like watching the

guys from Rooster Teeth. Another guy I've kind

of poached from his style would be Craig Skismis

from like Screw Attack. In fact, one of the best

pieces of advice he ever gave me was be bigger

than what you are. And I've always interpreted

that to mean to walk into the room like you own

it. Don't be arrogant about it because that will

piss people off. but be confident in what you

know and what you can do. And people will gravitate

towards you naturally. And yeah, I mean, I've

learned a lot from Craig. I love the way that

he does things. In fact, whenever I introduce

a show like for Twig or Review a Day, it's always

like, hey, guys, what's going on? That's how

he started Side Scrollers, which was there, which

was his audio podcast for us, which the video

a couple of years ago for like five, six years.

and I've never realized until pretty much this

moment right now. Man, I've been copying Craig

for that amount of times. I think he's been a

very big influence on me. That's all I can think

of off the top of my head. Awesome. What about

you, Steve, outside of Mike? As far as what I

listen to now? Influences, yeah. I've been listening

to, for instance, the Audacity to Podcast. More

so because I'm trying to see if there's things

to podcasting that I'm unfamiliar with and trying

to learn some new stuff. So it's more or less

to help me hone my skills a little bit more if

I don't know something. I like another show called

the Justice Geeks podcast. I like their weird

dynamic that they have because everybody's sitting

in the same room and having these weird conversations

and they do these mock skits that I find entertaining.

And for a short time, I did deep thoughts skits

over there. Other podcasts in various characters

whether it be Charlie Sheen and when I say Charlie

Sheen I mean crazy tiger blood Charlie Sheen

and or Beast Wars Megatron or Various Frank Walker

voices or stuff like that, but um No, I like

how they they have the segmented show and then

how they go through things So I've been kind

of trying to emulate some of the things with

altered geek and kind of putting my own spin

on some of it I've also been listening to like

Kevin Smith with the fat man on Batman and stuff

like that trying to get a a feel for more kind

of free -flowing show rather than having structure

because I'm kind of one of those structure Nazis

I like things a certain way and I don't like

deviation so it's Kind of like Mike with the

website. I'm glad way with the podcast So if

that's something I've been having to listen to

and try and change And then I listen to a bunch

of other various shows that are kind of specific,

but I don't really take much away from them You

know at this point I don't myself in the beginning

I would say that you know Dodd and snowball and

the original twig crew before I joined and had

to run the stuff for about a year and a half

or so a couple years ago You know outside of

that. I would say like I said before Michael

David Sims and James Doe from Earth to net You

know that like world's finest podcast was my

number one go -to because at the time as I said

Justice League was really big Nowadays, I may

be outside of making sure my own content is correct

after upload and you know that you know being

subscribed to my own stuff just to double check

it same here i'm sorry i really don't i found

myself that most of the shows that i used to

listen to i barely listen to now and i find myself

listening to three i'm about to drop one because

the one of the main hosts on is just uber obnoxious.

i listen to three after buzz tv shows, after

buzz tv network. basically i watch dallas, the

blacklist, and the americans and i listen to

their after shows reviewing that that night's

episode because they come and sit down like an

hour after they've watched it and they they go

live and review it and they have it out the next

day as a podcast. but other than that i really

don't I really haven't been listening to a lot

of like regular topical shows that much I just

because I'm now a content producer I just don't

feel the need to listen to a lot of stuff. It's

not that I don't want to, it's just that because

I'm produced, like me and my time, I have all

the time in the world. Podcasting technically

is my job, even though I don't get paid at it.

And I honestly, I don't mind not getting paid

because I actually enjoy the job. I actually

enjoy having to sit down and edit an hour and

a half of podcast material and putting clips

in and making it sound like an actual, maybe

a TV show or radio. show you might hear somewhere.

So, you know, most of my time is put into production

and making web posts and everything else. So

the next thing we're going to talk about is fuck

the zombie apocalypse. It's the podcast apocalypse.

How far has and how fast has podcast podcasting

taken off? I mean, it seems like everyone And

their dog has a podcast now. Well, yeah, because

the the the technology's never been more available

and it's never been easier to use than it has

been in the last, especially the last three or

four years. You know, just because like like

hell, you could podcast from your iPhone and

I think there are after you can podcast from

your iPhone and post it to iTunes from there.

Yeah, I'm 99 % sure of that. Um, yeah, I mean,

it's really I'm really impressed with how far

Podcasts podcast has come. I'm really happy Certain

celebrities have really embraced it too. Most

notably with Kevin Smith. I never knew he was

such a podcast junkie Stuff like that with a

smog cast. Yeah. Well Kevin is a talker. He's

As much as I like the guys movies and as much

as I like his his his lecture specials his evenings

with The only one I can really listen to right

now is fat man on Batman because because of the

guests that he brings on there I will say the

one kind of nitpick I have on fat man on Batman

I don't know if he still does this now, but in

the beginning like the first 15 episodes, maybe

he would put like Six ads right up front back

to back to back to back to back before the show

even started and then he would go into Because

he is such a talker because let's face it sound

Bob ain't so silent He would make like this 11

and a half minute introduction of every guest

every episode And I get it. He's a talker. He's

a filmmaker He likes to do is his shtick and

that's all well and good, but I just I don't

after a while But yeah, celebrities, you know,

getting into podcasting that that's kind of interesting

at this point. I kind of like how certain TV

shows have companion podcasts to them now. Like

you mentioned the shit ton. I enjoy it. I like

how Comic Book Men has one spun off of it. And

I like the fact that there's ones for pretty

much every niche. If you want to talk about toys,

you can do that. You want to talk about complex,

you can do that. You want to talk about. Video

games in a certain system. You can do that. You

want one about gardening. It probably exists

Yeah, it does there are literally there's literally

no limit to what topics can be covered because

someone probably does it Well, cuz someone's

probably interested in it. Yeah What about you

Steve? What are your thoughts on the explosion

of podcasts? Almost I think that I mean, it's

a good thing only for the fact that It's I Like

the fact that it's it's readily available and

it's easy to do But it also means that you get

some real piss poor quality podcasts out there

Yeah, and and when I say that I I don't mean

to be mean I mean I do but I don't Some people

need to learn what the fuck they're doing Well,

yeah, I mean, I'm not saying I'm perfect or any

of us are perfect. Most of us are pretty damn

close to it. I'm not going to like sugarcoat

it and say that we aren't. But it's it's it's

fact where, you know, we've been doing it so

long that it's it's second nature at this point.

Oh, yeah. And the fact that they. You get these

these people on there that for instance should

never be doing a podcast yeah i'm not naming

any specifics i right i know i i don't know i

guess you're right off the top of my head think

of people that should never be doing a podcast

they should be strictly listeners that's but

it's because it's so readily available and and

i understand everybody wants their voice heard

I'm not gonna say that I was the best when I

started out. No, I Wholeheartedly agree. I sounded

like shit when I first started But it's one of

those things that comes with time But there's

certain people that don't have that dynamic where

they're able to hold on a conversation Whether

it be a solo show, which is incredibly difficult

to do for most people I've only recently gotten

the grasp of that but the Bouncing off somebody

else. Oh Yeah, because it's all about chemistry

you need that and the person's not a natural

comp Conversationalist you'll know pretty goddamn

quickly Well, yeah, I mean I I can bullshit myself,

you know and other people in a conversation,

you know every which way to Tuesday, but it's

I Can at least for the most part if even if I

don't know what the hell I'm talking about I

can at least sound like I do Yeah And I'm the

same way I learned out the hard way I mean You

know, I readily admit the first 11 episodes of

the TF2 one podcast suck because I'm sitting

here thinking of Most of the radio stations I

had ever been in like the morning shows and how

stiff I saw them be I'm like, oh you have to

sit up straight talking like talk directly into

the microphone this that uh... thing and everything

else what you should do i have the sounds well

yes but i'm saying that when i originally thought

of podcasting i thought of it as radio is kinda

like uh... the the radio news guy from good morning

vietnam today in this you know that kind of monotone

droned out voice that is that kind of thing and

and i've just learned you know i used to have

to read every intro script that i ever like every

intro for every episode i used to have to read

it now i just know it by memory i mean all of

us i mean steven you know steven i've been doing

it since steve late two thousand seven early

two thousand eight myself since two thousand

eight mike you even before that we've all at

this point had between five and eight years experience

and now I can just as long as I do research on

the topic I can just go into a show and talk

you don't always know what the fuck you're talking

about but you can talk most of the time I do

thank you very much I do research damn it alright

so next topic would be the Types of podcasts

to arrive soon and the death of other podcasts

The one thing I will say that's kind of emerging

that I've noticed now especially with the after

buzz TV network is that's a network that is solely

They're almost alive in studio show and they

are every They have television review shows for

every current TV show you could ever think of

that's been out in the last 14 years. And they

do shows live in studio on, you know, they do

it on video and they record it for an actual,

like I said before, an iTunes feed. But they

have all kinds of stuff. So there's that kind

of podcast, the various topics you have, you

know. You throw a stone, you'll hit at least

10 different Walking Dead podcasts since that's

so popular right now. I don't know, and it seems

like there are certain shows that are also dying

off. What kind of shows do you guys see dying

off, Steve? Well, for instance, I see a lot of

the genre -specific ones. Yeah, there may be

a lot of them kicking up. But I don't see a lot

of them hanging on long For instance you get

Okay, like Nerdist they have you know things

like Talking Dead or things like you know something

that's specific that's that's hardcore pop culture

right now I see those holding on more so and

and more of the the overall arcing kind of shows

like if it's just a geek show or if it's you

know they do interviews or if they do um something's

more out there i i see those holding on a little

bit better i i see a lot of uh a lot of the content

that people maybe letting go of are are the the

deeply specific Such as like your transformers

or your you know, your GI Joe or stuff like that,

you know doctor who it's gonna You know swamp

those just because it's got the the background

and the culture behind it Whereas if you've got

I mean this that's another reason why I wanted

to stop doing my transformers podcast. I just

felt like it was on consistent rerun Yeah, and

I I felt like I was not generating a worthwhile

attempt at doing it right because there's so

many of them out there and I was I did start

before a lot of them did but then I got behind

because I couldn't keep to the schedule and stuff

like that and a lot of that that kind of show

is very time specific whereas if you have something

similar to this where it's just a free -flowing

conversation that's not time sensitive they tend

to hang around a lot longer yeah this is why

I personally have always like if there's a cartoon

series out there that I want to do a podcast

on I will bide my time and wait and see how long

the show actually lasts on television I won't

do in the moment Episode reviews because it's

too it's too time -consuming like I tried it

for the longest time on twig to revive snowballs

jump the shark and watching even five or six

TV episodes per week having to go back and get

you know either go back and find a plot copy,

you know a copy of the plot online or write a

write a synopsis up myself and Then have to sit

down and record it. It was just it was too time

-consuming week to week to week So well, that's

virtually a full -time job doing anything involving

TV. Yeah Yeah, that's true. What about you Mike?

What do you see emerging and what do you see

dying off for podcasts? Uh as for dying I kind

of wonder if the genre specific stuff will kind

of go away to the side And it's a challenge me

and Steve actually kind of have with, like, some

of the shows we do, because we do Future Imperfect.

There is no new Star Trek out there right now.

And sometimes we run into trouble thinking, well,

what the fuck do we say? Because we don't want

to do reruns of topics we've already covered.

So it forces you to get creative, which means

the creative podcast that can survive the genre

die -off, they'll do fine, because... Yeah. They've

got good production. They've got good direction.

They know where they're gonna go um I see i'm

trying to think I I really don't know what else

would really kind of die off because I see everybody

Being able to do it now. Um I kind of wonder

When the tide's gonna turn against geek kind

and what I mean by that is networks like ours

and yours I'd say we're becoming the norm There's

there's there's a lot of geeky networks out there

like Nerdist revision three, etc, etc I kind

of wonder when not when the popularity like ours

will die off because it's gonna happen at some

point in the future Geek will go back in the

closet for a while It probably won't happen for

a good five ten years, but it could happen So

yeah, I kind of wonder as in terms of podcast

uprising I'm noticing a lot of people doing wrestling

podcasts now Like like a lot of them, which is

kind of weird and kind of cool. Um, I see more

people doing the amateur sports thing sort of

community -based stuff, doing podcasts specifically

for teams, like say college level or high school

level stuff. I know there was high school level

podcasts a couple of years ago covering football

and hockey teams. So I kind of wonder if we'll

see a rise of that go out because that could

be a great stepping stone for people who want

to get into broadcasting, specifically sports

broadcasting. I think video podcasts will also

become the norm. as well, because audio, as much

as I love audio and it's so much easier to work

with than video, We are the YouTube blip and

springboard generation. This is what we're used

to. We're used to having our content delivered

visually. And with people having things like

Roku, that Chromecast thingy that hooks into

your television and even Netflix, I see streaming

services and podcasts and becoming one in the

same. And it wouldn't surprise me like how you

were talking, Mike, how they have studio audiences

for podcast recordings. Eventually, what wouldn't

surprise me if you see like, for example, on

the WWE network, Stone Cold does a podcast and

they have a studio audience for that, I think.

It wouldn't surprise me if at some point they

stick a webcam in there and you could stream

it via the WWE app or something. So I see podcasting

becoming a lot more like TV. Yeah. And you know,

you look at someone like Rob Paulson. who, you

know, he was at a place in his life where he

needed to find something to do to reinvent himself.

And he started his show Talking Tunes, and he

was originally just going around to his... friends

houses people like jim cummings people like uh...

mark hamill and mark hamill and kevin michael

richardson and all these other voice actors that

he's worked with and as it progressed he started

doing shows at the lovett's theater out there

in l a and then now there they're at another

theater now and they're they're making it a live

show with a live audience and he does I believe

he does stream them on Ustream as well as give

you the audio. Now for me personally, I'm an

audiophile. I love audio podcasts. I don't think

I would ever do a video podcast as far as a producer,

as far as a host. I don't think I ever would.

Well, it's so much more expensive too. You have

to worry about lighting, proper audio, proper

video. Yeah, there is that, but I just... I just

prefer talking to people than I do for, you know,

just over, you know, audio than I do video. You've

got a face for radio, is what you're saying.

Pretty much, yes. I myself, I wouldn't mind doing

a videocast, and I did start it at one point,

which is actually how my show Altered Geek was

founded. But I, for one, I lack the proper background,

which I... My whole thing is I want to do it

right if I'm going to do it, so I'd rather just

do audio at the time. Plus, video I know takes

a lot longer to sit there and render and to edit,

whereas a podcast, you can flip it together in

20 minutes, depending on how long it is. I prefer

to listen to podcasts in the audio form only

because like if I'm at work, I can pop them on

my MP3 player. I can sit there. Whatever I may

be doing, I can just listen to it. I think depending

on the show, it works for video and then depending

on the show, it works for audio better. It just

kind of depends on what it is myself. I personally

prefer the the audio form unless it's some kind

of a show that. They're using visuals of some

kind to show off then it's it's warranted to

have the video But it just kind of it kind of

depends See I would do video if I a didn't have

to edit it I hate editing video. Even in college,

I told my professors, I'm not going to be a television

reporter. I will never edit video if I don't

have to. I will always be audio. And the fact

is, for me, I would want a very specific set

design for me to be on air. And what I mean by

that is, I'm a fat guy. There is no secret to...

to this and me sitting in a chair looks kind

of weird. I'm shaped like a pear. I'm very oddly

proportioned. I want to sit behind a desk where

you can only see from like my waist up. Right.

And that requires set building. That requires

multiple cameras. I wouldn't want to do that

because that's such a pain in the ass. Plus,

with video, one of the things I was always taught

in school, if it looks like shit, no one's going

to watch. And I don't want to have to sit there

with a light meter Measuring out my light white

balancing all my cameras because I have that

technical background I'm gonna want that and

I don't want to do that in the very least Just

because it's such a pain in the ass. However,

though with the way things are going I don't

know because I remember there was a time when

When me and Steve were talking about taking twig

to video and I was looking at at prosumer cameras

i'm thinking jesus christ dude i don't have two

thousand dollars to blow on one camera let alone

lenses yeah i mean for me it's you know like

you said mike i i have a face for radio i i prefer

and i prefer listening to podcasts than i do

watching because my problem is Unless it's a

video podcast I can download onto iTunes and

watch it that way, I have to sit there on a website

Watching a viewer or a YouTube window or whatever

and I can't do anything else because with me

in podcasts I'm listening to a podcast and I'm

doing like six million different things I could

be listening to a podcast and Making Facebook

posts or I could be listening to a podcast and

writing up a blog or I could be listening to

podcasts and doing Housework, you know, you know

what whatever it's just one of those things where

I prefer to listen than I do to watch. Now, I

understand that video kind of might be the future,

but I hope that there's a future in the audio

because... Think of everyone who listens to podcasts

on say someone has a two hour drive to work and

they want to listen to an hour long podcast.

They're not going to sit there in their car watching

somebody on a video when they're supposed to

be watching the road. You know, I mean, it's

like, yeah, like, yeah. I mean, Mike, I think

you pretty much hit it right on the head. Portability

is what will keep the audio podcast around. Yeah,

because it's so much easier like you said to

take on a commute plus the fact I never got the

fact that people can watch movies and other long

-form videos on Their phones or whatever the

longest video I think I've ever watched on a

phone was maybe 20 minutes and that was a bit

of a strain on the eyes Because there's like

I mean sure the the iPhones screen is I don't

know. I'm looking at my phone now. What about

three, four inches, I guess three inches across

wide and two inches across or whatever. So it's

not that big. And I don't get how people can

watch movies like this. That baffles the shit

out of me. But, you know, having a portability

of a podcast, first off, podcast audio is so

much smaller than podcast video. Oh, yeah. Oh,

I know. That's the other thing I learned as I've

gone in these last, I would say, when did I start

doing mostly editing Steve in 2009? Somewhere

about. 2009, 2010. I was about two and a half,

three years in and I started learning how to

edit audio. And what I love now is I use Adobe

sound booth and what I've noticed is I can edit

at like say 128. and then it you know it still

keeps that quality when you do the final export

at 64 so in 128 if an hour and a half podcast

ends up being 70 MB I can cut it down to 64 and

it'll be 30 or 40 MB I mean, it's so much easier,

and the file sizes are so much better, and the

quality of the audio doesn't lessen. Well, it

does from a technical standpoint, and it's only

if you notice it. I haven't noticed it. Well,

to the logical ear, you won't hear it. Yeah,

I mean, if you have a trained ear, you'll notice.

How I was taught in school, 64 is phone quality,

96 KBS is near CD quality, 128 is CD quality.

168 is high or 168 or whatever is high quality,

and 328 is almost lossless, but it's not because

it's obviously compressed in the MP3 codec, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, technical babble. But

myself, I prefer to edit at 128. I prefer that

near CD quality. Oh, I also forgot, you could

consider 96 to be FM radio quality, which is

nine times out of 10 pretty good sounding. And

it also depends on what speakers and what headphones

you're actually listening to as well. If you

have crappy headphones, you won't notice. You

have good headphones, you'll notice, but only

if you know what you're looking for. And most

people don't. They're just listening as noise.

They're not listening to, man, that sounds like

shit. I wonder why. Well, what I've noticed is,

and this is really funny, we, you know, Steve

and I started, we used to do, when Steve used

to do the editing, we would record separate tracks

and I would send him my audio and he would cobble

it together and make one episode. Well, we started

going back to that a little bit for a couple

of other hosts on the network and what I noticed

is someone commented on this episode that has

individual recordings done... There's something

wrong with the quality, yet this episode where

there's five hosts and it was recorded by one

person on a call recorder sounds better. You

know? So it just, it also, it really depends

on the Skype connection. I really does. I, you

know, I learned the hard way. I don't know how

certain people do five, six, seven different

hosts on one show. I don't think a podcast, I

think a podcast needs to have two hosts minimum,

five hosts maximum, but that's if it's like,

I would say five hosts, but that's only if it's

like a big epic kind of event episode that you're

gonna do. I would say maintain it between two

and four hosts per podcast. The one man show

is very hard. I know several people that can

pull it off very, very well. I'm not one of them.

I've just recently been able to. For me, it can

be a bit of a challenge. I'm never at a loss

for things to say, but it depends on what topic

I'm covering. I actually started nerd news back

up, so I didn't lose my touch. So I can keep

in practice because obviously if I'm working

say a radio shift I'm there by myself on air

very rarely will you have an afternoon co -host

the bounce -off of you're there by yourself doing

your music news radio and traffic So I decided

when I started up nerd news again This is a way

to keep my skills sharp and pulling off the one

man show is extremely hard. Yet with me and review

a day, it's really easy because I can because

I'm focused on one topic. But with nerd news

here, here's five or six news stories. Talk about

everything remain interesting. And that's the

thing is to keep people's attention. See, I've

noticed, not only when we were doing the original

version of Nerd News, also filling in on Steve's

show Altered Geek for the other co's that he

has, I'm just not... The news... For me news

and podcasting it doesn't mix. I prefer to talk

about a topic like say Batman or Nightwing or

Batgirl or the latest Avengers movie or whatever

the hell it might be Versus doing a news show

because I lose interest fairly quickly because

it's you have to do all this in such a fast -paced

kind of environment and I I would rather sit

back and take my time and Talk about something

That's one of the reasons why I do a lot of the

review shows on geek cast radio network is because

I can sit down for Two or three hours watch five

or six episodes of a cartoon Come on to a podcast

and talk about those episodes what I liked what

I didn't like and bam there you go All right,

so the final topic of the day night afternoon

whenever you're listening to this is where do

we think? Podcasting is gonna go in the future

Do we think audio is going to die out? I don't,

with the specific reason I mentioned earlier,

where no one's going to watch a video podcast

while they're driving. Where do we see it going

in the future, Mike? I think you're going to

see... It grows still. I really think it's going

to keep going the way it's going. I think you'll

see more professionally produced videocasts,

like I said, attached to your favorite movies

or television shows or sporting events. I think

you'll see more audio because it's easier to

produce and anybody can do it. And it requires

a minimum investment in equipment, be it your

iPhone or a hundred dollar podcasting kit. It's

relatively easy with video. If you want to do

anything good, it requires a lot more time, skill

and effort. So it's certainly not going away.

Like I said, Mike, you really kind of hit it

on the head. Audio podcast will be around simply

for portability. And I think it's great that

everyone gets a chance to flex their Broadcasting

muscle. I mean this basically the internet is

the ultimate public access television or public

access radio Anybody can do it. Everybody can

have an opinion whether you're awesome or not

It's there for people to consume whether they

want to or not So I I don't see I don't see it

going away anytime soon. In fact, I only see

it getting stronger What about you Steve? I kind

of agree with everything that you guys have already

said. I definitely see it picking up more and

more and more professional. The only thing that

I kind of wonder about with it is and I know

everything is going video. I know that's the

big thing right now. I'm not sure how long that'll

hang on. I think it just depends. I think it

works better in shorter doses than it does in

longer ones because otherwise they may as well

have a TV show. Yeah. But I almost wonder if

eventually you're going to start seeing studios

popping up all over the place that are going

to produce these podcasts and eventually bring

them in to syndicate their shows to some kind

of a broadcast stream. Interesting. well you

know that's kind of um... yeah that could be

kind of cool actually All right. Well, I think

that's gonna wrap it up here for a geek cast

radio episode 61 we hope you enjoyed this romp

into podcasting and Everything that we've experienced

with it. Hope you'll join us next time when we

will be talking about the hobbyists Expense now

what this episode is gonna be to give you everyone

a little preview is We're gonna have myself Steve

and maybe two or three other people coming on

and talking about How much money we actually

put into our hobbies. Oh my god, I'm in debt

because of my hobbies. Yeah, it's all that porn

you buy. Porn? They give that shit to me for

free. It's all the goddamn Transformers and Robocop

toys. Yeah, the other one, it's because they

want him to talk about it. Just remember everybody,

porn stars are people too. That's right. Alright,

for now, I am TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron

Phillips, Mike the Birdman Dodd. Unleash the

geek in you, and we will catch you next time.

Hi, I'm Brian Ward, DVD producer from Shout Factory,

and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

I think this has gone far enough. Adios, amigos.

You've just listened to... on the Geekcast Radio

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