Oscar Mike Radio was founded by Marine Veteran Travis Partington when he was personally going through a very rough patch in life. He was also struggling to make sense of why the suicide rate among his fellow Veterans was so high. He created the podcast to give Veterans the opportunity to share their stories as a way of healing and communicating that they ARE special.

Travis has some prior experience in the radio business. However, as he was thinking about how he could best support his fellow Veterans he just so happened to attend a media day event at the local community college. One of the breakout sessions featured a company talking about podcasting. Travis’ reaction was “I’m in! How do I do this?”

“Pod Fade” is a phrase used to describe the tendency among most podcasters to gradually reduce or immediately stop producing content. Of the estimated 2 million podcasts in the US in2021, only 720,000 have published ten or more episodes. The average “fade” comes at the 4-7 episodes mark. Oscar Mike is now approaching 400 published podcasts.

Travis and I speak briefly about the logistics and dedication required to produce a good podcast. One of his most straight forward pieces of advice is to understand the “why” of your podcast.  One’s purpose had to be fully aligned with their authenticity. “If you do nothing else you must be consistent with your uploads.”

Most of his guests come from word of mouth. Travis says he focuses on guests that he can learn from or whom add value to the Veteran conversation.

Oscar Mike Radio was a finalist in the 2021 Veteran Podcast awards and was recently featured in a Veterans Administration blog about Veteran podcasts.

TAKEAWAY: “Regardless of whether we get one download or a million, if our broadcast has added value to even ONE listener, I have executed the purpose of Oscar Mike Radio to the best of my ability.”