Completely Conspicuous

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Syndication

This week, I'm joined by fellow podcast pioneer Brian Salvatore as we discuss the first 20 years of podcasting. 

Show notes:

  • Brian: First heard about podcasts in 2004
  • Started making the FrankBlack.net Podcast in 2006
  • Jay: Got my first iPod in 2004 and then learned about podcasts
  • Brian: The internet was so much better 20 years ago
  • Great for digging into niche interests
  • Jay and Brian met through the Frank Black podcast in 2010 and realized that Brian lived near Jay's brother-in-law
  • Jay: The start of CompCon in 2006
  • Always loved radio but never worked at the college station
  • First few years were just me talking about pop culture
  • Eventually started bringing on guests after a few years
  • Podcasting got an early boost when Apple started a podcast directory
  • Early podcasts I listened to were by Adam Curry, Ricky Gervais
  • Marc Maron started his podcast in 2009 and is airing his last episode next week
  • Now everybody's got a podcast
  • Brian: Before podcasts, blogging was a thing
  • Brian produces podcasts for other people in addition to his own
  • Podcasting never became a career for us, just a hobby
  • But some people have made lots of money from them
  • Brian: Not much innovation in the podcast space lately
  • Music podcasts were hampered by copyright issues
  • Podcast networks started popping up
  • Conan O'Brien created a great podcast after his TV talk show went away
  • Podcasting is much more interesting than commercial radio these days
  • Brian: Grew up loving radio, especially WFMU
  • Jay: College radio is still good, but commercial radio blows
  • DJs used to be dependable arbiters of taste
  • Now everything's heavily formatted
  • Jay: Been doing my own radio show on BFF.fm for the last 12 years
  • Brian co-owns a sports podcast company
  • People have trouble committing to a show once they start it
  • Listening habits have changed
  • Jay: Currently listen to WTF, The Best Show, sports shows about Toronto teams, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers
  • Brian: Election Profitmakers, Song Exploder, Never Not Funny, Conan, Indiecast, Who Cares About the Rock Hall?, Mets podcasts
  • So much content to wade through
  • Just like with music; it's much easier to release an album now but there's so much out there
  • Tough to make it as a musician now
  • Podcasts have gone beyond a niche thing
  • Jay: I love listening to audio
  • The value of playing songs people haven't heard a zillion times
  • Every celebrity has a podcast
  • Will podcasts go back to the indie days at some point?
  • Jay: I do two podcasts for work
  • The bubble will burst at some point
  • AI could have a strange, negative effect
  • Connections formed via podcasting
  • Brian: Start a podcast, people

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Direct download: CompCon_664_100725.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 5:53pm EDT

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love. 

Show notes:

  • Our top 10 songs we hate to love in no particular order
  • Phil: A song from the infamous Great White
  • One of the many bands who tried to sound like Zeppelin
  • Jay: Rupert Holmes somehow got cheesier than the "Pina Colada Song"
  • Classic AM gold shizz
  • Phil: A big hit for the Carpenters
  • Originally written for a bank commercial
  • Jay: Monster disco one-hit wonder from Patrick Hernandez
  • Phil: Britney with an earworm
  • Jay: Raspy pop smash from Kim Carnes
  • Crossed over to MOR stations that our parents listened to
  • Phil: Digging into the Jefferson Starship ballads
  • Marty Balin got on the wrong side of the Hell's Angels at Altamont
  • Jay: Phil Collins did a lot of soundtrack music in the '80s in addition to everything else
  • A patented Collins Angry Ballad
  • Phil digs that calypso beat in one of Lionel Richie's biggest hits
  • Richie was one of the driving forces behind "We Are the World"
  • Jay: A synth pop cover of "Lean On Me"
  • Phil: Secretly loved the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as a kid
  • Yvonne Elliman sang backups on several Clapton albums
  • Jay: Non-English hit by Falco
  • Only German-language #1 song in America
  • Phil: Frankie Valli's disco song in Grease
  • Written by Barry Gibb, who was unstoppable in the late '70s
  • Jay: Early '70s soft rock jam from Albert Hammond
  • Phil: John Mayer's wuss rock moment
  • More familiar with his work in Dead and Co.
  • Jay: Rediscovered recently his love of Little River Band
  • Australian purveyors of catchy dad rock
  • Original members lost the rights to the band name
  • Phil: Shout out to the Weather Girls
  • Catchy and co-written by Paul Shaffer
  • Jay: Another huge hit from the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer
  • Phil: An apparently ironic love ballad from the Captain and Tennille
  • Jay: Another hit from the Gibb family, this time younger brother Andy
  • Too much cocaine, apparently

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Direct download: CompCon_663_093025.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 5:38pm EDT

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