Sometimes the work is icky
Not every day in Podcasting is sunshine and roses
Coming soon to Netflix…a guy on Zoom! $17.99 / month
I am writing this first section on Monday, just seconds after sending host Mark Francis a script for Palace Intrigue. I just went through all the Prince Andrew stories from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir and I really have that stomach-turning feeling. Each story is more horrible than the last.
Palace Intrigue was designed to be a fun show about Royal Gossip….and even as it turned into the Meghan Markle Sideshow, it was still fun….a ridiculous Duchess doing a silly cooking show and a twice-failed podcast (despite how many times Apple gives her the top banner)….thats fun. This story….yuck. I almost need to take a walk to shake it off.
As with any shiny story, the numbers were up this weekend. Such is the world in which we live.
I’ve also found myself in an odd place with Daily Comedy News, where the numbers are also up by a full third. And ad sales are way up. Thanks Ad Sales Partner! Even more self-satisfying is that all comes after I put the “video version” back to a lazy cover art version created by headliner. The video numbers really aren’t any worse than they would be if I spent three hours making something.
Down and dirty, publish, next.
Kimmel-gate made for a good story - but at its heart it’s a story about politics. The Riyadh Comedy Festival made for some very lively discussion - but at its core, the issues at hand are not fun. The theme to begin this week is once again political, with Joe Rogan’s take on Trump being the shiny story. Today I took a break from politics but tomorrow is nothing but the intersection of politics and comedy. Such are the times in which we live.
In other podcasting news - there was a post on the r/podcasting subreddit earlier today about the ad-load in in the iHeart shows. The moderators took it down (lame) but the post was not just that there were a lot of breaks, but the breaks were just promos. I have encountered that myself.
Last week I wrote about the Irish Spots I was encountering. A smart friend reached out to me to try to run some experiments to figure out what it was or wasn’t. I’m not sure we solved the mystery, but I can tell you my AT&T phone likes to say I am in Connecticut when I am in New Jersey….and when I stream podcasts in Fake Connecticut I get the Irish spots. Sometimes my phone claims I am in Fake New York City and I get American spots, and when I download shows on the home wife I get American New Jersey spots as I would expect.
I am mainly experiencing this only on my own shows! I tried to figure out what the biggest Spreaker shows that aren’t also iHeart shows are, but couldn’t quite identify one (if you know, tell me) to duplicate it, but it was only happening on shows on my hosting account….when streaming. VERY strange.
I do think I got it on some other shows when I was in California recently - I think it happened either on Deistch or Traina, and I believe those are both on megaphone. Anyway, stream some shows and tell me what kind of ads you get.
On to what I listened to this week. I enjoy Craig Ferguson, but Craig kept clearing his throat and nobody bothered to clean the audio. Is Craig Ferguson uploading his own shows????? Did nobody think to clean this up???
My new fave continues to be the r/billsimmons podcast, which is discussing how Bill’s show is off-the-rails these days.
It appears that Bill has upped his video game! The latest episode doesn’t have Zoom Boxes, it has The Round Table! Are people really going to watch this on Netflix? This video, posted 13 hours ago has 34,329 views right now on Free Youtube. What’s that going to be on Netflix, seven people watching?
Also, maybe don’t seat the main guy so his back is to the camera, but what do I know, I think video podcasts are the devil.
I like James Cridland’s podcast about radio. I enjoy hearing the discussions of stations I have never heard, and am unlikely to ever hear. Seriously. Plus I like shows where the hosts don’t scream.
Last night, the Secret Service I use which converts YouTube Videos to audio podcast RSS feeds which you can add to Pocketcasts (or wherever you get your shows) was WORKING AGAIN after a few weeks. That meant I could LISTEN to Open Bar by Critical Drinker without staring at men talking about Star Wars. The video version is below.
This is how I consume Video Podcasts, I rip them back to audio!
As for discovery, how I find YouTubers is not by the algorithm, I find them because they guest on other shows! There’s a whole circle of Guys Who Talk About Star Wars And Marvel And Stuff Like That, and Critical Drinker is the best one. And I wish he’d put out a proper audio podcast version of this, but until then, I rip away. (Or put my phone under my pillow with the timer set to turn off after 20 minutes as I drift away(
OK, I gotta go make some podcasts. They don’t make themselves. And I can’t make podcasts if I spend an hour proofreading my substack for typos. Down and Dirty. Publish. Next.