That makes about ten of you altogether. Welcome to the Region.
My first impulse was to try to make my podcast sound like something out of a podcast from public radio, which basically rules the podcast world. I cut up snippets from my show, added music, mixed out all the "ums" and throat clearings, and then posted my podcast to libsyn and iTunes as "My Radio Life." Some of these early podcasts with the actualities and music and editing actually, to me, sound okay... but not great. Not even good. Just okay.
The problem is twofold. First, who likes to spend a bunch of time just do something "okay?" Maybe for a while... but after about ten minutes of "okay," I wanna go for a run or do the laundry. In sum, I'm never gonna compete with the sardonic and slightly arrogant hosts of many of the public radio podcasts that are sweeping the land. Besides, as the three or four of you already know - especially Carole Terry and John Panek - I'm never gonna take the time to sit down in a studio, cut up the tape of my shows, get the music ready, and then talk for a specific length of recorded time. I'm just never gonna do it. You know that.
It reminds me of my uncle Ronnie Rex. He and I used to golf together, and yes, Virginia, we would sometimes play for sheckles. After a while, uncle Ronnie started to beat me regularly. That was disturbing. Don't you know that I'm a superior athlete? Don't you know what heartbreak I feel when I lose to my uncles in ANYTHING?
Ronnie developed this wienie kind of swing. He didn't bring the club all the way back, and when he hit through the ball it almost looked as if he wasn't even trying. And then he followed through hard all the way around his shoulders.
"What the hell is that swing about?" I asked him.
"I started taking lessons."
"You. Lessons?"
"Yeah. I wanted a swing I could repeat that would hold up under pressure. I wanted a swing I could repeat in the same way every time."
Ronnie said this as I handed him money. I never took golf lessons, before or since, but I have always remembered that comment and have put it to use a number of times. In this instance, in trying to lead my team into the podcast promised land, I just want to do a podcast, or podcasts, that I can repeat. I'm not as concerned about my method holding up under pressure. I'm 55 years old. If I get shaken now then too bad. What I really want is a podcast/golf swing that I can repeat.
And so I may have found it yesterday morning. I located this little condenser microphone called a "Mikey" and put it on the end of my iPhone and just started talking in bed. At the end of 20 minutes or so, I saved the file, uploaded it to libsyn, and there was my podcast. I don't have any idea if I stuck my eight iron anywhere near the green, but I'm pretty sure I can repeat that swing, mixed metaphor or not.
So I did it again last night right before midnight, making it the first time I ever did two podcasts in one day. That should tell you something right there... that this slacker method of podcasting might work. All you really have to do is talk into your phone for a half hour, punch a button, and there's your podcast.
Next question - What am I gonna do today with My Radio Life on an open Saturday?
We have on-the-court press passes for Purdue basketball games in West Lafayette, and I made a play to get Alexis to drive the couple hours with me to see a Big Ten basketball game from under the hoop. But she's not biting.
"I've gotta go into work later."
Oh well. I don't. My work is what you're reading right now. I create. I would have liked to have taken a bunch of photos of Caleb Swanigan, who's probably gonna go pro next year, but not today. Instead when Alexis goes to work I'll go down to the station and work on Facebook Live video stuff.
There is one thing I probably won't do today in My Radio Life. And that's announce the Griffith at East Chicago basketball game tonight. It's a really big game and anymore as the three or four of you and maybe even the other five or six of you know, I pretty much only announce the biggest basketball games these days. I know that sounds arrogant - like instead of writing a blog about myself I should be doing a smug podcast for NPR - but in the end there's way too much young talent around for me to be hogging up the microphone. Miguel Flores will announce tonight's game much more professionally than I could ever do. Miguel's been with us since high school. Many weekends, he travels the country ring announcing for MMA. He's home this weekend. That's a sign that Alexis and I should go to a movie rather than a high school basketball game.
Listen to my last couple of podcasts, the three or four of you. That way we'll get into the double digits of listeners. Without you four, probably not.