Podcasting has caught on across the nation, with iPod-laden college campuses being at the forefront of its driving force. For the uninitiated, it’s quite simple: downloadable radio shows that one can listen to whenever he wants.
The possibilities are limitless, the subject matter is as specific as you want, and two popular shows are recorded here in Starkville.
“I got into podcasting when it first started to show up, before Apple had even acknowledged it,” sophomore communication major Graham Hancock said. “When I heard [a few podcasts], I thought, ‘that can’t be hard to do.'”
Hancock said Derek Russell approached him about doing one in May about the popular television show “Smallville,” which chronicles the early life of Superman.
“I just wanted to see what all it takes to start a podcast,” Hancock said. “I really liked the idea and immediately said, ‘I want to produce it.'”
Dubbed “Starkville’s House of El” podcast, the 30-minute show is hosted by Russell, Tucker Colburn and Houston Longino.
“House of El is the name of Superman’s family on Krypton,” Russell said. “It originally started as ‘MSU’s House of El,’ and then people thought we were from Michigan.”
The format of the show revolves around character interaction and the storyline of Smallville, Russell said.
“We get in-depth, but also keep it low-brow for the fans who haven’t seen every single episode,” Russell said. “We do reviews about the shows each week, but [new listeners] would get caught up pretty quick.”
Longino, a senior communication major, said he brings a different viewpoint to the conversation because a podcast that constantly praises the show would be boring for fans to listen to.
“I’m a little bit more critical about the show in general, and a little more self-aware of being a fan of the show, pointing out stuff that’s just ridiculous,” Longino said.
The hosting trio got a big break earlier this month when they found out John Schneider was coming to Starkville to promote his independent film “Collier & Co.” Schneider, perhaps best known as Bo Duke from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” also portrayed Clark Kent’s father in “Smallville.”
“There’s a joke we had running about two months ago where we were asking John Schneider to be on the show in a commercial,” Russell said. “Three weeks later, we’re booking him on the show.”
Colburn, who teaches music in Louisville, said he couldn’t believe the response from Schneider.
“To be quite honest, I did not think we would get anything,” Colburn said. “If we got an interview, it’d be like the coffee guy on the set [of the show] and maybe he could have the time to answer five questions.”
“SHoE” averages about 300 subscribers an episode, with 50 to 100 e-mails every week, Russell said.
The interest helped launch a second podcast four months later.
NBC’s “Heroes” provides all the material for the second podcast, aptly titled “The 10th Wonder.” Hancock and Colburn host the hour-long show.
“The show ‘Heroes’ lends itself to a lot of speculation as to what’s going on within the show because it’s a very detailed story,” Hancock said. “The main reason [fans] listen to us is because we talk about popular opinions of fans and also offer our own opinions. A lot of people have told us that adds an extra element to being a fan of the show.”
Being that “Heroes” is still in its first season and doesn’t have an established history as Superman does, it promotes much more speculation among fans.
“Each ‘Heroes’ episode ends with a huge cliffhanger,” Russell said. “‘Heroes’ is totally new, whereas with Superman, you pretty much know everything that’s going on. On ‘The 10th Wonder,’ we’ve tried to make it really fan-based, but now it’s hard to read all the e-mail.”
Two months after “The 10th Wonder” premiered on iTunes, the show now averages more than 3,000 subscribers, Hancock said.
“Our ‘Heroes’ podcast is frequently on iTunes Top 100 podcasts section of the Apple iTunes store,” Hancock said. “We’ve gotten as high as No. 14 on the list.”
Hancock said they get hundreds of e-mails a week from fans regarding the podcasts.
“That’s why it’s such a big deal to us: because we’re only seven episodes into it, and it’s gotten this huge reaction,” Russell said.
“The 10th Wonder” also represents a departure from the thinking behind “SHoE.”
“We decided to do an ‘enhanced podcast,’ and what that means is while you’re listening to our show, we have artwork that changes according to what we’re talking about, as well as links to Web sites and chapters you can search through, similar to a DVD,” Hancock said. “Obviously, it’s paid off trying to ‘think outside the box’ a little bit.”
Longino also said the stigma associated with creating a podcast has been a little different to break away from.
“I found that one of the hard things to get away from, when you tell them you’re doing a podcast about a TV show, they think it’s about a bunch of geeks sitting around a TV, but these guys are really professional. It’s not like that at all,” he said. “It’s working out really well, and I hope it keeps going.”