Podcasting One Year Later: The 'Geek Fallout' & 'Random Nerdness' Story
As Told By Chris Lockhart
Wow, it's hard to believe it has been over a year since my journey into the podcast world has begun. I have appeared on 45 episodes of 'Geek Fallout', 21 episodes of 'Random Nerdness', 4 episodes of 'The Bloke Show' and 1 episode of 'The Atomic Geeks Podcast'. At the time I write this I have appeared on 71 podcast episodes, not including my previous appearance on 'Nerd Lunch' and episodes yet to be released.
This has been quite a journey and it seems that it is only going to continue into 2014 and beyond. But let me reflect on the year that has passed. The first episode of RN debuted October 16th, 2012. I was inspired to create my own podcast for The Atomic Geeks Podcast Network based on my blog after having appeared on 'Nerd Lunch' as a fourth chair guest. I had no experience with editing a podcast but as it happens my brother-in-law Sebastian and my sister Brianna had just moved back to Canada from Sweden, and Seb had actually gone to school for sound engineering. When I explained to Seb what it was I wanted to do he was onboard. I recruited my sister Brianna, best friend Tyler Kluin and step-sister Meghan to appear on the podcast and thus the conversation began. After a couple of pilot episodes we settled on a format that worked for Digio and the boys at the TAG Network and thus our journey began.
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| The Original 'Random Nerdness Podcast' logo. Design by Curtis Sarapuk |
Roughly a short time after my initial planning of the RN podcast began I was contacted through the Atomic Geeks forum by Richard Rehder, who was planning another podcast and wanted to know if I would be interested in helping out. I was very interested but told Rich I just wanted to come on as a personality, I really didn't want to try my hand at editing or any behind the scenes work (as I was already doing that with RN). Rich agreed and with Eric Torok on aboard we recorded a pilot episode. Eric could not stay after the pilot episode so Rich recruited Jeff Brown to join us and after some tweaking with the format we were off and rolling with episode one debuting November 6th, 2012.
When planning the RN podcast and helping with the planning of GF I knew we had to be a part of The Atomic Geeks Podcast Network. One of the first podcasts I ever listened to was The Atomic Geeks, and they were Canadian and they were 'geeks' so it only made sense that we be a part of their network, which the Nerd Lunch and Classic Film Jerks podcasts already were. Digio and Andrew Bloom in particular gave us some good pointers after listening to our pilot episodes and they accepted us into the network after listening to our 'final' episode ones. On November 13th 2012 I made my guest appearance on 'The Atomic Geeks' and it was literally a podcast dream come true. I had listened to these guys for years at this point and now I was talking with them (minus Christian, whom I was filling in for). Bloom, Downs and Digio couldn't have been more nicer and we had some great conversations that episode.
When I started the RN podcast I knew I would be doing a 'Christmas Special' episode, in honour of the Bea Arthur 'Star Wars Christmas Special'. And since I was paying for the bandwidth for RN, and since I am the Host I decided to call it 'The 2012 Chris Lockhart Christmas Special'. For me that was a great episode as I had a number of guest stars including The Atomic Geeks, Richard and Jeff from 'Geek Fallout' and my friends (Brianna, Seb, Tyler, Meghan, Cousin's Brandy and Curtis, friends Dennis and Jamie). It was a great episode and turned out better than I had imagined thanks to the Engineering magic of my brother-in-law Sebastian.
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| Bea Arthur on the Star Wars Christmas Special |
In January Richard told Jeff and I he would have to take a step back from the podcast, he would be able to edit and work behind the scenes but hosting would have to take a break. Jeff stepped up to take over hosting duties and we continued on with numerous guests including Evan Hanson, Marc Ealdama and others from the TAG Network.
The new year would be see changes to RN as well. Sebastian and I were both busy with work so RN went from being a weekly podcast to twice monthly (Jan, Feb & March) to monthly April, May and June, to halting completely. Not only was Sebastian busy at work but he and the family went back home to Sweden for a bit to work out some immigration issues, also they bought a lovely new home so they were busy with packing and moving. In 2013 we did some good episodes of RN, I am especially proud of Episode 14 which was our 'He-Man' episode. I am also proud of my 'Captains Table' interview with actress Claudia Christian, better known as Commander Ivanava on the 90's TV series 'Babylon 5'. I interviewed her about her biography 'Babylon Confidential' and I also was able to ask her some Babylon 5 fanboy questions. It was especially satisfying for me to talk with her because she is one of my 'geek crushes'. I also did a couple Captains Table episodes talking with George Pappy about his 'Green Girl' biography film about actress Susan Oliver, and I also got to talk with Larry Nemecek whom many consider to be the authority on all things 'Star Trek'. The Random Nerdness podcast is currently on hiatus, but I do intend to do an occasional episode of it now that I have my hand in the editing aspect of podcasting. We will have a RN/GF 2013 Chris Lockhart Christmas Special coming in December so be on the lookout for that.
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| A Geek Crush: Actress Claudia Christian |
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| The updated RN podcast logo (less pink) |
So during 2013 I continued on with Geek Fallout regularly. Jeff would take over editing the podcast from Richard and I would take over the arrangement of guests as Rich needed to take a further step back. April 6th I made my first appearance on 'The Bloke Show' (episode 8) talking with AJ Maggot and Chay Lopez about wrestling and other things, in particular the night I got drunk with 'The Honky Tonk Man'. May 23 Episode 14 I made my second appearance on TBS with Jeff, this time we made a journey to the mythical 'Atomic Geeks Super Fight Dome'. July would see the historic TAG Network crossover take place and GF was right in the middle of all the fun. The week of July 25th Geek Fallout (with Brianna and Rich) took over The Bloke Show and AJ/Chay took over Geek Fallout. But also leading up to the crossover series 'Geek Fallout' had numerous TAG Network guests including AJ, Brianna, Digio, Downs and Chay joining us for our regular episodes and a 'Game Of Thrones' special.
At the end of summer Jeff told me he could not continue to edit Geek Fallout every week, so we could either reduce the weekly content or I could take a hand at editing. Since RN was on hiatus anyway I figured I could try my hand at the old editing thing. With the help of my brother-in-law Sebastian, and with tips from Jeff and Richard I am now editing half of the episodes of Geek Fallout since September. Since I was now editing and with RN being dormant I decided to tweak the GF format a little bit by introducing RN segments into GF. I have also brought over my 'Captains Table' episodes to GF and I have started a monthly comic book episode with regular GF guest star Evan Hanson, so far we have done 3 comic book episodes.
What does the future hold? I will be continuing with 'Geek Fallout' for the foreseeable future. The Comic Book Episodes will continue once a month with Evan and the regular 'Episodes' will continue with Jeff. I plan on doing an occasional (maybe monthly or twice monthly) episode of the Random Nerdness Podcast. I am also planning a third podcast which will make it's debut in January and will be a part of 'The Atomic Geeks Podcast Network', and that is the 'Trek 1701' Podcast. It will obviously be a 'Star Trek' podcast and so far will feature myself, Evan Hanson, Dave Kish (better known as 'Dave from Toledo') and Joseph Harvey (a good friend of Dave's). We will be doing the podcast monthly and discussing all things Trek, so be on the lookout for that in January.
Sadly with all this podcasting I have neglected my blogs. But that's the price you pay to podcast and I am loving every minute of this ride! See you in the future!!
Chris Lockhart
@chrisloc1701
