Tuesday 12 June 2007

The Podcast Season

Hi Folks,
Mark here.
I just finished listening to the last Guardian Football Weekly podcast today. It has now really sunk in with me that the season is over, that I don't have it to look forward to on horrible, boring Mondays. There has been an excellent dynamic all season, especially with the pun-tastic James Richardson and the bongo-watching Barry Glendenning on board. Top quality stuff.
(On a side note, I had planned a 'what the hell happened to Belgian football' in past weeks, then it was all taken away from me by the Guardian, I have just wasted my time...)

The Game, over at the Times, finished a couple of weeks ago, and it's one that is also excellent. It started out slowly, and there is a couple of things that need to be changed, but there is great value to be had from arguments between Guillaume Balague and Gabriel Marcotti. The show, however, hinges on the likeability of Danny Kelly. I don't mind him but people I've spoken to have a deep reservoir of hatred for the man.

We have some other competitors, and common sense precludes me from making comments on their shows. They're all good guys, and we have engaged in a bit of cross promotion.

Myself and JJ will be around with our weekly podcast next season, we're going to have a think about it over the summer, and decide on the format of the show, try to freshen a couple of things up and generally try to have as much fun as we did the past season, though with better sound quality and less "ehs". So we'll be going for some sort of a re-launch before the English season starts. More on that to follow...

By way, our podcast went online on Saturday, download it by following the link below or on the left,
Cheers,
Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com

14 comments:

Mal said...

I love both the guardian and game podcasts. It's a pity t hat the Guardian one isn't a bit longer as it often seems rushed.
In terms of the sound quality on your podcast, could I suggest moving the mic closer to Mark as JJ always sounds louder and Mark quieter?

Unknown said...

I think the problem is partly me speaking naturally low and partly the mic we have. If we get out cheque from Google soon, we may invest in a mic more suited for 2 people. Anyway, we'll try to fix it up

Parrotbait said...

Really like the Guardian podcast, James Richardson is a brilliant presenter. Some of his crackers this year :

Orbiting way up high, somewhere near Thierry Henry's opinion of himself, it's Guardian Football Weekly!

Rijkaard stinks as Barcelona fail to roll-on

as Inter continue to pull away like some crazed footballing George Michael

Capello then forced like a man with a bowl of Heinz alphabet spaghetti, to eat his own words

Not since Guti found out his girlfriend was a transexual have footballers battled so hard to avoid going down


On todays show , we have the latest on a busy week of international football where there were more qualifiers than a contest for ugly women in Newcastle... or Sunderland if you're listening in Newcastle


The contributors to the Guardian are all pretty good and know their shit at least

The Game on the other hand I think can be very hot and cold, Danny Kellys voice can be annoying as hell especially with a hangover. The singing bit at the end with that girl was fucking annoying too.Marcotti though is good with his rants on english football

Tried out that SoccerShout podcast and decided it was a bit shit, the lads don't seem to really know their stuff that well.

ESPNs Soccernet podcast is alright, its twice a week but can be boring as there's no craic in it really

Unknown said...

yea, Richardson is a pro and really makes the show. The contributors are generally very good (not a fan of the poetry though).
Since we do the show on Thursdays (generally) it annoys the hell outta me when I have a list in my head of points to make, and one of the other podcasts gets there before us on Mondays and our effect is lost.
The Thursday, we feel, has its benefits though 1- too much competition on Mondays and 2 - we can cover CL games/Cup/midweek prem games and 3 - we can drink cans cos Friday is a write-off work wise anyway

Mal said...

The "Poll Pottery" one on the guardian a few weeks ago was a classic. I think of the amatuer podcasts, that okey doke is the most entertaining. A lot of the other ones are a bit bland like the beautiful game. Okey Doke is like the RTE pundits, no holds barred. I'd better stop before you guys get big heads.

Unknown said...

Cheers for that Mal :)

Anonymous said...

I love the Guardian as is.

The Times podcast is pretty good. If I had control, I would make the Marcotti-Balague dynamic the center of the show, with perhaps one more professional host and an occasional guest to weigh in. Kelly annoys me, but that is a matter of taste. Bill Edgar contributes nothing except rubbish statistics that someone who took Intro to Stats five years ago could easily refute. I applaud them for including a woman, but Allison Rudd doesn't add much either. While the Guardian sometimes feels a bit spartan, the Times feels a bit bloated.

Unknown said...

I agree, Bill Edgar offers nothing really, and I really don't care too much about stats. Alison Rudd is ok. balague was missing for a whole chunk of the season, don't know why that was, but the show suffered for it. The interviews were hit and miss, though the one with Chris deBurgh was a classic. there's was another with Mickey Owen that was pointless ("I'm happy to be back playing etc...")

Mal said...

Absolutely right. Ballague and Marcotti are both great. Rudd is ok but tends to shout the others down a bit too much. I like Danny Kelly but Bill Edgar is a knob. The champions league special that Ballague and Marcotti did without the others was great. I hope that Ballague replaces Rudd to go back to the original line up.

Anonymous said...

I don't listen to the times podcast all that often mainly due to my loathing of Danny Kelly which had me against the whole thing from the get-go.

He's a gob for hire and people in power like gobs for hire. I simply can't listen to the excellent Marcotti and the worthwhile Balague while he still lurks in the background.

Richardson on the other hand is pure excellence. Funny, likeable and hugely knowledgeable, he lets the contributors get in just enough each as well. I'm not always a fan of McCarra though; the whine can drive a hungover man back to the bottle.

As Mark says, ODF will be relaunched for the new season and sound is a top priority. I also have to get my finger out on a lot of articles.

Anonymous said...

There's a good one on www.oleole.com. Two Irish guys as well.

Unknown said...

cheers for that, will give ti a listen. are u involved?

Unknown said...

ah it's run by the arseblog.com guy, he's top class

Anonymous said...

Tis good stuff alright, arseblog bloke knows his business.