Model Railroad Podcast

Update & Commentary from Ryan:

Hey guys... MAN!  What a F'n week I have had... today was my 3rd day in-a-row of staying late at the office (past 1am) trying to get our computer network back to working order.  Why is it that when one thing fails, 5 other things fail too. :o/ After pulling in some help from a friend, we got our network backup and running and I still, thankfully, have a job. :o)

Anyway... so I am little behind on getting the Sweet 16 DVDs burned and mailed out (I burn them one-at-a-time and label them as they are ordered).  I am also behind on getting show 20 ready for this weekend's recording, Thank goodness I have a 3 day weekend.

I have also been working on editing my first interview video that I did with my neighbor, who has the beginnings of a raiload layout on par with a Joe Fugate railroad.

If you listened to the last 10 minutes of show 19 and read some of the comments for show 19 on our show blog, then you will be able to follow my ramblings below:

I felt the Model Railroading (MRR) community was lacking in the podcast area, so I started MRC.  The initial shows sucked and only got marginally better as I learned more about MRRing.  By the end of March 2008 after producing only about 4 shows I was about to call it quits; I just was not having fun doing the show by myself.  Excluding audio books and the like, I personally do not like talk podcast shows that have only 1 host... you will notice on iTunes that all of the most popular and fun shows have at least 2 hosts.   There are many podcasts out there, and many have less than 50 listeners (according to Feedburner), these are podcast that are just starting or are just not that interesting or entertaining enough for a larger audience.  No matter how dedicated the host is or how fanatical they are about their topic or subject (of their show), these types of podcasts eventually disappear.  Sad but true.

So, to me, it felt like MRC was not going anywhere and I was losing interest; I think mainly because I had no community in which to interact with... which, at least for me, is a primary reason for creating a show... people "show" things to share things. Right?

I knew MRC need a community and I was not having much success if finding a suitable co-host.  Now for me, I love the podcasting scene; so if MRC was not going to work, I was going to try something else... but I do not give up that easily... so I told myself, record 3 more show, before hanging it up.  As luck would have it, the very next show prompted an email from Will.

I started this show (in Oct 2007) because I found a love for modeling in general and the trains were kind of secondary.  Then some guy by the name of Will Ayerst emailed me and we decided to do a show where I would interview him.  That first recording with Will  (there really is no other word for it) was magical.  I could feel immediate chemistry.  I had found my co-host.  

I told Will that if he could just give me an 1 or 2 every other week, I would do the rest; the website, the editing of the show and all of the other management things that need to happen for a show to succeed.  And he agreed.

Well the interview with Will never materialized, because we had SO much fun just doing the show, we just kind'a forgot about.  After recording show # 5 or 6, we decide to shoot for producing a weekly show, knowing we would have to dedicate more time to MRC and less with our families and our own railroads.  But heck we got to talk trains. :o)

By show 8 it was obvious Will had helped transform the show into a full blown podcast that people enjoyed.  We were getting awesome feedback and a real MRC community was taking shape.  If you are a MRC fan, then you know the rest of the story...

Fast forward to show #13 (or so).  I mentioned to Will in a pre-show how excited I was about the success and growth of the show, but was having trouble with feeding the podcast money pit.  In podcasting the money pit is typically bandwidth consumption charged by our website and RSS feed providers.  There are also other cost in producing the high quality shows, like music licensing, software for editing, video costs (tapes, batteries, lighting, etc), microphones, cables, HECK, I had to purchase over a tera-byte of hard drive space since show 9 just to keep up with the shows storage demands, and it goes on.

Therefore I started hinting to Will about asking for donations or creating sellable content to help cover the costs.  Will never really liked my content ideas (I guess) because I used the word "premium," maybe for lack of a better word... but Will was OK with asking for open donations, where listeners could support show, if they wanted.

So, if there is an overtone of asking you guys for money, it is my fault and not Will's doing.  And I apologize to Will and our dedicated listeners for making you feel as though you must pay to play, that WAS NOT my intention.  I do not want sympathy or hand-outs as if I was some bum model railroader on the tracks. The fact is that any decent show, radio, TV, podcast, website, whatever, cost money to produce and keep entertaining.

I believe I have stated many, many times how excited I am about the show's success and its growing community.  I understand that with success you can become a punching bag for some people and I am OK with that;  I signed up for it when I started the show.  But I will not let someone tear down people in my community for something I said, did or believe in.

We will continue to produce this show as long as people want it.  If costs become so great an issue that I cannot handle it, the show will either be cut back to a monthly show, or time spent editing and making the show more dynamic will have to be cut out. I feel this would be a disservice, but so be it.

Who doesn't dream about hitting the lottery or something and having a sky's the limit budget?  I know I have, and I have for this show... I wish I could offer all of us the greatest train show on earth for no cost to anyone; removing that monetary aspect of the show would be so nice and relaxing for all involved.  So unless you are Rod Stewart or Phil Collins and/or are willing to become the show's sugar daddy, we will address rising costs in the most efficient and imaginative manner possible.

So here we are today. I have offered up the Sweet 16 as a way for people to help support the show. We have sold 3. We have had 3 direct donations.  All of which do not cover the cost of producing this first DVD.  Yeah, it's pretty much just a re-cap of what you download for free.  But hell, my wife buys all her favorite TV shows on DVD after she has seen them for free on TV; in fact she buys all the episodes for every season.  Now that does make the studios money!  :o)

I will continue to do my best in keeping this show alive and growing, entertaining and fun and most importantly, engaging and involving.  If you want to show your support monetarily, then we will accept it with sincere thanks; however that is totally up to each individual.

OK... so that is it... I will not be addressing this issue again for some time, if ever.  I will, however, continue to ask for your support and/or contributions and I am not opposed to MRC creating high quality content (specifically video) that maybe worthy of a different distribution mechanism.

Whew....OK glad that is over... now on with the show!

-=Ryan

PS.  Click here to download a sneak preview of my first video interview with my neighbor, Hank Richards and his CON RAIL layout.