Introducing the “Inside the Control Room” Podcast

Hey folks! I’m Bo & I’m starting this site called “Inside the Control Room”. It’s basically the website that I want to exist because I’m a superdork that loves to hear about what goes on behind the scenes.

If normal people refuse to watch tv with you because you can’t watch a live broadcast without critiquing camera angles, errant graphics, and bad punches, this is the place for you. You video dork, you.

The first iteration of “Inside the Control Room” is going to be based on a weekly (I hope) podcast, so that’s where we’ll start. I’ll aim for Season 1 of the show to be around 12 episodes & after that I’ll look around to see what’s working and what isn’t.

We’ll also try to get as many behind the scenes control room tour videos as we can, because, you know, all the geekery.

I’ve been listening to podcasts for literally 15 years, so I have a few opinions on what makes a podcast suck, and I’ll try my best not to do those things.

So, if you’d like to know a little more about me, head on over to the “About Me” page. Otherwise, click below to subscribe to the show or click here to listen to Episode 1 with Owen Seaton, producer of Churchill Downs.

A short list of things that make a podcast suck:

• Excessive preamble- When the host spends the first 10 minutes of a 45 minute interview podcast telling me about all the random crap they did that day or giving excuses for the podcast being late or telling me their guest’s life story before actually getting to the interview. Cut to the chase & get to the interview, buddy.
• Crap audio- Bad audio is a pretty quick way for me to hate a podcast. I say this cringingly, because I know that some of my episodes are going to have crappy audio. Hopefully the content prevails & the audio quality doesn’t totally ruin it, but know that I’m trying my best with this one & will only get better as I go.
• But the questions!- It’s hard to be a good interviewer. It’s easy to criticize bad interviewers, but it’s frustrating for all involved when the host stops a guest mid-thought to ask some mindless question that was on their paper but is no longer relevant to the interview.
• It’s my show!- We’ve all heard episodes where the host brings in a guest to interview, then spends the whole show answering their own questions while the guest nods along. Dear overeager host guy, it’s your show. You have nothing to prove. Let the guest talk. How do I hope to handle this? For the first few episodes at least, I’m going to do my best to ask questions and get out of the way. Possibly to a fault. I have plenty of things to say, but when the time comes I’ll post solo episodes where I do just that.
• I’m sure I’ve missed some, so feel free to add more in the comments. And if you catch me doing any of these, don’t hesitate to give me a bollacking for it.