Some of you may have seen this teased on my social channels, but now I’m making it official – American Cliché will be returning as a weekly podcast in the coming weeks. I haven’t settled on the exact launch date, but I’m currently eyeing between mid-August and early September. That may seem like a long way out, but relaunching the show is not a small task.
I’ve been out of the podcast space for five years so I’ve forgotten how to do almost everything and I’m essentially starting from scratch.
I have to build my studio. The only piece of equipment I still had in a closet was my trusty Shure SM7B microphone. That has always been a staple of my sound and I knew I had to use it again. Other than that I had nothing. And because there’s literally dozens of different ways to produce a show, I had to decide on my workflow and how it would all come together. I have always been a live radio guy and doing it “live to tape” has always been my preference. That means the show is recorded exactly as you hear it. All the intros, outros, sound FX, news clips etc. are all played and mixed in real time. There’s no editing. At this point, I’d say I’m about 60% there on the studio equipment. I’m waiting for a few cables, a compressor/limiter/gate and a rack to hold it all.
I have to rebuild the website from scratch. The old site technically exists in mothballs, but it’s seven years old and is outdated. That said, I’m NOT a web designer and I’m having to peck my way through to figure things out. The fact that I’ve gotten this far and you’re seeing this post is an achievement in and of itself. Over the coming weeks, I’ll continue to improve and update the site with more features and functionality.
Finally, I knew that if I was going to do this at all, I was going to do it right with a marketing plan. When I started American Cliché (and 8BallRadio before that), I had no marketing background so I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Social media didn’t exist and I wasn’t starting with any sort of base audience. That’s all changed. So, over the next few weeks you’ll probably start to see promotions on Facebook and Instagram and a big push through Twitter.
I will have a firm launch date in the next week or so and I’ll post it here. I’ll also be doing a few behind the scenes video updates to keep you updated on the planning and progress I’m making with the show.
On a personal note, I’ve been really touched by the support many of you have expressed for me to bring the show back. Thank you for that. I can’t wait to re-start this journey with you all.