 Hello and welcome to PMC's first ever podcast. I'm Tom Handel, the executive director here and PMC Portland Media Center and I'm here with three very wonderful people who put together this podcast studio and have been involved with PMC for quite some time. Josh Riddle, our production coordinator and Dino Raymond and Brian Delaney are two wonderful board members who put a lot of their time and talent into this organization as well. Thank you very much for joining me gentlemen. Thank you for having us. We're kind of feeling ourselves, feeling our way into this because this podcast studio is still in development. Like I said it's our first ever podcast but we're hoping to maybe flesh out some some areas where we can improve it, make it better. Josh spent yesterday painting this studio so we don't have the acoustic treatments on the wall to make it the sound we want but we first we just thought we'd get this out there and just see how it flies and make improvements as we go along. This is July 3rd 2020 and we are hoping perhaps to launch this by September perhaps even in August but we're gonna spend the next month testing this out perhaps with a few other groups. So to just get started with a little background on this for a few years people have been coming in and saying to me I'd like to do a podcast and I'd say to them I'll just go into our studio and you know do an interview show and they'll just take the audio. Well not not too many people were interested in there were people interested in doing that already but the people who wanted podcasts weren't very interested in doing that. So my question is and I think I'll put this to Brian is why a podcast studio? Why a podcast? Well podcasts have become what radio journalism used to be and there are still great professional radio journalists out there and you can hear that on the air if you happen to tune in on time but even those journalists are taking that product and putting it into podcasts so that you can listen to it on demand and so podcasting has become what radio journalism used to be and that's different than video the audio quality is different the production techniques are a little different the equipment is different and for the media center we have the video studio and we had that set up and we said it makes perfect sense for us to also provide an audio only set up. And I can see right off the bat that doing a podcast is a lot easier a lot simpler it's more like sit down and do it rather than all the work and actually labor that's involved in doing a studio production so you actually can get this done more efficiently than in a studio if all you want to do is capture the audio from it so I see that that can be available to a lot of different people. Also I'm noticing that the sound in this is a lot better than what I would imagine from a studio even though our studio sound is pretty good this is a totally different one and we don't even have like I said the acoustic treatments on the wall. Right right and we do have the acoustic treatments already purchased so they'll be going up soon. The neat thing about this is the equipment. This equipment is dedicated to podcasts so the microphones are specially made for voice. The board itself that we purchased the BMC is a brand new podcasting board called the Roadcaster Pro. It is phenomenal. We've got in our room right now three microphones hardwired to it and Brian Delaney is connected via Bluetooth from a phone from a mobile phone right into the board. So that does things like if you don't want to have a whole lot of people in a small little podcast studio we can do conference calls on one phone and Bluetooth at rate to the board and have four or five and of course that's handy now given the situation the public health situation that we're dealing with to have people you know operate and do things remotely so this is facilitating that. Our mission right along has been to help people exercise their free speech. We changed our name a few years ago from the community television network to the Portland Media Center specifically because we knew that television and cable were not being used as much as other forms of media and so this goes kind of along on the same lines with that and we're going to be offering the podcast studio the same way that we've been offering our video production services in that we can train you to do it yourself or we can do it for you for or a cost. Who who is this this studio that you who will be accessing the studio? You know I really think that the podcast studio is the perfect way for someone to break in. I've heard so many times people say well I've got this idea I don't know what to do with it but I've got this idea well if you think it might be a TV show or a movie but you're not really sure or you've always wanted to have a radio show why not start with a podcast come on in we've got the equipment we'll teach you how to do it we'll teach you how to engineer it if that's your choice we could engineer it for you we're really I think this podcast studio is for anybody that has a story to tell. That's great and you know one of the things that one of the the founding of the Portland Media Center way back when it was a community television network in 1986 was to also so serve the nonprofit local nonprofit community here so when we talk about anyone that has a story to tell we're talking about individuals any individual regardless of their income as well as nonprofit organizations we're really gearing this toward the people who really right now wouldn't be able to access this kind of service any other way. Right and doesn't it you've mentioned this in the past doesn't it really go back to the whole First Amendment? Yes. It really does. Absolutely and now more than ever with everything that's happening it's it's really important to maintain it whichever way we can a voice for the people locally rather than as an alternative to the barrage of national information that we get which is often corporately controlled and nothing is controlled here except the individual who puts it out there. Josh what is the process for somebody to go through in order to do a podcast? Well it's an easy process which is fantastic that's the way we like it we want to be as simple for the public as possible so as you know was saying you know we're gonna offer different levels of services so someone wants to come in schedule a time you want us to enter in the show happy to do it you want to do it yourself that's great you want to learn more about the studio you want to learn the nitty gritty the ins and outs of all of the board the software we're gonna offer classes for that you want to learn about the editing process you know how to actually direct the show you know a lot of people listen to podcast but they don't know how to run one you know that's something we're gonna get into we'll teach you all about that really the sky is the limit in terms of how involved you want us to be or not but as far as just getting in here you know with a couple of just a couple things to learn it's really as simple as just hitting and you users can't see or you listeners can't say but there's a big red button that says record you hit that you know you're recording yeah and that's really important to keep keep aware of as we go it's important to remember that yes so one thing that's a little bit different that I just want to touch on is the cost of doing this we didn't intrinsically have this established as something that was a free service to the public as the cable act required public access stations to be so that when we got equipment we got it from Time Warner and there was some money allocated for the operation of it through the franchise agreement to make that happen this is something that will be a charged service however we envision a lot of different levels of costs if somebody wants to come in here just sit down and have staff take care of everything that's going to be one cost but if people want to learn do with themselves then the first cost up front will be of course the classes and then the use of the podcast studio will be hourly but it'll be at the lowest rate possible so could you talk a little bit about Josh started to mention about the classes what kind of classes do you think we will be we will be offering in order to make this happen for people first and foremost what's going to happen is when you come in when someone comes in we're gonna have to teach them how to use the podcast board the roadcaster once we do that and really we can have you up and running in 30 minutes or less it really it's a crash course introduction this is a very simple board and it's really quick and easy we can again like Josh said we teach you how to do it yourself and you're all set if you really don't want anything to do with the technical stuff you just want to tell your story we can take care of that too and then after that we get into the sound editing which is the finishing of the story most podcasts the vast majority of them no one really almost no one does them alive that's because you know people make mistakes people stumble on words that hold the or the or the conversation goes into direction you've never really intended it to go and that's where editing finishing and really the arc the storytelling comes in and that Josh and I were talking about that earlier that's a great way to really get further in depth about the art of storytelling radio right Brian yeah well and I wanted to go back to what Tom said about affordable the classes really are the cost of maybe four cups of coffee at Starbucks maybe five they are well it depends on what you have in your coffee I guess they are affordable for what you what you can learn and to have someone who is available to answer questions for you in the studio after the fact you take the class you come in and you start your production and then you kind of hit a wall and say I don't I don't remember how to do this there's somebody that you can ask that question to and you're not stuck on your own having to go chase down the rabbit holes of the interweb to figure out well how do I get this done right and you know that's one of the benefits of coming to a studio that is set up for the public now that's I'm glad you brought up that point because this is one of the first for a charge services that we've had that you know that there is no there isn't a component of it that's absolutely free but what our major mission here is to get people's voices heard so having staff here one of the things is we don't want you to feel out in the cold about anything we've all we've had the same experience with video and if people need to take additional classes to get more familiar or more comfortable with that there might be a slight charge to do that again but we want people to feel like their thing is going to get done they're not out in the cold and it's going to be affordable to them and even for people who have really really really limited incomes as always even for the things that we charge right now if people show that they're on public assistance or getting some kind of financial assistance in some way we make these things available to them through volunteer time instead of money you know and I think that's an incredible part of the Portland Media Center it's accessible to anyone who wants to write volunteer if you're paying with volunteer hours you're just gonna learn more and the beautiful thing is as Brian was saying you know there's always someone here to help there's always someone here to help so you are not alone like you mentioned and another point about the editing is just that we we've envisioned that most of the time when people you know have to feel their way through a show like I'm probably doing right now and they don't have everything worked out or or that the story doesn't flow naturally it has to be edited but if they come in prepared and it's ready to go there's usually you know cutting off the beginning and cutting off the end that has to happen and I think for the most part that is not something we an editing we would charge for anything more than that would be but what people get can get after they're done with their podcast is a link to their video they would have to supply their own flash drive or SD card to put it on to if they want to walk out of it out of here with it physically but but that supply you know right and that's and that's important to remember so when you come in make your recording and we will send you a link to your audio file that will be on our server and available there there are other services with podcasts and then we get into hosting that's a different level hosting by a professional service allows you to be picked up by different media platforms iTunes Google Play SoundCloud the list goes on and on but that's how that works and we'll be happy to teach you more about that and if you want to take your podcast from just being on demand off of our servers to something that's distributed worldwide then we can talk about that yeah thanks for bringing that up because I've just learned this morning about the different variations of that we won't be hosting people's podcasts we will correct make them available on our website but it's not the same as hosting hosting is disseminating it broadly and some people may come in here and I'll be already be paying for that and don't need that service but if you need that service well we can offer it to you for an additional charge absolutely so what special features I we've gone through we didn't set this up quite as quickly as we had hoped to because of the pandemic and because of that we've taken some precautions or we've taken some steps to get additional equipment to make this usable even with social distancing can you talk about that a little bit well one of the things you'll notice it's sort of a simple thing something we would have used anyway pop filters there's something that's going to protect the microphone because as different people come in and out we're gonna have to keep this place clean right pop filters very easy to clean we've got several rotating in and out so they'll be as clean as possible in germ free we also have some microphone sanitizer that will be will be applying and using on a regular basis we are encouraging mandating people use masks like we're not wearing right now this part well I guess we'll be edited I guess based on people's comfort level I don't know if that's a politically sound thing to say but we have to kind of work on that I don't know we'll be editing that but I also understand that the acoustical treatments that we've gotten for this room can be cleaned as well yes so so do you know anything more about that Brian I haven't even opened those boxes yet no they're they're foam but they can be covered we will once we put them up then we get the room treated we'll we'll look at how to do that the room is big enough that you you know you'll be on the host will be on one side of the desk the the guest will be on the other side of the desk and certainly I'm actually on a phone out very social distancing I'm about four miles away from the studio at the moment so that was the that was the big one of the big selling points for the equipment that we bought was the ability to take in a call from outside of the studio and have that call be automatically optimized for recording yes so I'm talking on a phone but it's it's going to be better on the the call then if you were just to record the call on your cell phone if you were to record the call on your cell phone you get whatever's there there's no treatment to the sound at all where in this case you know I'm talking and the board is doing its magic and it optimizes it so that it doesn't sound like I'm not in the studio with you and if you were to come into the studio you're trained as engine for engineering your own show and you're doing a podcast series that interviews one person at a time you could be in here with no purpose for having a mask on because you'll be in here by yourself recording it by yourself and interviewing somebody remotely so that's that's a basic setup that most people will use to podcast so in and itself the way that this thing is established social distancing is inherent in it yes yes and it's all very very doable so we've talked about the classes we've talked about the costs we've talked about everything else are there any other special features of this whole system that you think is important for people to know about I think you know I haven't done too much podcast production very little but just really want to emphasize that what is being offered here as such an affordable range is just fantastic you know I mean sometimes you think of you know the difference between public options and the real professional private options you know they've got at least in the camera world they've got these hundred thousand dollar multi-million dollar setups you know it's just out of range for most people but this I mean I feel like you know we're gonna be right up there with the big boys this is fantastic that we're able to offer this that it's so accessible another thing as someone who teaches some of our video production classes one of the things that I noticed is that people get rightfully so they get a little flustered I mean there's a lot happening on the in the studio the cameras this is this is relaxing I mean I wish all my conversations out of this good I wish I could walk around all day with these headphones on because this is just this is enjoyable this is I just I really just want to emphasize that I just think it's so great that people are gonna have access to this and it's just I'm really excited to see where it goes and the history behind the room that this is in this room was built initially as a avid editing station we've long no kidding long time ago left avid behind and that's to have had a few other permutations of editing but it has track lighting in it rather than the fluorescent lighting so it's a big hell just as Josh was mentioning you know this is a very comfortable space the lighting in it is nice the atmosphere itself contained is it's not really boxed in but it's it's it's small enough to contain this stuff freshly painted freshly painted thank you Josh that it I think it's a it's a very conducive environment to a podcast I feel that right now it just feels like a regular if I feel like I'm on radio and I feel like it's a very professional professional looking to go back to the social distancing and the safety issue anything you know the headphones Josh brought up the headphones and that's probably the only piece of equipment that you would wear or even need to touch other than the board and we bought enough of those headphones so that they will be rotated out so that if somebody uses a headphones it it will be sanitized and then stored and then the next person that comes in doesn't use that same set of headphones so you're not putting something on your head that somebody else just had on their head and you know so when we did purchase the equipment we we purchased it with safety in mind planning now I am I've been remiss a little bit and my people who are involved in marketing and visibility will will get after me for this but we did come up with a name for the podcast studio because now we have several different functions we know not only have just we have the studio and we have field cameras that people can check out we have the editing stations but we now have this podcast studio which we're calling PMC Open Door podcast so that's what we're christening this and we recently this week had installed in another room a small studio for individual soap boxing you sit in front of a monitor or a screen that gives you several different backgrounds you can choose from and you can speak your piece and record a short video head and shoulders yourself saying what you want to say this was installed by video link which is now a business partner of ours because they will be sending clients to us who will be doing presentations for to or live streaming to national outlets such as CNN and Fox News and that sort of thing and when that's not being used for that purpose the general community can use that as well so we have a few new things coming out and we're gonna actually call that PMC soapbox which was a name that Dino came up with so people should be on the lookout for for all the different things that are happening not just as podcast studio but remember this podcast studio is called PMC open door podcast open door podcast which I think is such a great name because it really goes back to the whole spirit of first amendment people speaking their mind your stories are important your stories count they need to be told people need to hear them so it's it's wonderful to have all these different outlets now yes we grow yes and and and our voices will continue to be heard as long as people support this kind of a facility is there any other information or ideas or thoughts that you have before we finish I think for all those Millennials and Gen Zers out there like myself maybe the idea the name soapbox going back to that I didn't know what that meant I learned about it yesterday really cool as a history fan and just someone who didn't know what it's what it means Tom do you want to quickly just explain the idea behind soapbox because I think it's such a phenomenal name well maybe Dino I don't know you came up with the name right well this is going to have to be edited because I can't remember the name of the corner oh well you're talking about London right but what I knew because I can't remember it either but I didn't know about it you and Leslie knew about it but what I always heard about this term is more or less it goes back before any of our times I'm sure is is is you know get off your soapbox because the way people before you know people had access to multimedia communications they would stand on a soapbox or a box in the town square and just speak their mind out and the First Amendment would guarantee them the right to be heard and not get arrested for speaking their mind we know now that that's not so certainly true we see that our freedom of speech being eroded away by protests where protesters are getting attacked and people are feeling really negative or or encouraged to feel negative negative about protests when demonstration is the heart and soul of free speech but that's where the term came from to be able to stand on a corner and there's a specific place in London where you do just that and there's another name for it I don't know what and you know and I think what's important to remember as all of this stuff is going on the Portland media center is now expanding into all these different outlets all these different ways to get your message out there and that to me is a very new England very upfront and direct way to address all of the things going on in our country right now and in the world because again your story matters people need to hear what you are thinking this is what a great way to do it and it's a combination of ideas not any one single point of view that makes us stronger absolutely well thank you very much gentlemen I the purpose of this podcast is as I said is to let people know it's coming up it's not something that right now will be available and I'm talking about the beginning of July but we hope we will have most of the kinks worked out of this by the end of the month and being able to start to open it up to people sometime in August but definitely by September I just want to thank so much the time and effort that Josh Brian and Dino have put into this because most of this was unpaid the reason why it's going to be available to the general public is because of the in kind time and effort that they've put into it as well as equipment and their expertise that the expertise is something that didn't come from me nor did we really necessarily have to pay for it so I just really want to thank you gentlemen for for being such champions of free speech happy to do it absolutely it is truly an honor to do it well thank you very much pleasure to know you guys and stay tuned we'll be bringing you more podcasts