The newest project

 

Seabiscuit

John Nash and I have begun a new podcast.

Well, John has. It's his baby. I'm the voice. I'm the pro, just trying to make it sound good.

It's a role that I'm decent at.

It's called "The Owner's Box Horse Racing Podcast" and I look forward to see what we do with this.

Now, before you whinny at me, I'm no expert. John has a small portion of ownership in several horses, including the winner of the 2020 Kentucky Derby, thank you very much. I can approach this from the common man point of view. Plus I'm somewhat-decent at interviewing.

So, we'll get guests to tell stories from the world of the ponies.

Does this mean I've forgotten about my own podcast (sigh), "Tales From the Booth?" Hardly. If anything, it reignites the drive for it.

That, and Mike Hirn's prodding.

Tonight's was easy. In truth, it might never actually run. John and I did a 24:47 chat as an introduction.

Then I set about finding music. That, friends, is perhaps my least favorite part of the process of this kind of project.

This goes for commercials and promos and so on. Want me to voice something? Cool. Happy to do it. What? It needs music? Oh...fuuuuudge...

It's tough when you have such a musical brain. You KNOW what you want it to sound like.

John wanted something upbeat. So, I set about checking out the websites.

Another thing about music is that it can be difficult to find things without stipulations. I have some sites that are truly royalty free, especially if you don't change the song and give credit.

Still, I listened to a ton of songs tonight. The thing is, you know almost immediately if it won't work. Within seconds, I'm out. The beat I'm looking for could be in your song, but you have the first notes to pull me in to see if that's the sound I want.

First impressions and so on.

It took a while of pressing play and changing sites before I found something. You'll have to wait for the finished product to hear it for yourself.

I still wonder if the music was the right choice for "Tales From the Booth" just as I wonder about "Doubleheader." In the case of DH, I'm always getting messages from people saying, "Hey, listen to the music in this commercial. Sound familiar?"

It would be a tedious exercise to go back though all of the songs over the years, from "The Press Box" to "Tee Time" to "The Clubhouse" to "Nutmeg Sports" along with all of the other talk shows, as well as the sports themes that I've found for play-by-play.

And I still have to come up for a format -- music included -- for the Renegades broadcasts. Of course, I'm like a caged animal on that topic.

Soon, grasshopper.

It will all work out.