OB Podcast

[James]

[center][size=5]OB Podcast[/size][/center]
[font=franklin gothic medium]
Okay, so, this idea has been floating around for a while (some might remember my desire to set up an "OB Radio" ages ago). In the event brainstorming thread though, the concept of an OB Podcast has gained a bit more life.

At this point things are still very early. Boo and I have been discussing how the show could be formatted and what could be discussed or covered. We've also now done a physical test, where Boo made a quick recording and I did the various editing (addition of music, fading, formatting to the correct filetype, etc).

Now there are really only two issues. The lesser of the two involves choosing the right software to record Skype conversations (I'm sure this will be the easy part).

The tougher issue is all about choosing the final show format [i]and[/i] selecting either one or two regular hosts.

At this point I don't think we're ready to choose hosts (actually this may involve an event in and of itself - I'm undecided on that), but I'd [i]love[/i] to know if anyone would be interested.

Right now I'm thinking that we should stick to a monthly podcast. This keeps it light and simple and gives us time to pull things together. I guess we'd do a podcast at the end of every month and it would look back over the events of that month.

As this thread progresses I will also edit this first post to reflect what we discuss/decide upon.

So I guess, two questions first:

[b]Are you interested in becoming one of OB Podcast's hosts?[/b]

If yes, remember that you'd have to keep on top of what's happening around the site and you'd have to be able to put together a monthly show with another host.

It's also critical that - if we have two hosts - they are able to work well together!

[b]What format should the show take?[/b]

For a monthly show, I think that we should aim for maybe 20 - 30 minutes of content. This can change as time goes on.

But the specific format is still undecided.

There are some examples in the brainstorming thread, but I'd like to really focus on this and discuss it with members in a fresh new thread.

Bear in mind also that while we would like to have one or two "full-time" hosts, the show would also have interviews and guest hosts at times. I'd like to give a lot of members the chance to be interviewed or to discuss topics as a guest host. I think that'd be a lot of fun.

So yeah. I'm throwing this out there to see how much interest there really is. As mentioned, I'll update this first post as a structure starts to form.[/font]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][B]Are you interested in becoming one of the hosts?[/B]

For sure. I listen to some podcasts regularly and I'm very friendly to talk to, so I won't have any problems on the hosting end getting along with someone. I also have Pamela Skype Recorder, so we can use that program to record the calls and get things moving along.

[B]What format should the show take?[/B]

That's a toughie, because sometimes the site traffic can be rather slow and sometimes we would have little to talk about, so maybe if we could get different members to make appearances on Skype, we could do interviews with the members and set up a casual conversation talking about the site, their involvement, some memories, and maybe delve into a little history of the site that not many people know.[/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][b]Are you interested in becoming one of OB Podcast's hosts?[/b]

Yes. I think it would be a great learning experience. I listen to a few podcasts, so I have a general idea of what goes on, and I used to entertain thoughts of starting up one of my own (kinda hard to do when you don't have anything to talk about, though.) So yeah, I'd be interested in hosting a podcast.

[b]What format should the show take?[/b]

Like Korey said, we definitely do have our slow periods around here. Considering that, we'll probably want to branch out from just talking about the boards. Maybe there should be a "Threads we'd like to see" segment, where the hosts would find news items and other assorted subjects that are worth discussing, but don't have their own threads yet (ignoring the obvious "make it yourself" here.) Obviously, the focus would primarily be the OB, but there could be other unrelated segments as well. Also, I think Korey's idea of member interviews excellent, though I would also suggest the possibility of guest hosts.[/FONT]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Why do I get the impression the "unrelated segments" will end up like this....

[CENTER][YOUTUBE="cool weekends in the morning"]ws58s9wzYsA[/YOUTUBE][/CENTER][/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Probably because you know me too well.

No, but I meant more like general news coverage and discussion of current events, as opposed to just straight OB talk.[/FONT]

[Boo]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]No, but I meant more like general news coverage and discussion of current events, as opposed to just straight OB talk.[/FONT][/QUOTE]
[size=1]Right, that was a major part of the original plan. With OtakuBoards we can go any way. News, politics, movies, music, games, books, and everything else you can think of really, as long as it's PG. :whoops:

Reviews and discussions and everything would be well able to be part of the podcast. Heck, we can make new topics based on the subjects we have in the podcast. :]

[/size]

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]My thinking is that hosts can also discuss some of the subjects that OB relates to, as Boo mentioned (i.e. movies, games, etc).

I guess at the moment I want to make sure that this is a bit streamlined and doesn't become too unwieldy. I'm going to work on a structure and post it up here shortly so you guys can tell me what you think.

Once that's done we can always change it later down the track, too.[/font]

[Rick Hunter]

No definitely not applying for that position. I just wanted to make a suggestion, that you look carefully into what program to record Skype conversations with. I'm going to be honest with you from experience and from hosting other people's podcast. Skype is very finicky, especially if you intend to do a live podcast, though from the sounds of it, it's most likely going to be a recorded one that will be uploaded. In regards to the format, my suggestion is to make it as unique as possible, Podcast lately are over-saturating the internet. Every website wants to do one these days a ton of them are anime related, I prefer video casting. In regards to your podcast in general, I suggest deviating from anime talk or theotaku related stuff. It would sorta defeat the purpose of having a separate podcast from theOtaku. Plus it may confuse people considering the podcast link you have on OB already links to theOtaku podcast. It may hurt you if you can't establish your brands difference. Can't stress enough the importance of breaking away from the generic labels most podcast are these days.

Anyway maybe my suggestions weren't welcomed, but that's my general insight. Best of luck. I personally like the idea of having guest "members" calling in and what not for the person who suggested it.

[Boo]

[quote name='Rick Hunter']I suggest deviating from anime talk or theotaku related stuff. It would sorta defeat the purpose of having a separate podcast from theOtaku. Plus it may confuse people considering the podcast link you have on OB already links to theOtaku podcast. It may hurt you if you can't establish your brands difference.[/QUOTE][size=1]That was one of the main things James and I also made pretty clear for ourselves. theOtaku is certainly not what the podcast is about, and Anime is also certainly not the topic. I can well imagine it coming up several times if we have neat things to talk about, but it weighs as much as any other topic we could handle (Anything! Especially if we can get the right guests in the show), I think. We might give a shout out or something about the Otaku network, but that would pretty much be it, as far as I'm concerned.

Plus, the podcast should represent OB well, because it might even reach audiences we normally would never have reached.[/size]

[James]

[quote name='Rick Hunter']
Anyway maybe my suggestions weren't welcomed, but that's my general insight. Best of luck. I personally like the idea of having guest "members" calling in and what not for the person who suggested it.[/QUOTE]

[font=franklin gothic medium][i]All[/i] suggestions are welcome! :catgirl:

Actually I agree with you. However, the Anime Pulse podcast tends to focus on summaries of industry news and theOtaku news.

I think what we'd have to do - were we to cover anime - is we'd have to get into doing an in-depth review or critique of a particular show or film in each episode. Maybe the reviewer would give a rating at the end.

Also the Anime Pulse podcast really doesn't cover OB matters, so I think there's a lot we can draw upon with that too.

Anyway, great suggestions. I have no idea if this will happen, but I'm certainly keen to give it a shot.

Oh, and as for our linkage with theO's podcast... I doubt that'll change. We may present OB's podcast in a different way though. Perhaps it will have a dedicated page here or it will have its own forum.[/font]

[JCBaggee]

[color=darkred][size=1]We've been recording our PodCast (we call it the StinkKast) for about a year now, and its a blast.

Just wanted to chime in on the format mainly. 20-30 min. a month feels a little lax. We based ours on the format of most other sites, and that seems to be an 30-60 min. a week. Granted, those are mainly informal. If you're looking to do a serious, more formal podcast that may work, but if you get 2 or 3 people together who genuinely enjoy yukking it up with each other, you'll kill an hour a week in no time.

--Chris[/color][/size]

[James]

[quote name='JCBaggee'][color=darkred][size=1]We've been recording our PodCast (we call it the StinkKast) for about a year now, and its a blast.

Just wanted to chime in on the format mainly. 20-30 min. a month feels a little lax. We based ours on the format of most other sites, and that seems to be an 30-60 min. a week. Granted, those are mainly informal. If you're looking to do a serious, more formal podcast that may work, but if you get 2 or 3 people together who genuinely enjoy yukking it up with each other, you'll kill an hour a week in no time.

--Chris[/color][/size][/QUOTE]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I agree with the 20-30 minute timespan.

In terms of regularity of updates... I guess I'm not sure if I want our podcast to include a lot of random conversation. I mean I'm sure that'll happen, but I like the idea of a podcast with some real meat to it - some real content that goes beyond listening to regular hosts chatting.

Since this podcast is more of an experiment than anything else, I think we can play around with the format too. We can start monthly, but move to fortnightly (AKA every two weeks) where appropriate.

My biggest concern is that there could be a lack of things to discuss, however, that really depends on whether or not we start including a review segment and so on.

Also I'm trying to be careful to ensure that we can get a couple of great hosts involved. Doing a weekly update can be a big commitment for two hosts, especially as they need to be on at the same time to record their conversation and so on.

So I think we need to find our feet. If we end up with a really great couple of podcasts, we can start looking further in terms of improvements and bigger promotion.[/font]

[Shy]

[size=1]I don't know how an OB podcast would appeal to anyone but a pretty active member on the site, so I think that needs to take this into consideration in regards to selecting a format. Things like anime reviews are nice, but there are already so many venues available for that out there. In a weekly/bi-weekly podcast I would much rather see 30 solid minutes of member interviews and OB news rather than a bloated two hours of anime/movie/whatever reviews.

I would like to learn more about the people who visit the site, the world they come from, and maybe how their real-life impacts OB (or vice versa.) simple day-in-the-life stuff would be really interesting. The more members we can include in this the better. Also we could do some Otakupedia stuff; having an oral history of OtakuBoards seems like it would be really neat. There are some stories to be told about the genesis of threads and inside jokes that could be interesting to newer members.

Also, both hosts aren't neccessarily needed to perform all of the interviews. It would be easier to arrange the interviews with everyone's schedule if you include the fewest people possible. I would also recommend that you get guest interviewers as well. How hillarious would it be to have Rach interview Beth, or Deathknight to interview Aaryanna Mom? Answer: [i]Very[/i] hillarious.

I'd like to see something resembling the following format in a 30-45 minute podcast:
[list][*]OB news/housekeeping items
[*]Listener mail or member-submitted content (music, RPG advertisements, etc.)
[*]Member interview I.
[*]Otakupedia bit / History of...
[*]Member interview II.
[*]Thread of the week/month/etc.
[*]Preview of next show.
[*]Member recommendation / Song of the week?[/list]

Plus have a contest for members to create the podcast's theme song.

-Shy[/size] :whoops:

[Claire]

[quote name='Shy'][size=1]Plus have a contest for members to create the podcast's theme song.[/size][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Arial"]Ooooooh!

I've always loved the idea of doing a podcast. I don't think I'd make for a good host, but I do want to help out in some way.

Hunter (Whoa, Mann) and I have a band that he advertises as "OB's very own," and I'm sure he'd be interested in working on music for the podcast. I'm also eager to have in interview, wink wink nudge nudge.[/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Shy'][SIZE="1"][*]Otakupedia bit / History of...[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Oh, gosh. That would be fun. I can just imagine the cheesy baroque music and pseudo-elegant delivery.[/FONT]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]*Puts on Faux British Accent" Hello and welcome to Otakupiee THEATAH. I'm your host Sir Korey-am-I. [/FONT]

[quote=Shy] * OB news/housekeeping items
* Listener mail or member-submitted content (music, RPG advertisements, etc.)
* Member interview I.
* Otakupedia bit / History of...
* Member interview II.
* Thread of the week/month/etc.
* Preview of next show.
* Member recommendation / Song of the week?
[/quote]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]You do realize that interviews take a while right? I seriously doubt you can do all of that within a 30-45 minute time period, even if you rush and it's kind of a waste of time for those involved to have like a 5-8 minute interview. Also, some people tend to rant on subjects and it's hardly fair to condense an interview and risk getting anything less than quality interview. Here's my scandal.

We focus on one thing per week, but we do have the weekly segments (listener mail, rpg ads is a good idea) and thread of the week, but we do have maybe ONE interview so that way you can allow time for ranting/ quality interviews to take place. That way we can get some quality instead of trying to focus on how much we can fit in. [/FONT]

[Boo]

[size=1]I find a podcast solely about OtakuBoards a bit too much... OtakuBoards. Apart from that I think doing something like that will not end up in much more than really a very small amount of Podcasts... Well, I would just not be interested enough to listen to such a podcast. Probably because you will pretty much get the effect that the majority of the Anthology OBfics have: ‘‘I am not in it = I do not care about it’’.

You are kind of excluding the more regular down-to-earth-‘‘I-have-a-life-outside-OB’’ members by doing something completely about the existing community of OtakuBoards.

Truth be told, I would find an interview with a staff member funny if it would have saucy questions, but for the rest I really would not care enough to listen to a full 45 minutes unless the hosts are really, [i]really[/i] good.[/size]

[Shy]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]You do realize that interviews take a while right? I seriously doubt you can do all of that within a 30-45 minute time period, even if you rush and it's kind of a waste of time for those involved to have like a 5-8 minute interview. Also, some people tend to rant on subjects and it's hardly fair to condense an interview and risk getting anything less than quality interview. Here's my scandal.

We focus on one thing per week, but we do have the weekly segments (listener mail, rpg ads is a good idea) and thread of the week, but we do have maybe ONE interview so that way you can allow time for ranting/ quality interviews to take place. That way we can get some quality instead of trying to focus on how much we can fit in. [/FONT][/QUOTE][size=1]That's fair, I just think the more members we can include the better.

I'm honestly not even sure what types of questions these interviews would contain, other than the incredibly broad/obvious. I would like to get to know these members outside of an OB context through the interviews, and get a better picture of who they are. Honestly a lot of this is going to depend on the hosts; ultimately they have to anchor the show and set the tone.

-Shy[/size]

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]In terms of the content, I think it's going to be necessary to cover both OB specifically and OB-related things. After all, what we do we talk about here? Apart from the fact that we seem to talk a lot about ourselves, we do spend most of our time discussing various other things.

Part of my logic is that I would want this podcast to appeal to non-OBers too (particularly Otakuites across the network). This may help to foster an interest in OB and it can show some of our more unique qualities in an easily-digestible and entertaining way.

I think finding good hosts will be 90% of the battle though. We've got to be very careful there.[/font]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I smell an event? "The search for the OB podcast Host?" "The Great Podcast Caper"?[/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I smell an event? "The search for the OB podcast Host?" "The Great Podcast Caper"?[/FONT][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]"Podcast Idol" gets my vote.

I'll be Sanjaya. That way I'll win because everyone will hate me but keep voting for me because they think it's funny.[/FONT]

[Boo]

[size=1]Okay, some of us have finally got around to get something done and we are just shaping up on the last bits! But for now, everybody... Here's a trailer I made to tease a bit. (:

[url=http://www.tinyurl.com/obpodcasttrailer001][size=3][u]CLICK[/u][/size][/url].[/size]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][CENTER][IMG]http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n72/Aceburner85/klavier-fista.gif[/IMG][/CENTER]

And here's some text to keep it on topic: This is still in the works, yes? We have actions being taken towards the project's initiation?

Not doubting anyone, but discussion has kinda ceased in here.[/FONT]

[Boo]

[size=1]:)

Frankly, there have not been huge amounts of progress the past few weeks, due to business and all. Its not quite dead yet, though, so... Everybody, keep the suggestions and all coming![/size]

[Rick Hunter]

[quote name='Boo'][size=1]:)

Frankly, there have not been huge amounts of progress the past few weeks, due to business and all. Its not quite dead yet, though, so... Everybody, keep the suggestions and all coming![/size][/QUOTE]

If I may? Considering, I have a ton of experience now in regards to Podcast? Why don't you guys try out [URL="http://www.blogtalkradio.com"]http://www.blogtalkradio.com[/URL] it should actually meet your needs in regards to hosting a podcast. That's what we use over at AE, we've never experienced any problems. The only drawback is that everything is hosted via phones and a switchboard (you need a computer/phones). The call in numbers are station in NYC but if you record the podcast after 7pm or 9pm for that matter it's free nights for everyone who has a cell phone.

Some features of BTR:

-- Ability to upload music
-- Ability to have live podcast stream *it's always live*
-- Ability to cut off mikes of unruly callers
-- Ability to have On Demand episodes in which users can stream or DL it to their computers/ipods.
-- Ability to submit to Itunes

Pretty easy, pretty basic, very clear, and maybe the solution to your problems. I'll give you an example of how it would look:

[URL="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AnimeExplosion"]AE Radio[/URL]

Anyway good luck, hope you get the project off the ground.