FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: stubing on December 18, 2013, 10:18:32 PM
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Tom said he wants the show to go on in some form. I have no doubt Tom and Jon and their circle will come up with something great.
I want to chime in on my dream for what the future would be: I would pay for a subscription to a podcast that is something like the Best Show. I would pay for a gold-level subscription, because I love those Best Show premiums, and if I could pay more to get a t-shirt or a seven inch every once in a while, I'd totally shell out some more dollars.
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Gimme Gimme Gimme...
Something like the Best Show could pump life into the sinking ship NPR. Tom, Jon, and AP Mike could get some of that Click and Clack money. Spinoff opportunities galore- Spike on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, Jason from Huntsville usurps Garrison Keilor's throne, Gary takes over for Terry Gross, This American Life focuses on authentic America: Bayonne. It is unfortunate that those pseudo-intellectual Ira Glassholes over there have no vision.
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i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.
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I noticed that the bios for Tom and Jon on the Stereolaffs website (which are current) that Tom is developing a show for Amazon. Hope this happens!
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i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.
I have often thought something like this would be great, or maybe a comic series, given Tom's fondness of the medium. As a live-action Newbridge thing would likely be impossible, being that Jon is the majority of the population. Of course, maybe a puppet show...
-Zach
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Come on, guys. I know Tom has not asked. But I bet he would like some free market research.
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And when I say guys, I mean gals, too. Hey gals!
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If a thousand folks paid $5 a month it would be a great start for a podcast. If Adam Car-rollo can do it, The Best Show can.
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i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.
I was thinking the same thing. This way Jon Wurster can do all his characters and the animators can make them all look different. The only thing is that him being a radio show host was such an essential element to the show. I can see Tom interacting with characters from Newbridge at the Starbucks, Radio Hut, Lady Foot Locker, etc. Although it would still work, I think it would be weird if Tom was not doing a radio show in the series.
Of course, Tom playing the straight man against all the citizens of Newbridge is also essential.
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If a thousand folks paid $5 a month it would be a great start for a podcast. If Adam Car-rollo can do it, The Best Show can.
I'll support Tom & Jon & Mike in anything and totally would be in for $5-10 per month. If I lived to be 600, it would not even begin to pay them back for all the hours I spent on the FMU archives and podcast.
My bit of market research is that I hope it would not be a straight podcast. There are so many facets to what Tom does, but one of the most enduring has been his crackling interactions with the great callers (Paycheck, Fred, the Southern Gentlemen, drunk Coco, sober Coco, et al.) and the not-so-great. Even one that I didn't think was that bad at the time (shop for a coffin guy) Tom's alchemy turned it into comedy gold for a few weeks. So, to make it short, for the future Best Show, I hope there would be live callers.
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If a thousand folks paid $5 a month it would be a great start for a podcast. If Adam Car-rollo can do it, The Best Show can.
I'll support Tom & Jon & Mike in anything and totally would be in for $5-10 per month. If I lived to be 600, it would not even begin to pay them back for all the hours I spent on the FMU archives and podcast.
My bit of market research is that I hope it would not be a straight podcast. There are so many facets to what Tom does, but one of the most enduring has been his crackling interactions with the great callers (Paycheck, Fred, the Southern Gentlemen, drunk Coco, sober Coco, et al.) and the not-so-great. Even one that I didn't think was that bad at the time (shop for a coffin guy) Tom's alchemy turned it into comedy gold for a few weeks. So, to make it short, for the future Best Show, I hope there would be live callers.
I think Tom and Jon and Mike can do something awesome without it necessarily being a rehash of The Best Show. If they did it on satellite, or if they had a podcast it would just be a different show. And that's fine. We should support their evolution in whatever form it takes. They haven't steered us wrong yet!
Maybe they take a break from the show for a few years and then come back better than ever. Maybe they start doing a show tomorrow. Maybe they don't do a show ever again but they all have awesome creative things to support that are not Best Show related. I'm in for all of it. But I don't want to sit around holding my breath for The Best Show to come back the exact same way that it was. That doesn't seem particularly healthy as an audience, and it would likely stifle the creative direction and possibilities of the show.
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I'd love to see Tom just adopt the Rifftrax/Never Not Funny model pay-wise (and maybe a little bit contentwise, the idea of "seasons" of the Best Show Mk 2 with like a long-running storyline going through the Tom & Jon calls really piques my interest), maybe do a call-in show every once in a while but the rest could just be him doing whatever strikes his fancy. I thought today about how great it would be to listen to Tom try to watch/listen to some TV show or band he's bagged on in the past and listen to him riff on that (my first thought was hearing Tom react to Doctor Who). Sort of an expanded version of the Stroszek commentary. If he owns the rights to the archives, having a pay-wall protected thing where we can download old shows and maybe some of the older WFMU premium things (I'd love to be able to see Fantasia in Best Show Minor) would be good too, but all of that would be a massive undertaking IT wise. I'm not even sure how he'd do the call-in show without the WFMU studios - Skype? Would it work as well?
Whatever Tom does and wants to do, I will support him in any way I can, and I don't want him to just make "a little money" as he's said recently, I want Tommy Wonderful to be rich as Reese's, and I will follow and shell out my cash for whatever he wants to do. Really, he could do anything he wants, he need not restrict himself just to finding a new way to do the show, he could branch out easily. There's so many options, I'm really excited for him and for the future - the possibilities are almost endless!
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I was thinking that using the Never Not Funny pay model would be good for them too. I think they have the fan support to do a for-pay podcast (I would pay), and it would probably give them the most control over what they wanted to put out there.
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artisanal cat naming
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i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.
I was thinking the same thing. This way Jon Wurster can do all his characters and the animators can make them all look different. The only thing is that him being a radio show host was such an essential element to the show. I can see Tom interacting with characters from Newbridge at the Starbucks, Radio Hut, Lady Foot Locker, etc. Although it would still work, I think it would be weird if Tom was not doing a radio show in the series.
Of course, Tom playing the straight man against all the citizens of Newbridge is also essential.
Maybe the show would be bookended by Tom in the studio taking calls, then going out into the world, bumping into different characters, and then storylines can branch out from there. It could sort of be like the standup bits in Seinfeld, but different.
-Zach
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... If he owns the rights to the archives, having a pay-wall protected thing where we can download old shows and maybe some of the older WFMU premium things (I'd love to be able to see Fantasia in Best Show Minor) would be good too, but all of that would be a massive undertaking IT wise. I'm not even sure how he'd do the call-in show without the WFMU studios - Skype? Would it work as well?
Whatever Tom does and wants to do, I will support him in any way I can, and I don't want him to just make "a little money" as he's said recently, I want Tommy Wonderful to be rich as Reese's, and I will follow and shell out my cash for whatever he wants to do. Really, he could do anything he wants, he need not restrict himself just to finding a new way to do the show, he could branch out easily. There's so many options, I'm really excited for him and for the future - the possibilities are almost endless!
Same Seder's Majority Report and The Young Turks have a live component and a downloadable element, I don't know how cost restrictive it would be to carry out
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Whatever it is, I'll buy it!
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This is more of a personal fantasy, but I wish they'd usurp one of WHYY's (Philly NPR stations) 2 weekend broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion with a new, 2-hour, weekly radio show. WXPN (UPenn's music based public radio affiliate) could work too. If I were a content director, I'd have spent the last 2 months begging Tom and crew to find a home in Philadelphia with a new, self-sustaining show.
Connections to Philly aside and looking purely at the business, a show would have a built in donor base and good potential for programming fees. Plus it would be in Philadelphia, where I live.
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i would love to see a Newbridge animated series.
I was thinking the same thing. This way Jon Wurster can do all his characters and the animators can make them all look different. The only thing is that him being a radio show host was such an essential element to the show. I can see Tom interacting with characters from Newbridge at the Starbucks, Radio Hut, Lady Foot Locker, etc. Although it would still work, I think it would be weird if Tom was not doing a radio show in the series.
Of course, Tom playing the straight man against all the citizens of Newbridge is also essential.
Maybe the show would be bookended by Tom in the studio taking calls, then going out into the world, bumping into different characters, and then storylines can branch out from there. It could sort of be like the standup bits in Seinfeld, but different.
-Zach
Good idea. Does anyone else imagine this in Dr. Katz style squiggle vision?
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Just got an email about the MyLibsyn account I keep to listen to the WTF podcasts. My automatic 6 month $4.99 payment just went through... would love a similar system (and would be willing to pay much more on a regular basis) for a Scharpling and Co. product!
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This is more of a personal fontasy
Corrected.
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This is more of a personal fontasy
Corrected.
Keep the original! It's how Gene Simmons would've pronounced "fantasy" if he called in to the show.
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The first time "fontasy" is rolled out is a Top 10 Best Show moment. Tom makes JW repeat it until he's laughing too hard to say it.
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The first time "fontasy" is rolled out is a Top 10 Best Show moment. Tom makes JW repeat it until he's laughing too hard to say it.
Can you recall which episode that was?
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I didn't know he'd used the word before. All I can remember is his pronunciation of "panties" in a call from, I think, 2012. Good stuff.
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The first time "fontasy" is rolled out is a Top 10 Best Show moment. Tom makes JW repeat it until he's laughing too hard to say it.
Can you recall which episode that was?
Dec. 7, 2004 (http://buffcoat.blogspot.com/)
"It's heaven on earth for the KISS fan. It's a fontasy store."
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Tom said in the chat on Christmas Eve that he'd have some news about his future endeavors this week or the next. He also said he wanted to do an Internet radio show on which he'd take calls.
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The first time "fontasy" is rolled out is a Top 10 Best Show moment. Tom makes JW repeat it until he's laughing too hard to say it.
Can you recall which episode that was?
Thanks!
Dec. 7, 2004 (http://buffcoat.blogspot.com/)
"It's heaven on earth for the KISS fan. It's a fontasy store."
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Tom said in the chat on Christmas Eve that he'd have some news about his future endeavors this week or the next. He also said he wanted to do an Internet radio show on which he'd take calls.
Great news - whatever it turns out to be, I'm there.
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Tom said in the chat on Christmas Eve that he'd have some news about his future endeavors this week or the next. He also said he wanted to do an Internet radio show on which he'd take calls.
Great news - whatever it turns out to be, I'm there.
Hope this is the case.
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Oh and Wurster mentioned on the Todd Barry podcast that he'd like to make it a live show somehow.
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Tom and Jon need to wrest NPR's SoundCheck from Jon Schaefer.
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Tom said in the chat on Christmas Eve that he'd have some news about his future endeavors this week or the next. He also said he wanted to do an Internet radio show on which he'd take calls.
Oh and Wurster mentioned on the Todd Barry podcast that he'd like to make it a live show somehow.
YES! :D
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Tom and Jon need to wrest NPR's SoundCheck from Jon Schaefer.
I like Soundcheck! Where else I'm I going to hear about the latest Norwegian minimalist music? Eggheads need their radio shows too you know. I haven't actually listened to Soundcheck in about three years, though.
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Read this!
https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529 (https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529)
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Read this!
https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529 (https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529)
I would if I could.
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Tom wrote:
Now that 2014 has begun I will make it clear to anybody who is serious about such things that I want to figure out a way to do some version of The Best Show on my own terms.
If you have an idea or a plan or piles of money, please let me know. Because we're coming back twice as strong as we ended TBSoWFMU in December.
It's gonna happen. If you see a way for you or your company or whatever to be a part of it, now is the time to speak up!
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Read this!
https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529 (https://www.facebook.com/scharpling/posts/10151982454747529)
I would if I could.
If you COULD? Facebook doesn't reach New Port Ritchey? (I am having trouble getting Skype to work here in Knoxville.)
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Saw this site earlier - http://www.patreon.com (http://www.patreon.com) - and immediately thought of The Best Show. Thought I'd pass it along here. Not sure how well known the site (today is the first I'd heard of it) is but it seems to be a Kickstarter-style fundraising platform for ongoing projects, such as, say, long-running radio shows. Might be a little small-scale for what Tom is planning, maybe.
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i don't know how often Tom looks here and i feel pretty weird about friending him on facebook just to make a comment, but if it is a question of funding, i want to just repeat what others have said--i would be more than happy to be a sustainer. Also, i would bit my lip and contribute to a kickstarter or whatever (a la Miami Steve) to help get things started. i'd also evangelize the hell out of anything that might require public support.
Not to say i have deep coffers, but just wanted to help back up the level of support he has from regular joe lunchpails. TBS is/was such an important part of my life and i'm willing to put my money where my mouth is as it were.
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Lotta people on that facebook status basically asking Tom if they can do the Best Show instead of him.
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I love the one suggestion to "email Howard Stern". Why didn't we all think of that?
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i don't know how often Tom looks here and i feel pretty weird about friending him on facebook just to make a comment, but if it is a question of funding, i want to just repeat what others have said--i would be more than happy to be a sustainer. Also, i would bit my lip and contribute to a kickstarter or whatever (a la Miami Steve) to help get things started. i'd also evangelize the hell out of anything that might require public support.
Me three....
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We've speculated that the show has a potential audience of 200k+ before, right? Let's say half of those people committed sight unseen to a subscription service that costs, say, $20 a month. I'd happily shell out at least that much to bankroll whatever Tom does, and I would like to think there' are 99,999 other people out there willing to do the same. Even if we just all pledged $20 as a down payment on a yearly subscription, that's $2 million for Tom as seed money to develop the future of the Best Show into whatever shape best suits him.
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IMO your subscription numbers and rates are astronomically out of whack. NNF (as far as I know the most analogous to what you're suggesting) gets 35% of listeners to subscribe at $20-$25 per 6 months (http://www.sparkminute.com/2009/09/18/making-money-from-podcasting-never-not-funny/). Best guess is that their numbers are most likely steady and at best growing 1-5% (http://voxelectro.com/never-not-funny/).
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Say you had a 1000 subscribers at $5 a month. That a salary for one person. A good way to determine interest might be to throw a survey here and on twitter and see how many would subscribe and what price and than cut that number in half, very rough estimate. Maybe a kickstarter would be a good opinion. Regardless, I feel like interest is out there.
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Tom is definitely in a unique and enviable position among his podcasting peers in that he can start a professional venture from scratch and reasonably expect to have a sizable audience from the get-go. I mean, a lot of people, myself included, would just pay to listen to a podcast solely dedicated to Vance droning out reviews of prog rock albums. That said, getting people to pay for something they once got for free is a tough proposition, even if it is just a few bucks. I wouldn't expect that Tom will become a millionaire off the new incarnation of the show, but I have to believe that he'd make enough to get by and then some.
I don't know if Kickstarter is the way to go or not. I don't know that Tom would need it or its inherent headaches. It seems like if he were willing to invest up front in a solid platform for the show, making sure he didn't get any surprises with regards to the tech stuff (failing applications, flaky paid services, bandwidth overload, etc.) he'd basically be ready to go once he set up some kind of subscription or other payment method. The dedicated FOTs would tune in and continue to spread word of the show. I mean, what do I know, but it doesn't seem like it needs to be more complicated than that. If he gets things going within the next few months, he should be able to carry over a goodly chunk of his WFMU listeners.
It'll be interesting to see how the show becoming monetised changes things. I don't think it'll change things for the worse, really, but it will make the show different. And unshackling the show from the radio gives Tom and Jon a lot of new options regarding how it is presented. It's scary and it's exciting!
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Tom is definitely in a unique and enviable position among his podcasting peers in that he can start a professional venture from scratch and reasonably expect to have a sizable audience from the get-go. I mean, a lot of people, myself included, would just pay to listen to a podcast solely dedicated to Vance droning out reviews of prog rock albums. That said, getting people to pay for something they once got for free is a tough proposition, even if it is just a few bucks. I wouldn't expect that Tom will become a millionaire off the new incarnation of the show, but I have to believe that he'd make enough to get by and then some.
I don't know if Kickstarter is the way to go or not. I don't know that Tom would need it or its inherent headaches. It seems like if he were willing to invest up front in a solid platform for the show, making sure he didn't get any surprises with regards to the tech stuff (failing applications, flaky paid services, bandwidth overload, etc.) he'd basically be ready to go once he set up some kind of subscription or other payment method. The dedicated FOTs would tune in and continue to spread word of the show. I mean, what do I know, but it doesn't seem like it needs to be more complicated than that. If he gets things going within the next few months, he should be able to carry over a goodly chunk of his WFMU listeners.
It'll be interesting to see how the show becoming monetised changes things. I don't think it'll change things for the worse, really, but it will make the show different. And unshackling the show from the radio gives Tom and Jon a lot of new options regarding how it is presented. It's scary and it's exciting!
I think you are right.
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I agree with Spruce on two significant points, and I only post this because Tom specifically asked for suggestions on Facebook.
1. I think it's absolutely critical that this gets going as quickly as possible. The people who are invested enough to post on this board (yours truly included) will be likely to sign up even if it takes a year, but we aren't going to make up the numbers needed to make it a profitable enterprise. The clock started ticking in October to convert moderate to weakly attached fans. I think getting the sign-up in place even a few weeks before the first show is a good idea.
2. The second, almost-opposing point is that the technology to get the podcast to users should be ready to go from day one of the new show. President Obama's experience with launching a half-ready technology platform should be illustrative. Again, long-term, committed fans are willing to tolerate false starts, but reaching the numbers necessary to make it a sustaining enterprise requires getting money from people who sign up on a lark. Those people will bail immediately if it's hard to get.
The good news as I see it is that Tom has from the beginning of the show attracted a cadre of people with strong skills in both the technology and entertainment industries. Many of them will work for free (especially to help get this started). Witness Mel's contribution to the podcast, or all the people who helped find and make the clips for the sound collages and the final show tributes. These nerds technology gods could really help in getting things started once he figures out exactly what he wants to do.
There may also be out-of-the-box solutions that work for this. I run a company that has substantial, er, e-operations, and we have had to use a blend of existing and custom-designed services to make things work.
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I think a live show would be interesting. I kind of see it as a Spalding Grey type set up with Tom at a desk and Jon Wurster characters "phoning in" and the sound college being this multimedia fearfest.
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I don't have facebook either...
Any news coming from Tom these days?
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Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something. I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.
Perhaps he pulled it to edit it?
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Or perhaps
Rollins Band - Do it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xSFi-Tn2_g#)
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Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something. I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.
Perhaps he pulled it to edit it?
He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.
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Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something. I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.
Perhaps he pulled it to edit it?
He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.
It's happening, people! I'm so excited for whatever is in store.
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[
He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.
Sounds like the ACA.
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I agree with Spruce on two significant points, and I only post this because Tom specifically asked for suggestions on Facebook.
1. I think it's absolutely critical that this gets going as quickly as possible. The people who are invested enough to post on this board (yours truly included) will be likely to sign up even if it takes a year, but we aren't going to make up the numbers needed to make it a profitable enterprise. The clock started ticking in October to convert moderate to weakly attached fans. I think getting the sign-up in place even a few weeks before the first show is a good idea.
2. The second, almost-opposing point is that the technology to get the podcast to users should be ready to go from day one of the new show. President Obama's experience with launching a half-ready technology platform should be illustrative. Again, long-term, committed fans are willing to tolerate false starts, but reaching the numbers necessary to make it a sustaining enterprise requires getting money from people who sign up on a lark. Those people will bail immediately if it's hard to get.
The good news as I see it is that Tom has from the beginning of the show attracted a cadre of people with strong skills in both the technology and entertainment industries. Many of them will work for free (especially to help get this started). Witness Mel's contribution to the podcast, or all the people who helped find and make the clips for the sound collages and the final show tributes. These nerds technology gods could really help in getting things started once he figures out exactly what he wants to do.
There may also be out-of-the-box solutions that work for this. I run a company that has substantial, er, e-operations, and we have had to use a blend of existing and custom-designed services to make things work.
I totally nailed this whole thing two years ago. Everything I said has come true, in a sense.
* In a more accurate sense, nothing I said came true.