“What Else Is On?” –> Of course he does a podcast…
When I was a kid, after wanting to be a superhero, and then a game show host, I eventually wanted to be a radio DJ. I probably assumed this would mean I’d get to talk a lot on air, but it more likely would’ve been me working 2am slots with no one listening playing the hard-rocking hits of the 1950s.
Be that as it may, I eventually figured out that what it really is I like to do, it’s talking. Conversing more than just talking to hear my own voice (although I do seem to enjoy that too).
A few years back, I got introduced to podcasts by one of my best friends who said, “Why aren’t we doing this?” So we did, and almost every show we’ve done for The d20 has shown exactly why we shouldn’t be doing it. 😉
But that hasn’t stopped us so far. And, if no one else was listening, I still would. Not just because of narcissism, but more because I love my group of friends, and I feel like I’m my best when I’m with them. I learn from them, I have the most fun with them. I was recording our gaming sessions anyways, but we have done a massively irregular show for a while. It’s hugely inappropriate and offensive, so, know that going in.
Now, about two years ago, I discovered a show on a site called Spreecast hosted by two excellent guys. It was, at the time, called “What We’re Watching Weekly,” and the title described the it perfectly. The nice thing about Spreecast was that it was as open as you wanted it to be, so you could have people jump into your show while it was going on, joining the discussion, then jumping off to make way for the next person. And, on a whim, I wound up on screen, which was a lot of fun. So I kept coming back, every week, to take part of the show. Glenn and Dave were incredibly gracious to let me be a part of things. Over time, Dave had to step back, but Glenn carried on, and people like Gregor, Casey, Mike, Evan, Beatmaster, and more all filled in time here and there. Gregor and I really sort of took up two of the seats so regularly that, eventually, when Glenn himself was having problems getting online or had scheduling conflicts, we tried to keep the show running for him.
Let’s face it… The show was, and always would be, Glenn and Dave’s. And we treated it with the reverence of a couple fanboys because that’s what we were. We were fortunate enough that people who watched for the original hosts still would show up when it was just us. But Spreecast changed their business model, and while Gregor and I had already been talking about starting a second show that was actually ours, we also saw that WWWW was going to kind of lose its home, after it had already lost its original hosts.
As fans, neither Gregor nor I wanted to see the show disappear. We loved it. We loved doing it. We loved it being a tribute to the guys that started it. But if we took it somewhere else, could we really keep it the same? And should we?
We talked to Glenn, explained to him what was going on, and what we were thinking. Glenn, as always, was gracious and gave us his blessing. We talked about what we wanted to call the new show, again, in tribute to what he’d begun. We kept the “What,” but integrated the name of the new network we’d already been looking to start: Elsenerds.
And that’s how we ended up with “What Else Is On?” We kept what we could too. Starts and Stops, something Mike had originally been in charge of, Gregor had taken over a while back. Evan and Beatmaster, two of the regulars from the old chat, deservedly became Producers for our new network, helping us build content to talk about on both the shows, and sitting in on the chat during the recordings to keep us on point, or derail us in the best possible way.
We’ve only been doing this for a couple months, so we’re still figuring out what all Elsenerds really might be or do. Maybe this is it. A TV/Movie show and a Comic show. If that’s all we get, I’m still pretty satisfied. Again, all I was looking for was to be able to have a conversation with some friends. Even if no one else watches or listens… I do.
We were also really surprised and flattered with Dave (that’s Tasteful Dave actually) invited us to be a sister network to his own Galactic Netcasts, a place with excellent shows about Science Fiction and Aliens. He’s even invited us to participate on a couple episodes here and there.
And then, every episode, as a tribute to our other Founder, we finish the show with “This has been a ‘Don’t Tell Glenn’ Production.” Because: respect, yo!
