It’s been a big week of firsts for me.  In addition to my first stint as a judge for Solo & Ensemble, this week also saw the launch of the podcast version of “The Morning Show,” my interview program for WGTD for which I have been the sole host for more than twenty years.   For someone who in so many ways is the textbook example of an Old Dog who hates to learn New Tricks,  this is a rather crazy turn of events.  What’s even crazier is that it was actually my own crazy idea!

First, a quick explanation is in order for those of you who don’t know what podcasts are – and the best way to sort it out is to draw a contrast between podcasts and broadcasts.   In a broadcast,  there is something that is sent out- broadcast- over the air, to be either seen or heard (or both) by whoever can receive it, then and there.  And one must experience it in that moment unless you have the means to capture and record it in order to replay it later.  This is broadcasting.

Podcasting is closely related to streaming media in which programming is served up on a platform where it can be accessed when the viewer/listener chooses – or over and over if they so choose.  (Netflix, hulu, etc.)  A podcast goes one step further in that one can subscribe to a podcast- which means that you are specifically notified every time a new episode of that podcast becomes available.  So a podcast, in effect, taps you on the shoulder every time it has something new to offer you.

My “Morning Show” on WGTD is broadcast live weekday mornings between 8:10 and 9:00 – so hearing it live is the most basic way to listen to my show.  The show is also archived on the radio station’s website, meaning that if someone is so inclined, you can go to the website and pull up an interview you missed- or one that you want to hear again.  But you have to go after it.  It does not come to you in any way, shape or form after that initial live broadcast.  But through various means, including plain old word of mouth, you hope that quite a few people will know about the program and will remember to seek it out.  But a podcast is set up to reach out to the people who have reached out to become subscribers.  And through this modern means of dissemination, it is possible and perhaps even probable that more people will get to hear my program- and especially young people who are much more happy in and comfortable with the world of podcasts.

So what prompted me to pursue the possibility of creating a podcast based on my program?  It actually came about when I tried to book an interview with the author of an interesting book (I have forgotten the book or even what it’s about) and was politely but firmly informed by their management that the author was only doing podcast interviews – no broadcast interviews.  It was amazing how this impacted me, making me feel like a second-class citizen in the world of media ….  like an egg beater in a food processor world.

By this point in time,  i was already a subscriber to quite a number of podcasts ….  “Pod Save America,” “Pod Save the World,” “Pop Culture Happy Hour,”  opera podcasts from the Met and the Lyric, and the podcast versions of such radio programs as “Fresh Air,” “Radiolab,” “TED Radio Hour,” “Invisibilia,” and “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”  This snub from this author’s agent got me wondering if there was any possibility of my Morning Show becoming a podcast?

I went to WGTD’s technical wizard,  Troy McDonald, with my question – and I was floored to hear him say that creating a Morning Show podcast would actually be incredibly simple – would cost a negligible amount of money – and could be made to happen quite quickly, if I were so inclined.  And I was so inclined!  And to make a not-all-that-long-a-story-to-start-with even shorter than it would otherwise be, my show now exists both as a standard broadcast program AND as a podcast.  And for once, I get to feel like George Jetson rather than Fred Flintstone, because I’m actually the guy who uploads each and every episode myself – which makes it all the more exciting and satisfying.

Probably the trickiest thing about a podcast is that you have to consistently serve up new episodes- especially for the sake of people who subscribe and who expect new episodes at the frequency promised.  Troy was telling me that many people start up podcasts on a bit of a whim, but lack follow through.  I suppose it’s possible that I may fall prey to that as well, but for now I have more than enough excitement about this.   To be clear,  I’m not creating new content for the podcast;  Monday through Friday, each podcast is that day’s Morning Show interview.  And on Saturdays and Sundays, I upload interviews out of the Morning Show archives – and because I have been the sole host of the show for more than twenty years,  that means that I have literally thousands of past interviews to draw upon for those weekend archival offerings.  And the thought of being able to give new life to some of these past interviews that I’m so proud of is a really exciting prospect.

I’ll confess to a little moment of egoism – but only because I can follow it up with what was a healthy dose of humble pie.  The egoism came the first time I saw the Morning Show podcast logo appear on the screen of my smart phone- right next to Rachel Maddow,  right above Trevor Noah and the Daily Show, and right below The Late Show with Seth Meyers.  That made me feel like I had somehow made the big time- even though I was only rubbing shoulders with them on my own little phone – and it was only because I was a subscriber to all of these podcasts.   Still, it felt pretty cool!

But then I went into the podcast list on iTunes, just so I could see how hard it would be to find my podcast.  I typed in “Morning Show” – and more than 40 podcasts came up … and none of them were mine.  In fact, it was only when I typed in The Morning Show with Greg Berg that it came up at all …. so it isn’t likely that complete strangers are going to be stumbling on to my podcast by accident.   It is one tiny needle in a mind-bogglingly immense haystack of thousands and thousand of podcasts.

Still, it’s fun to be in that haystack-  and even more fun to think that a tradition-bound 59-year-old like me actually thought to do such a thing.  That’s maybe the best reason to do something like this-  because it’s nice for someone like me to engage in a new adventure that does not involve scaling mountains or swimming with sharks (although if that’s your kind of adventure, more power to you.)    Adventures come in all shapes and sizes,  and this is a perfect adventure for me.

 

 

P.S. –  The title of this blog entry,  “Why Pod?”,  is a play on words that those of you who are “Miss Saigon” fans will recognize-  a play on the song title “Why God?”