ME AND MY BIG MOUTH
I have a big mouth. I talk a lot. Sometimes, my passion gets the better of me, and I end up saying stuff that's taken the wrong way, and people I care about get mad. I could skywrite a thousand times my intentions, but once you make people mad at you, it's really hard to make them un-mad. But still, I'm going to try.
I was asked to call in to a local radio show this morning, on 101.1 KUFO. Kidd Chris, the morning host, openly bites the hand that feeds him, complaining about the state of radio. Last week he was ranting about how, when anything goes wrong in radio (be it sales, ratings, the coffee maker's broken), they fire the DJ. That falls into the "It's funny 'cause it's true" category, so I sent him an email. The fact is, there aren't many people who know what he's talking about on a personal level. We had a nice email exchange, where he learned about me and how I'd been fired, and he invited me to call into his show this morning to talk about it.
Now, I thought this over carefully. Did I want to be back on Portland radio? Hell yeah. Did I want it to be on KUFO? Not as a first choice, but this was offered to me as a chance to speak openly about Portland radio. If nothing else, I could make a plea for a great local station because of all the people who've been fired in this last year. So I accepted, knowing that he'd probably try to go to dark places, and I was going to do my best to not go there with him. There was banter, there was a chance for me to make my plea about the power of radio at the terrestrial level, it was going fine.
And then came the old "Why don't you just do a podcast?"
I have to tell you all this: I have heard that about 1,000,000 times since I got laid off. Unfortunately, I replied with a very offhand comment about how 'anyone can do a podcast'. And that pissed people off. People I admire, and care about, and want to succeed because they are all so very good at what they do.
Here's the thing: while anyone CAN do a podcast because of the technology that is out there, NOT JUST ANYONE can do a GREAT podcast. I believe with all my heart that I am not capable of doing a great podcast. Not unless there's a team of people to help me. Because I have no techie skills, no fun sidekick to chat with, no money to build a home studio, and frankly, because I'd rather be an employee than a boss. It's so much work to maintain a great podcast, and I really don't know how the people who are so good at them make them work day after day.
I liked going to work, being in the studio, having the guidelines to put together a great show. I still believe with all my heart that one day, I'll have that again. In the meantime, I suggest you all bookmark PDX.FM, as I have. Because the people on there have everything it takes to make great podcasts. Not only do I admire them, I'm jealous of them. I know I can't do what they do. And I hope they keep doing it, because the internet is a better place with them on it.
To all the podcasters in Portland, please accept this as a heartfelt apology. I will certainly be more careful about what I say and how I say it in the future.
I was asked to call in to a local radio show this morning, on 101.1 KUFO. Kidd Chris, the morning host, openly bites the hand that feeds him, complaining about the state of radio. Last week he was ranting about how, when anything goes wrong in radio (be it sales, ratings, the coffee maker's broken), they fire the DJ. That falls into the "It's funny 'cause it's true" category, so I sent him an email. The fact is, there aren't many people who know what he's talking about on a personal level. We had a nice email exchange, where he learned about me and how I'd been fired, and he invited me to call into his show this morning to talk about it.
Now, I thought this over carefully. Did I want to be back on Portland radio? Hell yeah. Did I want it to be on KUFO? Not as a first choice, but this was offered to me as a chance to speak openly about Portland radio. If nothing else, I could make a plea for a great local station because of all the people who've been fired in this last year. So I accepted, knowing that he'd probably try to go to dark places, and I was going to do my best to not go there with him. There was banter, there was a chance for me to make my plea about the power of radio at the terrestrial level, it was going fine.
And then came the old "Why don't you just do a podcast?"
I have to tell you all this: I have heard that about 1,000,000 times since I got laid off. Unfortunately, I replied with a very offhand comment about how 'anyone can do a podcast'. And that pissed people off. People I admire, and care about, and want to succeed because they are all so very good at what they do.
Here's the thing: while anyone CAN do a podcast because of the technology that is out there, NOT JUST ANYONE can do a GREAT podcast. I believe with all my heart that I am not capable of doing a great podcast. Not unless there's a team of people to help me. Because I have no techie skills, no fun sidekick to chat with, no money to build a home studio, and frankly, because I'd rather be an employee than a boss. It's so much work to maintain a great podcast, and I really don't know how the people who are so good at them make them work day after day.
I liked going to work, being in the studio, having the guidelines to put together a great show. I still believe with all my heart that one day, I'll have that again. In the meantime, I suggest you all bookmark PDX.FM, as I have. Because the people on there have everything it takes to make great podcasts. Not only do I admire them, I'm jealous of them. I know I can't do what they do. And I hope they keep doing it, because the internet is a better place with them on it.
To all the podcasters in Portland, please accept this as a heartfelt apology. I will certainly be more careful about what I say and how I say it in the future.
You're right, anyone can do it, not everyone can do it well, and it is a lot of work to maintain it.
It's also nearly impossible to make money on it. I've been trying with mine, to sell music through the Amazon Associates program (I get a percentage of sales), but it's hard to change people's buying habits so that they buy through your links.
It's also a lot of work to promote it and grow your audience. It's gotten harder for me over the last five years I've done mine, there's just new stuff for people to pay attention to every day.
And yeah, it's also REALLY hard to create a show in a vacuum, without other people. As human beings, we naturally need other people around us to learn from and draw inspiration from. Though, if you wanted to, I'm sure you could find someone out there who wanted to be a producer, and would assemble a team.
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Thanks, Dave. I appreciate you having my back. Sigh.
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Well said. Falls into the category of "I know what I meant to say, it just came out wrong." Raise your hand if this has never happened to you....
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Hi Tara,
I noticed that you were a fan of our podcast, "In Bed" with Matt & Phil, on Facebook. Then I followed the trail to your website and read your blog.
I would definitely agree with everything you said! Podcasts are hard. Me and my friend Phil are basically doing it for fun at this point, but we would love for it to grow into something bigger.
Have you ever had a chance to listen to one of our episodes? We don't really know what we're doing, and we started out pretty rough, but I think we're getting better with each episode. Practice makes perfect, ya know?
If you ever do get a chance to listen, we would be eternally grateful for any feedback you might have.
Don't worry, I'm sure most podcasters understand what you were trying to say. I rant a lot on my blog. It's a good thing nobody reads mine or there would be some pissed off people out there.
Have a great day!
-Matt
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