THE BEST SHOW ON WFMU WORLD DOMINATION SCHEME, PHASE ONE. YOUR IDEAS HERE!

[Bryan]

I guess this would be complicated (otherwise you'd do it for the regular podcast), but I think if it could be possible, including some music in the Baby Steps podcast would be a great idea. The music Tom plays is a big part of the appeal for me.

[buffcoat]

This is the official home of The Best Show On WFMU World Domination Scheme Phase One brainstorming. Please put all idears for the WDS in this thread.

I am not yet sure how this will be configured, but I am starting to warm up to the notion of a shorter non-weekly podcast that would be for beginners. Someone called it 'Baby Steps', and that is pretty good.

I also love the Podcast Alley thing. Thank you for that.

Let's keep the idears coming. And thank you! It's very flattering and much appreciated.

Tom.

Vindication for Jon from Maplewood.

[kimota]

What about some paper or digital Beginner's Guide to the Best Show?  We could throw together some type of print out, zine or something. post it here and whomever could print off however many copies and leave them around town.  Getting into the show with the currently available resources was the ideal way for me and others to get into it but not everyone is wired to put that effort into it.  If the history of the Best Show was condensed into some easily digested format, it may bring a lot more people over. 

[yesno]

ALERT

When you filter out the dumb video "podcasts" and look at audio only, The Best Show is #39 of comedy podcasts.  Not where it should be, but at least in the top 100.

However, the Smodcast is #6.

The popularity of You Look Nice Today shows the influence that internet bigwigs can have on the minority of a minority that listens to podcasts.  It's kinda funny, but come on. It's a tiny and self-referential world where Andy Baio and Merlin Mann are kingmakers.

[Matt]

From my understanding, the best way to get the word out publicly is to oversaturate.  something that can be very easily done, and very cheaply done, would be flyers, stickers, etc. and post them all over town with the BS or FOT website on them. 

I think flyers/posters are a good idea; it would be cool for them to leave an air of mystery about the show, something that makes whoever sees the thing want to find out more.

Here's what I envision in my mind grapes: Each Wurster character has his own flyer - there would be a Timmy Von Trimble, a Philly Boy Roy, etc. The flyer would have a large illustration of the head of the character - sort of a cross between the Rogue's Gallery and this:

Directly below the head, we put a quote that both encapsulates what the character is about AND is bizarre/hilarious enough to stick in the viewer's mind and give them a good chuckle. The hard part would be finding the right quote for each character, but I'm positive we intrepid FOT could do it. At the bottom of each flyer, there could be either the Friends of Tom URL or the Best Show logo* - or BOTH! Maybe the logo could be in one of the bottom corners of the flyer, like an official seal or something.

* Which one is the official Best Show logo - the bomb image that comes with the podcast, or the helmet and skull thing on the homepage?

[John Junk 2.0]

My world domination 2 cents:  Each Podcast should have a brief "name" instead of just the date.  Kinda like Omar's recaps have an unofficial name for each show.  So this last week was Broadcast of the Official Newbridge Mayubenatorial Debates or something, the week before Tom Trains the H-man to take his place.  Basically the same as the archives which (used to) have those descriptions on them.  I think it might be too intimidating for people to pick up a three hour podcast that has no description of the contents therein.  I wouldn't mind doing this, but I don't know how it would work w/r/t access to internet things.  I realize this might cause a bunch of work, and it's not meant as a criticism, but it could help to get the uninitiated to be less intimidated by the show.  When I first started listening, wanting to find out what was up with "Philly Boy Roy" and all the other characters named in the little descriptions was a big part of that.

[Jimmy]

I don't know if people have been/started to do this, but I think we should all subscribe to TBS on iTunes, (no matter how they get the show) just to help it get up in the ratings.



I hope this wasn't too obvious of a statement...

[iAmBaronVonTito]

From my understanding, the best way to get the word out publicly is to oversaturate.  something that can be very easily done, and very cheaply done, would be flyers, stickers, etc. and post them all over town with the BS or FOT website on them. 

I think flyers/posters are a good idea; it would be cool for them to leave an air of mystery about the show, something that makes whoever sees the thing want to find out more.

Here's what I envision in my mind grapes: Each Wurster character has his own flyer - there would be a Timmy Von Trimble, a Philly Boy Roy, etc. The flyer would have a large illustration of the head of the character - sort of a cross between the Rogue's Gallery and this:

Directly below the head, we put a quote that both encapsulates what the character is about AND is bizarre/hilarious enough to stick in the viewer's mind and give them a good chuckle. The hard part would be finding the right quote for each character, but I'm positive we intrepid FOT could do it. At the bottom of each flyer, there could be either the Friends of Tom URL or the Best Show logo* - or BOTH! Maybe the logo could be in one of the bottom corners of the flyer, like an official seal or something.

* Which one is the official Best Show logo - the bomb image that comes with the podcast, or the helmet and skull thing on the homepage?

i love this idea.  although, one of the best parts (for me) is not knowing what wurster characters look like.  i hardly ever envision jon on the other side of the radio waves when philly boy, TVT, or brimstead call in.  BUT i do think Tom's head in the same fashion would work, with Tom quotes using the same template you described; we need a quote that informs people of the humor and content they can expect.

[andrew in philadelphia]

tom needs a war room filled with the best minds he has access to in order to get cracking on this best show world domination scheme (phase one.) i'm talking about your ted leos, your paul f. tompinkses, your dave from knoxvilles... he's gonna need some of the less stable/more nuts characters associated with the show too - like james or that lady who wants east villagers to get out the vote in oklahoma. the top minds around are good for drawing up the blueprints and noodling with this scheme for best show world domination (phase one,) but there's got to be pawns and all other manner of devious folk who never consider the consequences of their actions to help roll this thing into play. maybe a think tank is more what i'm talking about here.

[Steve of Bloomington]

I guess this would be complicated (otherwise you'd do it for the regular podcast), but I think if it could be possible, including some music in the Baby Steps podcast would be a great idea. The music Tom plays is a big part of the appeal for me.

Yeh, listening on the podcast, one of the first things Tom does is back announce music we didn't hear.  I imagine the music is stripped out due to RIAA restrictions or ludicrous royalty demands or whatever, so maybe in addition to stripping out the music they could strip out the back announcing (although I've since come to regard the back-announcing as a comical reminder of how much the RIAA sucks).

I am not necessarily quick on the uptake but would agree with the general sentiment - on first listen I didn't really 'get' it, but after going back I came to really like the show.  Sometimes bands are like that too...it's just difficult maybe to translate that into stadium-filling popularity...ellipsis...

[Pete Velcro]

One word: Tribunals

Just putting that out there.

[Steve of Bloomington]

You can always give it a good review at iTunes.  The Best Show Street Team was a good idea also.

[Pete Velcro]

A weekly podcast along the lines of this Jouster compilation would be unstoppable:

The Best of the Best of The Best Show on WFMU Vol 1

1. 'The Tommy Song' by The Hinterland Probabilities
2. Tom Gets His Life Threatened By A Co-Worker
3. Julian From The Strokes Calls The Show
4. Sountrackappella - Live at Maxwell's
5. An Enraged Perry Farrell Fan Checks In
6. An Excerpt From 'Get On The Rascal', The Gorch's Audio Tour Diary
7. Samson Is Looking For Love
8. 'You Are The One' by Jon & Jon
9. 'The Tommy Song' by Petey
10 Philly Boy Roy's ''Twas The Night Before Christmas, Philly Style'

Also, I defy any rational adult to listen to the call-in segment of "the order of everything", with no prior knowledge of the show, and not fall in love.

[andrew in philadelphia]

Also, I defy any rational adult to listen to the call-in segment of "the order of everything", with no prior knowledge of the show, and not fall in love.

amen to that. one of the strangest and funniest things i've ever heard. the placement of the items on the list was so random and arbitrary, yet made perfect sense when you took a step back and look at the whole big picture. amazing.

[Tom Scharpling]

A weekly podcast along the lines of this Jouster compilation would be unstoppable:

The Best of the Best of The Best Show on WFMU Vol 1

1. 'The Tommy Song' by The Hinterland Probabilities
2. Tom Gets His Life Threatened By A Co-Worker
3. Julian From The Strokes Calls The Show
4. Sountrackappella - Live at Maxwell's
5. An Enraged Perry Farrell Fan Checks In
6. An Excerpt From 'Get On The Rascal', The Gorch's Audio Tour Diary
7. Samson Is Looking For Love
8. 'You Are The One' by Jon & Jon
9. 'The Tommy Song' by Petey
10 Philly Boy Roy's ''Twas The Night Before Christmas, Philly Style'

Jouster didn't put that compilation together, son. That was one of the marathon premium CDs from a loooong time ago. Petey did the artwork for it.

Tom.