Last Friday saw one of the moments where numbers conspired to mean something. Over on ESC Insight, I posted the five hundredth episode of my Eurovision Song Contest podcast. There was nothing particularly special about the contents, it was a regular episode of ‘ESC Insight News’, covering the last two weeks of news in the world of the Song Contest.

The only concessions to the episode number was a sad party twizzler sound effect at the end of the show, and the subtle use of a Fiat 500 as the key image in the post and shared social images.

And while it is podcast #500 on the RSS feed of ESC Insight, I’ve done more Eurovision podcasts and audio that have been sent down other channels – the podcasts and radio shows for the SBS Eurovision pop-up radio station, the work with Radio Six International, the syndicated radio preview shows each year, and even the commentary work I’ve done have all been part of the audio adventure. These shows are not in the core 500, but they all arose because I podcast about something I love and became one of the ‘go to voices’ in the space.

This is the point where inspirational posts would suggest some grand lessons over the last six years of ESC Insight. I’m not sure there are any, beyond find a passion, keep the quality as high as possible, always ask if you can do more, and say yes to every opportunity you get.

The ESC Insight podcast has taken me on some amazing journeys, from a midnight flight into Yerevan to armed guards blocking my path into Azeri press centres; from commentary booths around the world to talking to TV and Radio executives across Europe and beyond; to be welcomed by a community and to create a new community, it has delivered all that and more.

As for what comes next, I’d highlight podcast #499. This is part of a series called ‘Eurovision Castaways’, where host Ellie Chalkley interviews members of the Song Contest community about their favourite records and finds out more about them. That episode arrived in my podcast player with no input at all from me.

I may have started the Eurovision podcast many years ago, I may still contribute, but the podcast is now something much bigger than just myself, a microphone, and some passion.

Now that personal passion is the shared passion of tens of thousands.

For those following MWC remotely (or need something to listen to on the hike to the Barcelona gatherings), Rafe Blandford is part of the DigitasLBi UK team who are bringing (hopefully) daily shows now MWC is under way. Start of with the preview that aired over the weekend – listen on Soundcloud – and check there tomorrow for more! 

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Gene Cernan died today.

I’ve posted it above, and I’m going to listen to it again.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

First up, I consider Overcast the best mobile podcast clients currently available. Marco Arment’s client has grown over the years and developed almost every feature that I could want. The only trouble he’s had is trying to create a solid income from it. Following the initial one-year subscription model, then a patronage-based model, he’s now looking at a third option:

Ads are the great compromise: money needs to come from somewhere, and the vast majority of people choose free-with-ads over direct payment. Ads need not be a bad thing: when implemented respectfully, all parties can get what they want.

Most podcasts played in Overcast are funded by ads for this reason, and as a podcaster and (occasional) blogger myself, I already make most of my income from ads.

I’m far from the first one to try an ad-supported app — among many others, my co-host on Under The Radar, David Smith, now makes the majority of his App Store income from ads — and it’s unwise to rule out any reasonable business model in today’s App Store.

So I’m trying ads in Overcast: simple, non-animated, mostly-text banners on the main list screens that unobtrusively scroll with the content.

Arment has kept much of discussion over the app’s development and business models on his blog, and I hope that he finds true success with Overcast. Needless to say I’ll be paying the premium to remove apps (I’m so old-school sometimes) and watching the continuing story with interest.

Overcast has been updated to version 2.5. It’s my podcast player of choice and while I wasn’t screaming out for some of the optional extras only open to patrons (a dark theme and ability to upload your own single files) the changes to battery consumption and the sound output are very much welcome.

It’s a free download, but you can make a small one-off payment as a thank you through an in-app payment. Grab it from overcast.fm.

The announcement of Chris Chibnall as the exec behind Doctor Who after Steven Moffat leaves has left many feeling dazed and confused… mostly because everyone remembers the Torchwood rush-job that was Cyberwoman, and forgets that he also wrote Adrift…. and launched Law and Order UK… and did Broadchurch…

So if you’re at all curious about what he could bring to Doctor Who, may I suggest this in-depth interview with him from Danny Stack’s ‘Scriptwriters in the UK’ podcast. Recorded in May last year it talks about his approach to writing, TV production, and show-running… Listen carefully and you can pull out themes and emotions that Chibnall likes to explore, and I suspect that offers a clue to what ‘his’ Doctor Who will be like.

I’m much more excited for NuWho after listening.

I know there are a million ‘media/sci-fi/genre‘ podcasts out there, but here’s another reason to listen and subscribe to ‘From The Sublime‘… I’m making an appearance this fortnight!

FTS (because every good show needs to have a good abreviation) is hosted by Iain Hepburn, and works on a magazine-style format, with discrete topics introduced and presented as monologues from Hepburn and his “finely honed fighting force.” Yes, it’s ‘Nationwide for Nerds’, with just a little bit more attitude than Frank Bough.

Anyway, Hepburn asked if I would take a swing at a topic for the current episode, and I decided to look at the staple of genre television the cliffhanger, taking in the current season of Doctor Who, some of the classic series, Star Trek The Next Generation, and a few easter eggs hiding in the script (there’s a free badge for the first person to name them all).

It’s been fun being able to concentrate on ‘just the audio’ for once, and not worry about long term goals, website, promotion, or anything else. Let me know what you think!

Listen to the full show on the website, alternatively subscribe to FTS in iTunes or by RSS to get every episode.

With its tounge slightly in cheek, FringePig has award its first “ham-fisted” award for “the Fringe reviewer who most misunderstood what they were looking at.” to The List’s Graeme Connelly for his review of Stuat Goldsmith’s show:

Graeme wins for his stunning use of bathos. In his review of ‘Stuart Goldsmith: An Hour‘ he worships at the feet of Goldsmith for several paragraphs, and then ends with three stars. It’s a simple formula, but a winning one. The funniest reviews are often the simplest. Connelly receives the staggering sum of £50 which, we are told, can buy a very brief sensation of three-star pleasure if you know where to look. Mr Goldsmith wins £200, which he hardly needs since he is, apparently, a glowing comedy adonis with the world at his three-star feet.

Here’s the ‘winning’ review for your pleasure. Now, who’s reviewing the podcasters?

SXSW is here, and that means I’m in Austin, Texas for the usual jamboree of music, film, and interactive bits and pieces. As always I’ll be blogging, interviewing, and podcasting, over at sxswbaby.com. As part of that, there’s a series of podcasts on how to get the most out of SXSW. You could subscribe to the podcast (here’s the RSS feed), but to get you started, here’s the three ‘primers’ for the two weeks in sunny Austin.

The Beginner’s Podcast

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The Intermediate Podcast

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The Ninja Podcast

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And I’ll have more from Austin and SXSW every day at SXSW Baby!

Support for this year’s podcasts comes from HipChat. Bring your team to life, with group and private chat, file sharing, and integrations, all at hipchat.com.

Marco Arment looks at how just a few tweaks can polish a podcast from ‘two people on Skype’ into something with a bit more class and potential:

Just as blogs need sensible fonts, colors, layouts, and spacing to be comfortably readable, podcasts need to be listenable. And you can’t make easily listenable podcasts without at least basic equipment and production.

This doesn’t take tons of money and fancy equipment — it takes some cheap equipment, plus a bit of effort and caring about how your podcast sounds, just as you could make a few changes to your CSS in 2006 to make your blog a lot more readable.

Anyone in the podcasting space not already doing this should mark this as a ‘must read’ article.

There’s going to be a lot of these over the next two years, but I’m definitely flagging up Cameron Reilly’s post today celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the aussie pdocast “G’Day World”…. which had me on as a guest in the first fortnight (so that would be my ten-year anniversary)… which led to an invite to join The Podcast Network (Feb 14 2004), my first podcasts, and arguably that experimentation continues to this day in terms of radio, online, audio, and storytelling.

Nice one, Mr C.

This should be fun. The Carson Podcast interviews comedians who have one thing in common – they all got their big break from Johnny Carson and ‘The Tonight Show’ Now available in iTunes and via RSS.

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MP3 File – Show Notes – Rock Show RSS Feed

Every year I look out some great Christmas music online, avoiding the big name artists and million sellers you can hear on the radio and TV. They all feature in the ‘Christmas Rocktacular’ podcast which you can stream online, or download for free. Here’s this year’s festive collection.

Under Your Christmas Tree, by Jericko Rose (Jericko Rose on Reverb Nation).
O Come All Ye Faithfull, by Geoff Smith (thegeoffsmith.com).
Christmas In A Cup, by Erica Sunshine Lee (ericasunshinelee.com).
Broke The Bank This Christmas, by Mitch Benn (mitchbenn.com).
St. Benedicts Christmas Fayre, by Lisa Redford (lisaredford.com).
Space Christmas, by Shonen Knife (shonenknife.net).
Lonely Night (Silent Knight), by Rachel Bloom (racheldoesstuff.com).
Some Christmas Huggin’ and a Kissin’, by Geoff Smith (thegeoffsmith.com).

You might recall that after this year’s radio broadcast of the  Edinburgh Fringe chat show came to the end, I decided to keep the format alive and showcase all the fun things in Edinburgh each week (that would have been the moment for a David Tennant-esque “I don’t want to go…”). It’s three months later, and Edinburgh Nights is still on the air, at 3pm every Friday, with a podcast available to listen again to the show (if you’re in Edinburgh), or to listen fresh to the whole hour if you are further afield.

It’s a show that continues to evolve, but being able to highlight the great bands playing in the capital, give some airtime to the theatre shows around Edinburgh, and to go beyond the ten minute set from the comedians playing the Festival city, are all adding up to an exciting hour every week.

If you’re not yet listening, head over to iTunes and subscribe to the podcast, and if you are a regular listener, why not think about leaving a review?

I might have hinted at this near the end of my thoughts looking back at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe podcast. I had a blast doing the show, which this year was recorded and broadcast live on Castle FM as well as going out as a podcast through the usual RSS powered sources.

When the Fringe was over, the time-slot on the FM dial was still open, so it felt natural to keep the one hour format of music and intervews going, but with some tweaks to fit the landscape in Edinburgh for the other 11 months of the year. So it’s a weekly one-hour show, 3pm-4pm every Friday, with guests from comedy, theatre, music, and the occasional special event, mixed in with bands playing in the local clubs, and a little quiz element called ‘Twenty Questions Wrong‘ (more on that in my next blog post, I think).

As I’m writing this after the event, you can listen to the show right now. I promise I’ll give you a bit more heads up next week so those of you outside Edinburgh can listen to the live stream from Castle FM. Truth is with the move to Castle FM’s Studio One I wanted to get all the buttons and sliders in the right place before the internet audience arrived!

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With Keith Jack, Leah Bonnema, Penny Black, Tom Diben’s theatre preview, and music from Sienna, The Gorms, Sham 69, and Matt Gloss and the Emulsions.
MP3 File – Show Notes – Podcast RSS Feed