Building a Podcast: Adventures in Technology
I’d always wanted to have a podcast on our website. A place where we could have complete control to conduct in-depth interviews with fascinating people in the central Texas hospitality/restaurant community.
Be careful what you wish for. After some serious searching, I purchased the PRO FX8 board from a company in Oregon. It had four tracks and was much smaller than I’d envisioned. Also a quality omni-directional mic. (Had to later add a “sock” because my p’s and b’s were popping.)
So, all ready to go then, right? Book that first guest. Wrong. The company didn’t send along any software.
I called them and they said that the majority of their customers were downloading free shareware from audio internet sites. Oh, yeah right up my formerly analog alley. So, I plunged in, screwed up many times, and finally found a downloadable software that was compatible with the PRO FX8. It was called Audacity.
My initial inability to handle Audacity was audacious. But finally, after numerous calls to another equipment company, they walked me through it. I tested it and finally saw my voice test on the computer, and heard it through my headphones. Nirvana! I was there.
The next day, I tried to cut a voice check and all of a sudden, no audio coming through my phones. Arrgghhh!!!! So back to the equipment company who helped me solve it by going through the Sound Panel on my Dell computer’s control board. With trembling fingers, I downloaded a new Audacity file and recorded a 30 second spot: damn it all, it finally friggin’ worked! I played it back, saved, it, labeled it, and converted it to an mp3 file which I was actually able to send to a friend. Hoorray!
Mind you, I have not yet mastered all the editing intricacies of Audacity. But small steps.
So it was time for the first Podcast that would actually be available to the public. My first guest was Chef Louie Ciola, who had just come back from Minneapolis after working at some high-end joints. Prior to that, he had helmed the kitchen at the former Ciola’s in Lakeway, and I had been a fan. Now he was consulting chef to the Tony C’s and The League restaurants near Lake Travis and at Avery Ranch.
Having been on and off radio for many years, I had more than my share of conducting interviews. Louie is a somewhat retiring guy with a fairly soft voice. So I had to get his mic real close so there wouldn’t be a disparity between our volumes. I also cranked my volume down a bit. And then we started. He was nervous at first, but then warmed to the task at hand. To add to the fun my huge Black Lab burst into the studio and decided he wanted to play with Louie. Louie was in the middle of an anecdote and I frantically motioned for him to keep talking while I dragged Colyn out of the office. Louie handled it like a pro, and all went off without much of a hitch.
As we went through the interview I really began to learn something about this young man’s passion, his creative style, and his culinary interests.It was fascinating and there was no place on the radio or the net where you could get something like this. This Podcast thing was going to work after all!
That was several months ago. Since then we’ve interviewed Brad Meltzer, Austin’s former Teppanyaki king who is now running Sumo in San Antonio. We’ve done Hong and Young Quach of Hao Q on Anderson, Ben Nathan of Cafe Blue at the Galleria, Frankie Hoch, grillmaster extraordinaire at It’s All Good BBQ in Spicewood, Steven Dilley, the founder of Bufalina on Cesar Chavez, Corey Shroyer and Chef Larry Isbell from Homespun Kitchen in Dripping Springs, Ronald Cheng, the dean emeritus of Chinese cuisine in Austin and there will be many more to come.
This has been a real bitch to put together. But this old dog has learned some new tricks. And I’m buzzed. We hope you’ll join us. There’s information here you’re simply not going to get anyplace else. Long live technology!
