I thought I would give you an inside look, a behind-the-scenes peek, at how the podcast came to be. I don't know if any of you actually read the "About the Podcast" tab on our blog page, but I give the short version of the journey there. You'll get more specifics here. (I really should be sleeping, but my two-hour nap made me less tired.)
On November 30, 2009, I sent a Facebook message to Dave White, Kathy Mendoza, and S. Brandon. Heading: "An Idea..." I'd been thinking for a while about maybe doing a fan podcast for Straight No Chaser, but I did NOT want to do it alone. Though in some aspects it would be easier to do it alone, there's something to be said about having co-hosts. You get different perspectives, and people to keep you in check when putting something on the table that's "out there." More people involved means that it's harder to stop doing it, and besides, the chemistry and atmosphere among friends is always a great thing, and more fun to listen to.
Admittedly, that first podcast topic thread went off-topic quite a bit. We bounced around several ideas on how to record the podcast, everything from Google Chat to AIM audio chat to Skype. I'd been hoping that we could have gotten something done by the New Year, but as new complications arose, the start of 2010 came and went. We started thinking about the legal aspects of doing the podcasts, bouncing around names for the podcast, and thinking about who would be a good first interviewee.
Late January/early February: I sent an email to SNC's publicity person at Atlantic, Ashley White, regarding legalities. She seemed quite enthusiastic about the idea and was willing to provide us with audio/video clips and news of the group. YES. Legality complications CLEARED. Once we knew that it was okay for us to do a podcast in the first place, we decided that Ryan would be the perfect choice for our first interviewee, and thought that bringing in someone "young(er)" and more familiar with what podcasts are would be a good idea. Kathy suggested Tina, and I thought that was a great idea, as did S and Dave. So, I sent everyone a new message, bringing her up to speed.
Our first tentative general outline looked something like this:
I. Introduction
II. About Us
III. About the Podcast
IV. News
V. SNC Fans Got Talent!
VI. What to Do Before the Next CD
VII. Interview
VIII. Conclusion
We'd talked about putting out a podcast at least once a month, ideally twice a month. But before we could really get into the whole thing, we needed a NAME. We'd bounced around ideas like SNCast, ChaserCast, SNCsuperfans, SNC Fan Crew, SNC Pod Fans, SNC PodCrew, SNC Insiders, Inside SNC, and some more goofy ones that used the letters "SNC" as an acronym. But, none of them really seemed to click.
While this whole project was being discussed and whatnot, we all agreed that we would keep it "top secret" until we released our first episode. We didn't want to announce all of this, only to find that it wouldn't work out...
Throughout this process, I was using another podcast as a model, borrowing some ideas, like the introduction ("Hi, this is [name], and you're behind the mic with the SNC FanChat!"), from it. Some of you may or may not know, but I'm a big Chuck fan (it's an awesome TV show). I used to be an avid follower of the podcast "Chuck vs. the Podcast" (I don't really have time to listen/watch anymore...), so a lot of ideas were pulled from there. It's a fantastic podcast. Just saying.
Once I heard from Ryan, things started picking up. We came up with questions to ask him, and we started hammering out the specifics, like what program we were going to use to record the podcast. Bounced around a few more names, like SNC Recap, "The Permasmile Buzz," SNC Unplugged... We got closer with the SNC FanCast, "From Center Stage or Behind the Mic: a Look at SNC from the Eyes of their Fans," "Center Stage: the Fans' Look at Straight No Chaser," and "Behind the Mics: a Closer Look at Straight No Chaser." It was S who came up with "Fan Chat, with Straight No Chaser," and Tina put "FanChat" together with "Behind the Mic": "Fanchat: Behind the Mic with Straight No Chaser." We finally settled on "SNC FanChat" with a tag line "Behind the Mic with Straight No Chaser."
Phew! The name thing was the hardest. Now, it's time to get a song to open and close the podcast. I'd thought that since Dan wrote "Straight No Chaser," it would be fitting and the easiest to get legal permission to use.
It's been three months since I first came up with the idea, and I scheduled an interview with Ryan on February 11, 2010. I remember that day well; I did the interview at school, locked myself in a classroom... It took us an hour and a half to get set up; Skype wouldn't work for him, so we used iChat/AIM, and we were convinced that technology hated us. That last phrase rang true when I played back the interview and saw that it hadn't recorded... I seriously freaked out. Excerpt from the FB message thread to the other hosts:
"OH. MY. GOD. THE INTERVIEW DIDN'T RECORD!!!! :'("..."I EFFING HATE MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!!-CRIES-It took us an hour and a half to get things set up; then we talked for an hour... AND NOTHING GOT RECORDED!!!I want to hit something."
-sigh- It seriously sucks, because he'd given me lots of hints about "With a Twist." I was incredibly heartbroken and frustrated, but when I told him that it didn't record, he was INCREDIBLY nice about it. We decided to postpone the interview for a little while so we could work out the kinks (I really didn't want to have to deal with a recording mishap again), and the discussion on how to record the podcast and interviews resumed. We got confirmation to use the SNC theme song, contacted the WebCrew about hosting (Yeahh, Dave!), and got the okay to use the microphone design from "Six Pack" for our logo.
(At this point, my mom caught me still awake at 2am and got mad at me for still being awake. This is being completed after I woke up...)
April 3, 2010: The day of the interview re-do with Ryan. I locked myself in the closet under the stairs (think, Harry Potter's room the first eleven years of his life, except it's my brother's hideout filled with a bunch of junk EVERYWHERE). We still had a few technical difficulties, but we fixed it by video chatting instead of just doing an audio chat, which freaked ME out because I was not expecting that (and I probably looked like crap). But the interview went fairly well, save for a few interruptions on Ryan's end. They were sound-checking and rehearsing for their show at Harrah's that summer, so he was in AC... And very busy. During the interview, Walt texted Ryan, and Charlie came into his room to give him five hundred WaT posters to sign. (You see, they really DO sign those by hand; I witnessed it!! No stamps used. And it took them an hour or two to do so. For each person. Poor guys.) But anyway. The important part is that everything recorded, even if the sound quality was a bit iffy.
A few days later, we tried to record the actual podcast content via Skype, but with four of us, for some odd reason, the sound quality was horrible. Three people was okay. But once a fourth person got on the line, the quality was just... BAD. Trying to be an optimist, I decided that this was really a blessing in disguise. No longer keeping the podcast a secret, we tried publicizing the podcast, and we decided that recording a teaser would both help me set up the podcast feed and put the podcast "out there." Ashley White forwarded me to Ryan Brady, my current Atlantic contact, who offered to post the podcasts on the main website.
It was around this time that we decided that it would be more reasonable to use a cell phone conference service instead of an online service, which I have to say, has been INCREDIBLY useful since we can record podcasts ANYWHERE. AND, it's so much more convenient for interviews. We recorded a teaser and put it up, I got a little bit of editing experience, and WEEEEEEEE, we were up and running... Almost.
Things were finally starting to fall into place. The teaser was up, people were starting to find out about our podcast, and new segments, like the SNC SuperFan Chat (a Dave White original), were starting to come up.
Finally, after weeks of conflicting schedules (me with my AP tests, homework, choir concerts, etc. made things harder on everyone...), we finally recorded our first episode on May 12, 2010! Took me a few days to edit everything, and then it was sent over to Atlantic to get okay'ed. Took a while, but it was finally approved on the 24th! I uploaded it the next day, fancied up our blog, and submitted the podcast on iTunes, and the rest, as they say, is history. :)
(Sorry for the rushed ending... I'm about to go out into the crazy Vegas air. My mom wants to go to Macy's. As if we didn't have one five minutes from our house...)
0 comments:
Post a Comment