First of all i would like to say thanks for podcasting. it is great entertainment for my hour long drive to and from work everyday. everybody wishes there were more podcasts, but how much time is there really?
if i may throw in my $.02. i think an hour is fine. no use cutting it down. i'm not sure why an hour is bad for some others. let us know.
it might be a good idea on the live shows to have a set topic and have q&a about those topics. maybe you can have guest speakers (specialists) on the show to help answer those specific questions? with a random format, it seems like it is easy to let a question drag on for no apparent reason, especially when every guest chimes in with their own advice. not being prepared for a certain topic can be an akward situation and it translates to the listener.
personally i am not a huge fan of the live shows. the volume levels are always bouncing around, someone is always gagging on the mic and it is difficult to hear a lot of what is going on sometimes. i like that fact that it can make it more interesting sometimes by having live callers on the air, but it is usually offset by poor sound or background noise.
i hope this helps a bit.
Hi CarmieJo,
I would have to second the 1 hour format. It almost seemed like there was too much of a concerted effort to make it 45 minutes. Is there anyway to test the incoming phone calls ? One particular caller sounded way too loud.
thank you all for the feedback (here and other threads) by its nature the show is built around what the listeners want. and overwhelmingly it has been expressed that people want the show length to remain the same or even be longer. i will not continue the effort to reduce show times. The main reason for this was based on other info that must not be relevant to our audience.
regarding the controlled topics, this is something i have been trying to work out. the one issue is that live participation is not high enough to support this format. often struggle with enough people just to fill the show with random questions. right now we only have about 10-20 people that join live, and of those only 3-5 have microphones and are willing to speak on the show. so at this point im opting for what i can get. i am working on some target shows where we will be talking about a topic, and if someone has a question the can ask, if not we will continue the topic.. this way we are not dependent on questions to fill the show
as for the audio, unfortunately without a full studio and call-in equipment that i can manage we are stuck with what we have. I give everyone full opportunity to test there audio before the show starts to make sure we work out bugs, but that doesn't always fix everything. to make it worse the audio is done in a single track recording.. making high quality editing next to impossible for me (with my software and skill levels)
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I like the hour format but really dislike the audio quality on the Talkshoe network. too much difference from the volume levels between everyone participating.
Have you explored Blog Talk Radio? I am setting up a podcast on it for work and have heard nothing but great things. In essence its like hosting a live radio show in the internet and gives you RSS and iTunes capabilities. Plus its free and you can either call in via phone or use the computer.
Rob - I third the audio comments. You're a mac guy, right? Have you tried to import the file into iMovie or GarageBand where you can adjust sections of audio? Maybe that would help to adjust everyone to the same level during the post-editing. I know it's a lot of extra work...you're doing a tremendous favor for all of us by even producing the shows!
yes, i do bring it into garage band and do some minor editing..
part of the issue is that im not the best with audio stuff, the other part is what i mentioned before, single track recording. which means what i change is to the whole track. i cant take once voice down without affecting them all.. this means i have to edit every part of the track that needs and adjustments
i do hope the current a future shows are getting a bit better
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- Out of all the 30 some podcasts I listen to, yours has the lowest volume and is really hard to hear. Not only the guest speakers but you, Rob, are also too quiet. The sound quality is SUBSTANTIALLY lower than the old shows - don't believe me, go download and older one.
- Also, your podcast is the only one that doesn't update properly all the time with iTunes. Making me unsibscribe and resubscribe all the time to get the latest episode. Kind of a pain - all the other 30+ podcasts I subscribe to seem to download fine the same day.
- If you do a TRL show, LIVE, it takes quite a few days to get it into podcast form so I can download it. That is kind of frustrating as I like the show and I'm anxious to get the content.
- I tried the TRL live 2 times and it was an aweful experience and I didn't like TalkShoe at all. So now I have to wait for the podcasts to get the show info. (And I'm a fulltime IT guy so I kinda know how to tweak it out for best quality/performance, etc. - just don't think TalkShoe is worth my time.) Also, if you only do it on a specific time of week/month, I'm limited on when I can participate.
- I honestly liked the old show format better. Seems like it was WAY more organized and focused on the topic - full of details and great information. It was always a great resource for me being a new reefer - now somewhat experienced reefer. Maybe doing a regular style show every few TRL live shows would be nice as you could please both the old school Talking Reefers like myself (I've heard every episode almost twice) - and the new school Talking Reef Live crew that likes to hear all the discussion based material. I honestly liked hearing ONLY Rob or Rob and some guest discuss a topic.
I used to pull up the Talking Reef episode and listen to the discussion to find the information I needed as I Googled it to find the best answer...... now I just Google it. Any new content on TR Live isn't used as a good reference as it takes too long to sift through all the talking to find the data I need. My attention is turned to other sources to find the information.
Sorry if this offends anyone, just my 2 cents on this Talking Reef Live podcasts.
First of all, welcome to TR Ryan! Thanks so much for your input. I know that Rob is doing his best to tweak the TR Live to best fit the audience. I believe it's a bit difficult to keep doing the old format, because the "easy topics" have all be done at some point. Maybe you could make some suggestions as to topics/discussions that you would like to gather more information about.
At any rate, I'll let Rob answer to this as well....
Thanks for your input though! And glad to know there's some high altitude reefers out there!
Not to sound any more like a nage, but all the 'easy topics' are the questions that the live listeners keep bringing up. Maybe the old shows should be a prereq to participating in the current TR Live shows.
Anyway, I still LOVE the show for what it gave me, a great basis of understanding into this very new hobby - as well as a great reference for my beginning problems. I just wish there was more to gain. The last 3 or 4 episodes have been quite weak with content, and I'm starting to lose the excitement I used to get from listening.
ryan, thanks for the feedback.. let me try to address a few of those points...
first off hte volume, i didnt realize it was getting that low.. i will make sure to pay closer attention to that on the next show.
as for the issue with itunes.. mine download automatically every time without fail, and i have not heard that from anyone else.. so im not exactly sure what to do with it.
the delay in getting the live shows is because i dont publish them right away, this is intentional, but a bug.
now onto the real point.. the show content.. yes, all of the basic topics i know have been done.. there are some other ideas, but im struggling to find things i have not already covered in detail. the Live show does repeat a lot of those, but also gives people (new and old) to ask questions specific to their situation. which can be very helpful for those that can extrapolate. i TOTALLY understand that this might lead to some "less exciting" shows. and because they are less focused, i try real hard to get all of the discussed items in the show notes. THis way you can make the decision to listen. i would hate for people to get upset cause they listened to 70 minutes of show and got nothing... with the notes you can scan them real quick, and see.. yes that looks good.. or nah, i know that stuff. its has always been a challenge to keep shows good and engaging for everyone..
honestly part of the issue is that i haev less time to devote to it than i used to, and also keep in mind that i have been pumping out shows regularly for almost 2 years now... think about that for a sec.. thats alot of shows.. lol
anyways.. im open to topic ideas and if i can do something with them i will..
i also try to promote community contributions.. videos, segments, topics, etc.. im sure you have heard them on the shwos before. im just trying to do what i can to keep the show engaging.
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