Category: RadioZoom

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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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Feeling as good as the weather

Right now, I’m just staying awake for the sake of not sleeping all day and then not sleeping tonight. Just been an all day endeavor of pains in my stomach area. It would be easy to say that it’s the water, but Rebecca has been fine all day long. Don’t know what the deal is, but I hate being sick.

Been a series of things that I wanted to highlight today. Northern Voice is ramping up. They officially opened up registration for the event, and we’re looking at going. The worst thing about the timing is that it’s the weekend of our first anniversary. NV is something we’re all about checking out, but we’ll have to really see how it works for us. I’ve thought about tossing my hat into the speaking ring regarding podcasting, but there is probably someone out there that could do something much more impacting than myself.

Rebecca setup another interview for this Saturday for RadioZoom. This time around, we’ll be talking to Wintersleep from Halifax, Nova Scotia ahead of their show at The Plaza Club. Should be a lot of fun, and I’m all about learning more about bands on the fly. I know the library a bit, but outside of that, I like taking these interviews as they go. Having a formula sounds like we have a formula.

Speaking of Saturday, we’ll have to miss the Canucks game that night, but what a good game against Columbus last night. It was a little disheartening to hear people boo Anson Carter, but I get why it was happening. Even better that we held on to win. Even at 1-0, there was enough action to keep me into the game. I could have really done with some more scoring though. Geez!

I’ve also been getting back up to speed with what’s happening with Iowa Public Radio. It’s been a little over a year since I left the radio world, and the process of consolidation was just starting to gather. I’ll be completely honest. Everything I am seeing makes me very unhappy.

I’m hearing things from the inside that are less than stellar. They even have a blog as the mouth of IPR now, WordPress and all. Sure, statewide public radio networks are nothing new, but everything that made all of those stations great, in their own respective ways, is being systematically dismantled. This is a topic I’ll expand more on in the future, I’m sure.

That’s all from the couch. Combined with some podcasts in my headphones and CNN on the tube all day long, I’m ready to feel better. You can only see those Head On commercials so many times, and that goes for the newer ones that rip on the original ones.

That does remind me that I need to touch on some of the TV shows we’ve been keeping tabs on and enjoying this fall. Jericho, Heroes, Law and Order: SVU, CSI, 20 Rock, Studio 60… I can’t remember liking to watch TV in a long time, not to mention on the major networks. Give me widescreen and that makes me interested in anything. Take away the commercials, and I’ll like it even more.

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RadioZoom Episode #119 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: November 2006

I recorded this month’s six song with very little problem, and the more I use Ubercaster, especially for episodes like this one, the more I love it. And the power is still on, so that’s even better. The latest episode is up and ready, just for you.

Rain and electronic music almost seem to go hand in hand. Here is the six song from this month. A sampling of some electronic music that I enjoy, giving you more of a taste of the various types of music that I enjoy. The weather might be a little awful today, but I assure you that the music is good. Some thanks goes to the Podsafe Music Network for allowing me to find some of these selections and play them for you.

44:55 minutes
radiozoom.net

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RadioZoom Episode #118 – Interview with Jim Ward of Sparta at Richards on Richards

I realize that I never blogged about this night, but listen to episode #118 and you’ll get exactly what I thought about this show. This was also a great test of Levelator, and the entire episode was edited together using Ubercaster.

Another adventure with the podcasting project, RadioZoom gets the opportunity to hang out with Jim Ward, front man for the band Sparta, during their one night visit on their current tour. Richards on Richards was the venue for this evening, and both Rebecca and I had a really great time.

We discuss a variety of topics, ranging from what life on the road is like, the making of the latest album, Jim’s prior experiences with Vancouver, a little bit of politics, and we discover a little more of what life is like in Jim’s hometown of El Paso, Texas. (Note: explicit language)

It was an amazing opportunity for the interview, and the performance that night was nothing short of being absolutely stellar. We take a moment back in “the studio” to reflect on the overall experience and review what we saw on stage that night.

59:48 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Ubercaster is getting ready for official release

I got an email from the folks at Ubercaster about the coming plan for the official release of their podcasting program for the MacOS.

Hi all,

after a long time of silence, we’re proud to announce the launch of
our Übercaster pre-order offer.

Until the end of the beta phase, you’ve got the chance to pre-order
Übercaster with a 15% discount off the regular retail price.

This means: Order Übercaster now and pay only $69 (US) instead of
$79.95. In addition to that you’ll get the following advantages with
the ordered license key:

– No expiration of the program.
– Free updates including v1.x
– Upload feature unlocked (disabled in the free beta).
You can automatically upload your shows during the release process.
Several network protocols are supported: in addition to FTP, SFTP,
WebDAV and .Mac, Übercaster also supports native upload to XML-RPC
services like PodShow.com, including the automatic creation of blog
entries.

Ordered license keys will be sent immediately.

Übercaster’s pre-order phase starts today and ends with the
introduction of Übercaster’s final release.
Podcasters are still invited to join the free beta test.

I’ve been using Ubercaster for all live recordings of both podcasts that I produce, especially The Crazy Canucks. For a beta program, it has worked really well up to this point, but the final encoding of any episode is still questionable. In fact, I’ve been exporting uncompressed audio files from the program and doing all final encoding of mp3’s with iTunes. My ear could pick up a noticeable difference between the two, but I need to make another comparison with the latest build.

It was only a matter of time before the testing phase would end and the final release of Ubercaster would be unveiled. In PC world, Castblaster is the Windows equivalent for recording podcasts in real time, and the price sits at $50US. I’ve never used it, but everything I have heard about it makes it very similar to Ubercaster.

Everything that I’ve done up to this point would make Ubercaster worth the purchase, more so if you can get in on the pre-order phase. In fact, I even got Rebecca comfortable with using it. The interface is easy enough to understand that training her was very easy. You can get a prime example of it here on her take over of the last six song on RadioZoom.

The one thing that is uncertain is how much longer the beta phase will be. The amount of new builds coming out during this pre-release phase has gone up quite a bit. I have yet to try out the latest version, but the stripping of the beta label for Ubercaster seems that it will happen later rather than sooner.

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Interview with Sparta confirmed for RadioZoom

Sparta (credit: Johnny Buzzerio)I’m super excited to announce that RadioZoom will be having the opportunity to interview Sparta when they are in town for their show at Richards on Richards this weekend. I have officially made Rebecca my go to public relations person for the podcast, and she has delivered big time, no doubt about it.

Like many fans of the band, I’ve been a fan of Sparta since the day they formed. No, I wasn’t one of those cool kids with my ear to the underground and knowledge of all things good. Well, maybe just a little bit, but when the forever memorable At the Drive-In[wiki] split up, Sparta was formed by three guys from the band. If you’ve ever heard the name The Mars Volta, that is what the other two members went on to. However, Paul Hinojos left Sparta nearly a year ago to join The Mars Volta.

In 1999, I went to my first CMJ Music Marathon in New York. The Foo Fighters were slated to play at the Bowery Ballroom in a somewhat early show, so a bunch of us stood in line for a few hours to check them out. More impressive than seeing them on stage was the opening band which none of us knew a lot about, and they were seemingly insane. Amazingly good, but insane.

Sad to say, I never knew who they were for months afterward. When we got At the Drive-In’s new album at KRUI a little while later, I started to piece it all together. That band I saw, with the afros and craziness on stage, was At the Drive-In.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Sparta since their first album, “Wiretap Scars“, and their two follow up albums have yet to disappoint me. Their most recent release, “Threes“, is available in stores now. I’ve had a listen through just a few times, so it is hard for me to really convey a decent review of the album. However, I assure you, it’s way, way good.

The most interesting part of doing this interview is the way Sparta has embraced new media. Their involvement with their website is very noticeable, connecting to fans in this highly digital age with podcasts and embedded videos to send out information to fans. My hope is to explore their reasons behind it and geek out with rock stars a little bit.

radiozoom.netIt is because of this that we think they have given the green light to meeting Rebecca and I for a brief conversation before their show on Saturday night. The scope of RadioZoom is always exploring new avenues, and the recent interview with Aberdeen City is a prime example of that. It feels good to be getting back into the realm of interacting with musicians, like I did during my time in radio, but we can try so many different things through podcasting that you simply can’t on the airwaves.

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Giving RadioZoom its own legs to stand on

Back in March, Andrew from Geek.Farm.Life was gracious enough to purchase the “radiozoom.net” domain for the podcast. He’s in a reverse situation than myself, living in Indiana with his American wife, and a long time listener of my podcast. I’ve posted about GFL before, so be sure to go read that to find out more about his podcast.

Until last night, the domain was a redirect to the site that I had setup within this domain. That’s much easier to market to listeners rather than saying “blah-blah-blah slash blah-blah-blah”. I’ve been content with the setup for some time, but the slight confusion of the podcast name combined with the actual URL for the podcast episodes was starting to bug me. It doesn’t give the podcast enough of a brand, at least for me, if you tell people one thing and they end up seeing another.

It took a few hours to propagate down the DNS chains, but the domain now has full control over the site. All the old links to old episodes still work. The change has allowed me to move forward with ideas that I couldn’t implement otherwise. These are more noticeable behind the scenes, and that really matters to me more than you. This also means that it’s less I have to think about while falling asleep at night.

Once again, many thanks go out to Andrew for helping to make this possible. Go check out RadioZoom.net and see for yourself.

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RadioZoom Episode #116 – Interview with Aberdeen City at Richards on Richards

Something for you to listen to over the weekend, episode #116 of RadioZoom has been posted.

This episode goes mobile as Rebecca and I spend some time with Aberdeen City before they take the stage at Richards on Richards in Vancouver. They were in town on October 17, 2006 on their North American tour, opening up for Electric Six. Answering an email that Rebecca sent them, they arranged for us to be on the guest list and hang out in the green room before the show started.

We get into a variety of topics, including life on the road, their brief time in Vancouver, what it’s like to tour with Electric six, and so on. The whole atmosphere is very laid back and unscripted. You get to hear the whole interview from beginning to end, with only minor editing to make all the segments flow together. Call it what you want, but this is podcasting. There are no rules. (FYI: some explicit language is used in this episode)

On a technical note, this is my first time using Levelator in an episode. This was very useful with the raw audio that I recorded of the interview. I’ve been impressed with what it can do and recommend checking it out for yourself.

54:51 minutes
radiozoom.net

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RadioZoom Episode #115 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: October 2006; Miss 604 Take Over

People have requested it, and she stepped up to the plate. Rebecca takes over RadioZoom for episode #115 and the October edition of the six song.

I am no longer a podcast virgin. I took over all aspects of RadioZoom for Episode #115 as John sat in the wings, being a very gracious co-host, podcast mentor and trainer.

The focus was on the Boston-based band Aberdeen City since I’ve been invited to interview them [miss604] before their show here in Vancouver on Tuesday October 17th. I then selected pod safe artists (from music.podshow.com) who all hail from Boston, MA to keep with a bit of a theme and tribute to my old stomping grounds.

I hope you enjoy and PLEASE leave us some feedback; comments, concerns, rants, raves.

35:16 minutes
radiozoom.net