You're listening to iPod UCast, a show all about music and podcasting, with your host, Myra. Hey everyone, this is your host, Myra, and welcome to the very first episode of iPod UCast. Joining me here today is Director of Student Media from St. Xavier University, Peter Crayton.
Yay, Ronald Paz. Oh, thank you, you're so kind. I'm so happy to be here, Myra. Thank you for joining me here today on this very episode.
Yeah, the debut, I'm setting the standard, so I feel bad for you on that. No, don't. I'm very excited to have you on my show here today. I'm very excited to be here.
Oh, well, thank you. I do feel honored. Today's show is going to be all about how we listen to music, and we're going to ask Peter how he likes to listen to his music and his experience with music. Sure, I'm the Director of Student Media, so I oversee the student newspaper at St.
Xavier, and I oversee the student radio station at WXAV. So I'm kind of like a guide to the students. I help them practice their craft and develop their craft and everything, and then run the day-to-day operations of each of them. So it's a pretty cool job.
It sounds pretty cool and pretty interesting. It is. All right, so we're starting to get started here on today's show about how you listen to music. And I know before we've had conversations about favorite artists in music.
I've heard you on your show, The Rockology. Pete and Meg. Yeah. Pretty good show.
Thank you. Friday's 9 a.m. Yep, every Friday. Yeah, every Friday.
Great, so let's just have to hear about, like, your music preference and just how do you peer-created and like to listen to music? Is it, like, a personal playlist? Do you podcast? Or do you listen to, like, a conventional radio?
Kind of all of the above. I will say, though, when it comes to music, I don't listen to music podcasts. I like the conventional setup of listening to the radio to hear music because I grew up listening to radio, so I was born, like, mid-'80s. So I kind of like to always think that I had the last great bastion when commercial radio was incredibly relevant, so about the 90s and everything.
And I'm just kind of set in my ways. I like listening to music on the radio. I also am one of those old farts where I still buy CDs. I buy vinyl all the time to listen to my music, you know, go to local shows and pick up, you know, the opening acts album and things like that.
I just kind of like that. I view it, at least, as a very pure way of getting music, a very old-school way. And I just have always enjoyed that medium, especially the radio, because, you know, I feel like I can get very set in my ways with listening to my music, whereas with the radio, I'm not allowed to get set in my ways. You know, I'm not in charge of what's getting played.
I just get to be a passenger. I get to listen, and someone else picks the playlist, and that's how I discover a lot of new bands that I really enjoy. So you prefer conventional radio. So do you ever consider that when people on air are actually making these playlists, do you feel like you get to know a little bit about them when they do any of this?
Like, what does the song speak about them, or why do they choose this song? Oh, totally. That's one of the elements that I love. Conventional radio is, in my opinion, the most personal medium out there.
When a DJ who's on, like, XRT, 101WKQX, when they're talking on air, they're talking directly to me. You know, they're saying, how are you doing? I think you will like this. And they kind of let you know some of their personality, especially on WXRT.
I mean, I feel like I know Lynn Bramer. I feel like I know Terry Hemrick. And they're only on it a few hours every day. But they definitely bring that personal aspect to it of, this is how the music speaks to me.
I want to share that with you. And because of that, I kind of take that approach for when I do my radio show. I want people to be able to connect to me when I'm talking about music that's important to me. I want them to kind of understand it.
So you're kind of letting them in to who you are as a person a little bit. When you have your show every Friday, when you are deciding what songs you're going to play for the night or the day, do you feel like you are, in some sense, letting your listeners know who you are by your music choice and type? Yeah, I think so. I definitely think so.
Because, I mean, for someone like me, music is a very personal avenue. You know, there's certain artists I listen to when I'm sad. There's certain artists that, you know, I listen to when I'm happy or they just speak to me at that moment. So I think when I'm putting my show together, that definitely comes out.
Like, if I'm in a melancholy mood that week, I'm going to play some quieter music on my radio show. So, yeah, I definitely think that's kind of an extension of my personality. And it's a way for people to kind of get to know me and who I am. So, yeah, I would agree with that.
Is there a specific genre that you prefer to listen to in different ways? Like, sort of satellite radio, personal playlist, who they are, what are they? You know, I kind of go all over the place. If I'm listening to just regular over-the-air radio, other than WXAB, because I listen to that a lot, because, you know, I oversee it.
I listen to WXRT a lot. I listen to 101WKQX because my best friend's on there. So, you know, I always got to support him. You know, there's probably about four or five stations on a regular basis that I listen to.
I do have satellite radio. I do listen to SiriusXM a lot. You know, I tend to go more alternative with my musical taste, alternative and class for rock. So, you know, bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Radiohead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam.
That's kind of stuff I really dig, you know, in addition to, like, The Beatles and Springsteen and Elvis and all that. So, yeah, but, you know, it also depends on my mood because, you know, sometimes I don't want to listen to music. Sometimes I want to hear talk, you know, so I listen to NPR a lot. Or I listen to certain podcasts that I listen to all the time.
Podcasting is more of a storytelling area for me as opposed to getting to know music and everything. I don't listen to Spotify. I don't do Pandora. I don't do last stuff.
I'm pretty really old school of, if I'm getting my music, you know, I'm either listening to the stuff that I have in my personal iTunes or I have an actual radio on. You mentioned podcasts. Let's move a little forward to podcasting. How did you become familiar with podcasts and, like, doing podcast shows?
Oh, it's a cool story. Well, I think it's cool, but I'm a nerd. So, you know, I was in college, and my mentor, his name is Rob Quick, who is actually now one of my best friends in the world, he ran the college radio station that I worked at. And I went into his office one day because I just heard him laughing his butt off for, like, 45 minutes.
So I came in. I'm like, man, what's so funny in here? And he told me, he goes, you need to sit down and listen to this. This is unbelievable, and it's completely revolutionary.
It was the Ricky Gervais show, probably about 2005-ish. The comedian, British comedian Ricky Gervais, had just started recording him and two other guys just talking for an hour. And they would put it on the Internet for you to check out, and it was this thing called a podcast. I remember listening to it and just thinking it was absolutely incredible, and I just got hooked then.
And so that was my first introduction to it, and then about a year later, me and my group of friends, we were all big professional wrestling fans. So we came up with the idea to do a professional wrestling talk show called Rumble Radio. And what we did right away was, you know, we knew people wouldn't be able to always listen to us live, so we thought if we could record it, you know, we can let people listen to them whenever they wanted to. So we actually started, we would record a show on Tuesday night, and then by Wednesday morning, we would have that show on the Internet for people to go and check out.
And then it just started to kind of evolve, and now podcasting is this huge new medium, new entity that's, in my opinion, the most exciting area of broadcasting out there today. Yeah, it actually is. The beauty of podcasting is that now you have, like, specific apps on your phone where you can just listen. Yeah, you can get Stitches, you got iTunes, you got Earwolf, I mean, it's limitless with what you can do and listen to.
There really is, like, a podcast out there for everyone, and it's just this great avenue of, for independent, you know, storytellers, independent radio producers to get their story out there, and you don't have to be a part of NPR or CBS. You can just put it out there, and if it's good, people will find it. You will get an audience developed from it, and it's really cool. Great, so what are some of your favorite shows about podcasting, since we seem to have fallen into that?
Like, what I like to listen to, or just, like, specifically about how to make a podcast? No, just, like, what do you like to listen to? When you hit any of these apps with, like, podcasts, the list are, like, limitless. There's something for everybody, you know, for, like, everybody.
So, like, what is something that kind of stands out to you when you're, like, looking for a podcast, and why do you choose that over, you know, like, the next one? Yeah, well, it's a couple things. One, if someone suggests something to me, like, one of my friends goes to me, goes, hey, man, you got to check this out, you dig it, I'd listen to it right away. So, word of mouth is a big one for me.
Topics, I mean, you know, I'm at the stage in my life where I know what I like. So, you know, if I am going through, you know, Earwolf or Stitcher or iTunes and I find something that's about, like, superhero movies or sci-fi or imagination, I'm going to download it and check it out or at least give it a quick five-minute listen to it to see what it is. Other times, there's this great channel, actually, on SiriusXM called PRX, which stands for the Public Radio Exchange, and it's just this channel that broadcasts independent productions, independent audio stories. So, I just came across that one day, and I started listening to that, and what was the show that caught me?
Oh, it was 99% Invisible, this guy, Roland Mars, out in Oakland, California. It's a show about, like, design and how objects are designed. And I don't remember the exact episode of what I listened to, but I just remember being glued to my radio to the point where, like, I made myself late to go where I was going to go because I wanted to hear the end of the story. And, you know, I just heard that, and I did a quick Google search on 99% Invisible, and I found the website.
I found who's on iTunes, and I just subscribed right then and there. Actually, now that I think about it, I've discovered a lot of podcasts I listen to via PRX on SiriusXM. There's another one out of New York called Imaginary Worlds that I absolutely love. It's this guy, Eric Malinsky.
It's awesome. He just did this one show called Inside the Snowglobe where it was about this one old TV show that the series finale of the show was it was an autistic boy looking into the snow globe at this hospital, and he had imagined the entire television series. And it turns into this whole discussion on surrealism and, you know, how are they connecting, you know, because the big thing right now is media shared universes from Marvel. There's a theory out there that all TV shows are a part of the shared universe from this one TV show and everything, and it was just really captivating.
It was really cool. He also did a five-part series on Star Wars to help get you excited for Force Awakens when it came out. So it's just different avenues like that I just find really interesting, really fascinating. When I first started working here at WXAD, I was lucky enough.
I had a gentleman come in and talk to the student broadcasters. His name was Clark Weber, and Clark Weber is a DJ from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s from here in Chicago, and he was the morning show host for what was at that time the number one rock and roll radio station in the Midwest, WLS 890 AM. And he was the morning show host, so he was the number one guy, and he's got stories of, like, hanging out with the Beatles, hanging out with the Rolling Stones. He discovered the Old Diamond in Chicago.
Like, his stories are unbelievable. And I asked him this question, and I loved his response, and it really got me thinking with it because I asked him something similar to what I think your larger question of what you're asking is, you know, is radio still relevant? Does radio still matter? And his response was, yeah, absolutely.
He goes, at the end of the day, what people are always looking for is a story. And the analogy he uses, when you would go to your grandparents' house, you would go to your grandmother, you'd go to your grandfather and say, Grandma, Grandpa, tell me a story. And you would sit there and wonder to hear what story it was that Grandma or Grandpa or Mom and Dad or Aunt or Uncle were going to tell you. And that's what radio ultimately is.
Whatever form you're listening to it is. I consider traditional radio, you know, AMFM, to be the same as podcasting. It's just a different delivery mechanism now. But it's still ultimately the same thing.
At the end of the day, we crave a good story. We need a good story because there's something about a good story that nourishes your soul, you know? Everyone has that one book that changed their life or that one movie that changed their life. Yes.
It's the same thing with audio. You know, it's just a different way of telling that story. We crave that. And what's happening now because of digital technology and the ease that, you know, anyone can now go ahead and do it is you now have a democratization happening where, yes, anyone can do it.
You could do this right now if you wanted to and get your stories out there and you can find an audience. And I can do the same thing. So you have all these great storytellers who aren't famous or aren't in Hollywood that they're doing this maybe as a hobby. Now getting their stories out there and you're going, oh, my God, this is incredible.
This person touched my soul in a way that I didn't realize I was looking for this. And now I found this story. Now I found this connection. And now you found a new way to listen to stories.
For me, there's this great show. It was called Wiretap. It was out of Canada. It was out of Quebec, actually.
It was this weird, quirky storytelling show, but there's always a theme based around it. And it was a weekly podcast and it was 30 minutes in length. I could not wait for Thursday afternoons because Thursday afternoons were the day Wiretap got released. And I got to go on a 30-minute storytelling adventure with Jonathan Goldstein.
And it was incredible. And I listened to that show religiously for about four years. It just ended this past fall. It ended, I think, October or November.
I was devastated. It was like, oh, my God, what am I going to do on Thursdays now? I mean, and I have almost every episode he's ever done. But it was just, again, it was that way where this show, this podcast, just grabbed my attention.
I just, it blew my mind. Yeah. For some people who don't see the connection the way you and I might see it, is that podcasts or podcasts and shows are like the original form of storytelling. Yeah, the radio dramas.
Yeah, in the 30s and 40s and 50s. And people would sit together as a family and listen and enjoy a story together and be like, oh, my God. And just kind of whether you argue about it or not, see the similarities or not. But I feel that today for a lot of podcasts and talk shows that you kind of hear, it's essentially the same thing.
You're sitting down or standing, walking, whatever you're doing. But you're taking the time to listen to it and understand what somebody else is telling you and kind of interpreting and being like, whoa, I didn't see it this way. But yeah, oh, I a thousand percent agree with you. It's funny you mentioned radio dramas because I love radio dramas.
They're amazing. They're great. And I always use this reference when I talk to students. With audio storytelling, there's no limit to what you can do.
The only limit you have is your listener's imagination. If that person has a great imagination and you can take them to worlds and have them, you know, fly on a spaceship at a million miles an hour and they're right there with you. And I always use this example. Orson Welles, with his War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938, terrified a nation so much that people legitimately thought the Martians were invading.
Like there were people in New Jersey that ran into the woods with guns because they thought the Martians had landed. Show me any TV show that's had that same kind of effect. Because at the end of the day, and I love television. I watch television.
I love film. But there's a limit to what you can do. You know, if you have a show like Star Trek, as a TV show, Star Trek, you're limited by your budget with your special effects, the sets you can build, things like that. There's only so much you can do.
Now, if you do Star Trek as a podcast, you can get great sound effects. And the Enterprise, the spaceship, it can be whatever that listener wants it to look like. You know, the worlds can be even more exotic than what you could build on a set. Yes, I agree.
And for me, as an aspiring storyteller, that's so much more exciting to do than, okay, I have a million dollars and I can only build a set. Like it forces you, audio forces you, I think at least, to be more creative because you don't have that element of, okay, my audience can see what I want them to see. They have to imagine it, you know? I agree.
And I feel like this is why some people sometimes think that radio is dead or that podcasting is not going to be as popular as you think or as people are saying it out to be just for the fact that you can't see it. Like, but I feel like those are people who are not as imaginative and they need that extra element to kind of give it to them. Like, I need to, you know, audio is just listening, but these people, like, I need to not only listen to it, but you need to hear it. Yeah, I mean, people aren't creatures of habit.
They've been conditioned to watch TV since the 50s. Again, I can only speak from my personal experience, but TV is boring right now. There's some great stuff out there. Don't get me wrong.
Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, you know, from 10 years ago to Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, all of that stuff. I get that, and I acknowledge their greatness, and that is a... golden age of television with that however you have cable where you can get 200 channels how many of those channels are all reality-based tv shows and they're reruns upon reruns upon reruns after a while you know granted i love this brandos it's one of my favorite shows ever i can only watch so many episodes before it's like god i can't watch this anymore you know whereas with podcasting it because it's new right now and there's so many different styles that are being created because that's the other great thing with podcasts that we really haven't talked about you can do whatever you want you can do whatever you want if you want one episode to be a radio drama and then your next episode to be a conversation like you and i are having you can do that there's no rules there's more excitement for me at least with that because you get more creativity and you know again when you have it what's old is new again so i think also you're having it where you have young people now who have never experienced a radio drama who think that commercial radio sucks but they're finding a podcast that they're falling in love with well that's just an updated version of what you were talking about earlier that happened in the 30s and 40s where the families would gather around the radio to hear an episode of phippo maybe and molly or jack benny i mean it's just an updated version the great thing is is now you have it in your phone which is the size of your hand and you take it anywhere you go so you can listen to wherever you want to so you can go on your run listen to a podcast you can be in your kitchen cooking dinner listen to a podcast you can be in your car listening i mean it's that's the exciting part you can take it wherever you want it to go and i feel like that's where um people don't understand this but uh who think radio is dead is not it's not dead just for the sense that it's just changed it's evolving yeah right now you can listen to it different numerous ways yeah absolutely yeah i mean right now you're seeing radio is evolving what it's evolving into i don't know what it's going to be no one does you know does commercial radio suck yeah i can see that argument it's very repetitive and it doesn't take a lot of risks but what's going to happen is there's going to be some grand old station somewhere in the country or in the world that it's glory days are behind you and some young upstart kid is going to get put in charge of the station and that kid's going to say this is your rule book and chuck it out the window and it's going to rewrite the rules and that station is going to recapture its glory and then you're going to see stations around the country go wow look how successful that station is i want that success and then you're going to see that and then that's what's going to do be a game changer for commercial radio satellite radio it's exciting but again i think they're playing a little bit too safe other than people like howard stern who's still pushing the element and trying new things and all that um or prx but again with podcasting for me that's the excitement i mean roman mars can do a show on any topic he wants to do and it can be seven minutes long it can be 47 minutes long whatever he thinks is going to tell the story in its most complete manner that's what he's going to do it as and i'm going to listen to it because i appreciate his way of telling me a story yep i completely agree um and i just kind of coming on coming off as a not at first i wasn't as familiar with podcasting as i am now and i feel like i thank you for a majority of that oh thank you definitely you're very welcome technically inspired um as a student to like you know you open up these doors and it's like whatever you choose to do from here you know that's up to you i'm just letting you know what's out there and like you said podcasting has this way of word of mouth and it's just so interesting that not everything has to be about music but it can be and i feel like people don't understand that there are shows about like music or they talk just kind of like talk shows about music they tell you about different artists and i like that it's cool one of the best music podcasts it's also a radio show too but one of the best music podcasts out there is a show out of chicago called sound opinions with jendara goddess and greg hot um when the show started jendara goddess was the music critic for the chicago sun times and greg hot was and still is the music critic for the chicago tribune uh jendara goddess writes for a blog now but they just started doing a radio show talking about music interviewing bands artists and then doing record reviews and that's it it's syndicated i think it's on like 100 plus stations across the country and they're one of the top 25 most downloaded podcasts on a weekly basis off of itunes i mean and that's all music based yep it is and i just find it really interesting how there's just different forms of radio yeah there's i mean personally i don't have a personal preference because i like like you said earlier there's different different kinds i like exploring and knowing what's out there um just giving it a try i don't like it i just like giving it a try interesting to me to like see all that just kind of see people's creativity in it in some ways something kind of inspires you the way like songs may inspire you make you feel totally different ways i feel like podcasting absolutely yeah does that to you or just like even different forms of radio yeah totally i mean i was inspired to start my own podcast by the podcast i listen to i mean it is a way of inspiration you know and again it goes back to what i said earlier is everyone has a story that they can tell you know some are good some are bad but you know sometimes you need that kick in the butt to actually go and do it and tell an interesting story and these new podcasts are inspirational for a lot of people like that anybody who wants to respond back to us through twitter or any other form of social media is what do you think is the most important way to tell the story you think is the actual story or do you think it's how you tell the story so whether it be a film audio podcast personal playlist you know it's kind of see what our listeners and we're going to go to tweet at you for that you can actually tweet us at ipoducast so that would be the letter i and then pod p-o-d capital u and then cast c-a-s-t and you can use the hashtag ipoducast to let us know what you guys think all right that concludes this episode of ipoducast thanks everybody you