Category: Podcasting

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The Crazy Canucks sneaking on to the CBC

I got a pretty interesting text message from J.J. last night while sitting at home with Rebecca. “Whoa cbc was just over my apt and taped a piece on the rory thing“. I got excited and asked if he said anything about The Crazy Canucks because I’m a marketing sucker like that.

The piece turned out pretty great, but at the 49 second mark of the 2:38 long clip, that’s the last you see of J.J. Still, it’s a pretty sweet shot of the Canucks Hockey Blog in the background on his screen. You can also see The Crazy Canucks logo just a tad. This aired last night on CBC: Canada Now at 6PM. Way to go, J.J.!

By the way, did you vote for Rory yet? I know I’ve done my fair share, and you should, too.

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RadioZoom Video Podcast #8 – Cruising in the car with the camera phone

Taking the cellphone into new territory. Check out the latest video podcast of RadioZoom.

This is a major experiment with cellphone technology to do a video podcast. Not the best quality in the world, but in a pinch, this Nokia can do some nice stuff. Leave comments and do your worst. I told you we’d do something before Christmas, and this is coming in right under the wire.

We were driving around, checking out the festive lights in the area, so I had the idea to make this vid while we made our way back home from Christmas Eve gatherings. A year in review, hopes for the new year, and other various things that I can’t remember. Watch it to find out. We have Christmas things to enjoy right now.

Best wishes this holiday! 🙂

radiozoom.net

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The Crazy Canucks #12 – Not too wild about the Wild

It’s like Alanah said in one of her posts. More than anything, doing The Crazy Canucks is just fun. Check out the latest episode if you’d like to join in.

This episode caught some of us off guard, but anytime you throw a bunch of Canucks fans together, it’s not hard to talk hockey for a half hour. The whole gang was here, but our connection to Dave cut out towards the end. That didn’t stop the podcast, you can count on that.

Record as of this episode: 17-16-1 (5th in the Northwest Division)

We cover the last three games, but we only played two teams during that stretch; Calgary and Minnesota. Luongo takes center stage for some discussion, we pick out the rag of the week(only because it seems that whoever we pick on tends to start doing better), and wonder what the heck is going on with the officiating during some of the games. Dave also gives a first hand report on venturing out for a Vancouver Giants (WHL) game, J.J. gives us a Vote for Rory update(listen to an interview with Rory on the website under “Rory Speaks!”), and Alanah is live with her new blog, canucksandbeyond.com.

This is our last episode before the Christmas holiday, so all the best wishes to our listeners, subscribers, and readers. (Look for another episode before the end of year)

The Crazy Canucks

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Maybe I had a little part in it

I caught this story on PunkNews.org, and the main thing that I find incredible is the second city on the tour date list. Iowa City! And if you listen to the interview that RadioZoom did with Jim Ward, lead singer of Sparta, in November[rz118], you might recall that I lobbied for the band to consider swinging through Iowa City if they were ever in the area.

Toss this one up to the power of new media? Maybe. It would be really interesting if Jim had any part in putting IC on the list. It’s a U.S. tour only, so check out their site for details on any changes or additions.

Take that, Ames!

(Cross posted from RadioZoom)

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Pluggd is fixing the meta issue with podcasting

Wired published an article about Pluggd, a company that is developing new technology to search the internet, and we’re not just talking about text anymore.

Pluggd has found a way to index podcasts, talk shows and other spoken-word content. The company’s service then allows users to search the audio files for specific words.

You can try Pluggd’s word-searching demo yourself right now. Enter your search term and you’ll see mentions of your word highlighted in various colors — heatmap-style — on a timeline of the show. The redder “hot spot” areas represent denser clusters of your search term, and clicking on one will cause the player to jump straight to the discussion about your desired topic.

Rather than just reading a transcript of a conversation, you can search for a term and hear it spoken in context by the original speaker in seconds. The ramifications for podcasting and more traditional spoken-audio formats are significant, and that’s just for starters. [wired]

If they get this right, the podcasting medium stands to take a huge boost. Take a look at the demo. It gives a nice preview of the service that they are working on. I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor a little bit.

Additionally, Digg did a design overhaul to their site plus some other goodies. They’ve added support for podcasting. That basically means that the same way that you can Digg a news story or blog post, you can Digg a single episode to share with others. I’m not too sure how it works from the podcasters end, but please feel free to Digg any of the RadioZoom or The Crazy Canucks episodes. 🙂

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RadioZoom Episode #122 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: December 2006

Putting my best foot forward, here is this months six song.

This is getting out a little later than normal, but I’m blaming the holidays on that one. However, the theme for this installment is in regards to a blog post that I made regarding music at Vancouver Canucks games. It’s gathered some attention from people who are actual hockey DJ’s from various parts of the sport. I’m putting my money where my mouth is and explored the Podsafe Music Network this morning to quickly find some potential new blood for venues around North America.

52:39 minutes
radiozoom.net

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The Crazy Canucks #11 – Looking for a streak

DaveO came over earlier tonight. Rebecca and I made a podcast with him, Alanah, and J.J. The last two people weren’t actually here with the three of us, but it’s amazing with what you can do with VoIP these days. Check out the episode we recorded here.

Dave joins John and Rebecca in “the studio” while we have Alanah and J.J. on the line for this slightly longer edition of the podcast. We tackle the latest news regarding the end of Alanah’s blog, Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, and look ahead to what we can expect from her new role with Kukla’s Korner. You can read her first feature article on her new home, “Bringing Hockey to the People“. So yes, the hockey blogging will continue.

That also sparks a brief debate over blogger and podcaster fans of the NHL in general, and their role in covering their favorite hockey teams in this age of new media. Whoa… deep.

Canucks! Oh yes, we talk Canucks as well. Carolina, Calgary, and Phoenix are the latest foes to face, so we do our best to cover our likes and dislikes over the games. The way things have been going, we have all been surprised with who we’ve been liking on the ice. We also get a little bit of a Vote for Rory update, tackle goalie mask designs, and toss around various thoughts about who’s hot and who we’d like to see contribute some more.

The Crazy Canucks

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I have a thing for lines of code

I’m redesigning the RadioZoom site again. Ok, it’s not a redesign, but I’m porting the design, mostly, into a better layout. I’ve worked so hard to not make the website look like a blog because, let’s be honest, it’s a podcast, right? Anyone can start a blog and shift it into a site for a podcast. I’m just going to stop fighting the inevitable.

The current theme that I’m using, as it is a WordPress driven site, has so much code that is cobbled and hacked together that it hurts too much to clean up. I know it’s bad taste to take someone’s theme that they put out there for public use and then tear it all apart for my own amusement, but I’m picky. It has to look right, at least to me. I ain’t no design genius either, but beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Well, in this case, the programmer.

PodPress is really the reason I’m revamping the design. Subtle changes makes it not want to play nicely with the current design. They recently released a new version of this great podcasting plugin for WordPress, so I think it’s high time to dive into fixing it. At the same time, it keeps the geek skills sharpened.

If all goes according to plan, the new design should be live next week. Don’t expect any huge surprises. It should look similar to what it is now, but functionality will be the true improvement, perhaps more so on the back end.

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RadioZoom Episode #121 – Christmas cheer; Music and interviews; Listener feedback; Vancouver Trivia

Lots of fun putting this episode together. Download it. You must.

Coming back after being away for nearly two weeks, Rebecca and I sit down in “the studio” to get caught up on our podcasting duties. Illnesses and business aside, we’re back with a variety of topics while sitting down to record without any plan. Christmas is upon us, and we’re getting a gift from Aberdeen City, which is awesome. There is also some discussion of Christmas shopping and what it takes to send presents back to the U.S.

We’ve received some great feedback from listeners about some of the interviews we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, our interview with Wintersleep did not happen, but maybe next time. We do take some time to thank those who have submitted feedback about the podcasts we’ve been putting out there and comment about our music related interviews in general. Rebecca also got a great chance to interview a member of The Could Room and talks about the very cool opportunity.

Also check out this month’s edition of Vancouver Trivia to see how well John knows the city.

52:32 minutes
radiozoom.net

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VCOE going away; the hockey blogging will continue

There has been a bit of news today regarding one of our collaborators to The Crazy Canucks podcast. Alanah, of Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, posted a fairly major announcement this afternoon, ending a three year run of her blog.

No, you didn’t read that wrong — Vancouver Canucks Op Ed will be closing down very soon, probably in the next week or two. I’ve been putting off posting this, but it’s time to explain what’s already happened and what’s coming up.

I’m afraid it’s a bit long-winded, but I’m sort of sentimental about this blog, so cut me some slack…;-) [vancouvercanucksoped]

Read the rest of her post to get the reasoning for the end of VCOE, but the good news is that her hockey blogging adventures will continue. Expect bigger and better things from Alanah in the very near future. Also, be sure to catch the next episode of The Crazy Canucks as we will be sure to expand on this topic further.