Thinking about being a part of the
GaragePunk.com Podcast? Good! The more, the merrier. We have a pretty full schedule of shows right now, but vacancies do come up from time to time, so it's entirely possible that we can squeeze a new show on periodically. Just don't expect us to post your show immediately if you submit one. Be patient and we'll eventually get to it. Please read on...
First and foremost, it really helps if you fully understand exactly what podcasting is before you decide you want to produce a show. The
Wikipedia entry on podcasting is a great source of info. If you haven't read it, please do. A little edumacation never hurt nobody...
If you're unfamiliar with the basic how-to's on creating a podcast show, please take a few minutes to read the
Beginner's Guide to Podcast Creation. This tutorial will give you all of the information you should need in getting started. Further information can be found in the
podcasting topic on the message board.
We also highly recommend using a program called
Audacity for recording your shows on a computer. Audacity isn't the
best, but it definitely is
the cheapest solution—especially for someone just starting out or experimenting—since it's FREE. You can import audio into Audacity and cut and paste it into other tracks and mix them, turn them backwards, process them, add soundbytes and FX, etc. It is also available for both Mac and PC. Another highly recommended program is
PodProducer (although it is strictly for PCs). If you're a Mac user, and you've got
GarageBand, you're in luck because it comes with excellent podcasting tools built right in and is easy and fun to use. Fuckin' A!
Of course, if you want to do everything live and not have to edit anything—probably the most fun way of doing it (for the listener as well as the podcaster)—you'll need a slightly more complicated setup. There are complicated ways of routing sound from one program to another on your computer, but the easiest thing to do is to get an external mixer, a microphone, a turntable, tape deck, mp3 player, CD player, live band or whatever you want to use and plug it all into the mixer, run it into your computer, and start recording. So you would be mixing everything "live" on the mixer and just recording a single signal in Audacity or whatever you are recording to.
Here are a few guidelines for submitting shows:1) All shows should be recorded as MP3 files. Please make sure your podcast show is ripped with the following specs before submitting:
Bit rate: 80 kbps
Channels: Mono (not stereo!)
Sample rate: 44.100 kHz
Max file size/show length: ~35mb/1 Hour
The general rule of thumb is to try and keep your file size down to around 30mb. It's important to remember that doing your show in mono sounds WAY better when ripped at 64 kbps than stereo at the same rate. That's because 64 kbps mono is equivalent to 128 kbps stereo. Yep, it's true! And besides, this is primitive rock'n'roll, not Yngwie Malmsteen, or Korn, or Celine Dion, or... you get the idea. Just like your old '60s garage 45s, the mono ones sound better, anyway.
2) If you are already a DJ at a radio station (commercial, public, college, whatever) we must ask that you do NOT submit shows that were done live over the air or pre-recorded for that station. Doing so would require explicit written permission from the station for redistribution (since that station actually owns the rights to that production), and it's just something we don't want to mess with. Plus, we're trying to encourage people to produce shows specifically for our station, not just take something produced elsewhere to share with us (the only exception being if the show includes a rare live band performance, such as the Gories playing live on CITR in 1989 which we recently podcast). Doing so would be like WFMU rebroadcasting a show from another station, like The Wayback Machine on KDHX. It doesn't make sense. They've got their own programmers to do shows for them, right? So do we. So please submit unique shows that you produce specifically for GaragePunk.com only.
3) Show producers are given 100% control over what sort of show they want to do, but we must request that you stick to including either old obscure music such as '50s/'60s garage/rock'n'roll 45s and/or modern garage/surf/punk/primitive rock'n'roll music that is
podcast safe or "
podsafe." We have
a listing right here on our site of bands and labels that have given us permission to redistribute their music in our podcasts. Please make sure what you play is represented there, or
let us know and we will try to get permission first. You, of course, are also free to solicit bands and labels for permission. Please try not to include any song or selection that has been released on a
major label. If you're not sure,
just ask and we'll try to help you figure it out. You are also free to use any music that you can find listed on the
Podsafe Music Network, just please make sure it fits in with what we're trying to do here, namely
garage rock and
garage punk (and related styles as listed above). Also, all shows must be approved for inclusion on the blog before they will be posted. Usually this will be done by me (kopper).
4) During your announcement breaks, instead of giving a radio station's call letters (like most DJs do on normal broadcast radio stations), give the name of the podcast network:
GaragePunk.com Podcast. This can be done simply as "
You're listening to [Show Name Here] on the GaragePunk Podcast." Please try to mention that at some point during each announcement break, if possible. Also, please include as much relevant information about each song as you can, such as band name, song/album titles, record label, and, if possible, you can also occasionally give out website URLs for bands or labels so people can find out more. Hell, tell a story about the band, too, if ya want. Web URLs don't have to be given for every song played, obviously, but once or twice during a show would be cool, and I'm sure the bands and labels will love you for it.
5) You can make your shows whatever length you want, but the ideal length of a podcast show is around 60 minutes. The maximum length should be no longer than 90 minutes. The MP3 files can therefore range from around 15mb for a short, 30-minute podcast to 30 or 40mb for longer shows.
6) Since we have a full schedule right now, don't go too crazy recording a ton of shows for us. We have 8 shows that post every-other week (about twice a month), and another 7 or 8 that are done less frequently, like once a month or so. If you're new to our roster, try to stick to about one show per month, and hopefully we'll be able to post them all for ya.
7) After your show is posted, please try to remember to revisit the blog occasionally to check and see if anyone's left comments about your show(s).
8) Also please include the following information in email format sent with EACH podcast:
a) Show name
b) Name of host (please include your GaragePunk.com Forums username)
c) A short (100 words or less) description of the show that might include the styles of music featured, theme (if any), specific artists, etc.
d) Playlist (please include artist/title/record label info)
9) Another thing we recommend show producers do is to tie in specific topics (bands, labels, movies, jokes or other discussion threads) that come up on the
message board into your shows. This isn't required, but we think it would be cool to keep some kind of dynamic between the Forums and the Podcast. It also helps encourage a sense of community that be conveyed thru the podcasts.
10) Try to remember to embed your MP3 files with the title of your show (under "Name"), the name of the network that's hosting it (GaragePunk Podcast, which would go under "Artist"), your name (under "Composer"), a short description (under "Comments"), and your show's "album art." All of this stuff can be easily added to your show file from within iTunes (highlight the show in your library, then click on "File" > "Get Info" and then click on the "Info" tab in the window that appears on the screen.
Ready to submit a show? Great! Now what? Well, first, you need to join
Blip.tv if you haven't already. It's also smart for you to read over and agree to their
Terms of Use and
Copyright Policy while you're at it (those are there to protect Blip from copyright infringement which may occur from people including copyrighted material on their shows, IF someone decides to sue [NOT very likely]). After that, you'll just login there, go to your Dashboard and upload your show file (don't forget the description!). Then shoot us an
email and either include your Blip login info (un/pw), or send us the permalink to the MP3 file (which you can get from your Blip account for that specific episode under the "Share" tab). If everything appears to be cool, we'll try to let you know when we think the show will post on the site. Please upload static MP3s only, DO NOT upload MP4s, Realplayer files, WMAs, or streaming MP3s (no streaming media at all). Just simple MP3s. If you have ANY questions about ANY of this, feel free to ask. We'd be happy to help. Thanks!