Today we’d like to introduce you to Pop Culture Yearbook Podcast.
We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are a very nostalgic group of three best friends who have always had a passion for movies, especially comedies that we can quote to each other endlessly. We aren’t stuck in the past, but we definitely enjoy reliving it together. Growing up in small towns created memories that we can share forever. While growing up, we always had to find creative ways to entertain ourselves…a skill that would pay off in 2020 when everything shut down.
Pete and Brad started the podcast with their friend Dave simply as a way to hang out and have a good time. When it was time to make things public, Dave decided he’d rather be behind the scenes, so we recruited Giff to round out the show. Even though he lives hours away, we had all become so familiar with Zoom, Skype, Google Meets, etc. that it was easy to use those technologies to our advantage. If you are going to talk anyway, why not have a focused topic and hit record? As the show has continued to grow, we have been able to invite guests from all over the country.
We release weekly episodes discussing movies, TV shows, albums, or other memories that were important to us. We all get to experience it again and take notes on our memories of the time and how we feel now. We look forward to these recordings with great excitement each and every time. Learning that others out there are entertained and enjoy our conversations is a pretty cool experience.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest obstacle was switching the lineup of hosts as we were launching the show. Dave continued to work with us, but there was an adjustment period. We like to refer to him as the Larry David of our show as he was integral in creating it, but chose not to be the “star” (even though he is hilarious). Pete and Brad did some episodes alone and soon learned that Giff was our biggest fan and had the same passion to be a part of this endeavor. He helped solidify things, and we have even been able to get Dave to be an occasional guest for some “very special” episodes.
The biggest current obstacle is how to promote the show and get it to stand out in a very crowded market. We spend a lot of time on social media looking for ways to reach our audience while trying to keep costs down. Managing accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok is a lot of work, but each site has a slightly different audience to reach. In doing this, we have found a fantastic family out there in independent podcasters. Everyone is so supportive and helpful. It’s a wonderful community to be a part of.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We have never thought of ourselves as particularly artistic or creative people. But this has been a very rewarding creative process. We’ve created a format that we think is unique enough to set it apart from the thousands of other podcasts out there like ours. We may talk about many of the same topics, but finding that niche that works for your show is the key to not getting lost in the shuffle.
We have fantastic memories of minutiae and seemingly unimportant details. This is where our nostalgia comes from, so we try to personalize each episode by making our lives part of the story. While we discuss our chosen topics and our memories, we hope that sparks memories for our listeners as well. The pop culture topics we discuss are meant to be places where we can find common ground. Our show is not political, and we try to talk in a way that can be inclusive to anyone. So if we hear a listener watched a movie or listened to an album because of our show, we get a great feeling of satisfaction.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There are over 2 million podcasts out there and that number grows every day. We think the pandemic was a major impetus in this growing industry. Suddenly people were home all the time and we were looking for something to do. Being able to talk and record remotely was also a huge factor in being able to create a podcast. Pete and Brad don’t live too far apart, but Giff is over four hours away. Through this process, we have been able to virtually get together more than we have in years. It has been a friendship rejuvenation.
The question is whether creators can maintain their schedules and continue doing this as lives return to normal. It would be possible that there would be some attrition over the next couple of years. The great thing about pop culture is that we’ll never run out of content, so in our case, we are excited about the future and intend to keep this up for a long time!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/
PopCultureYearbook - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/popyearbook/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/popyearbook - Twitter: https://twitter.com/
PopYearbook - Other: https://www.
buymeacoffee.com/PCYearbook
Image Credits
Paul Krumenauer
