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Hi One or Potentially More Readers,

Today I'm going back to when it all began, when I became a podcast listener. The two podcasts that I started out with were two of the most popular then and remain so today, they are Smodcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, and The Adam Carolla Show, hosted by you guessed it Adam Carolla as well as featuring Teresa Strasser as the "news girl" and "Bald" Bryan Bishop on "sound effects". I love both shows despite the fact that it would be very difficult to find two more different examples of podcasts.

The show Smodcast was originally created as a way to ensure that its hosts who had been friends since film school got together and talked about something other than work at least once a week. Smith and Mosier originally met while attending the Toronto Film School where they became fast friends. Mosier would go on to graduate while Smith withdrew on the last day that he was eligible for a partial tuition refund, that refund would serve as their seed money to make Clerks. The film which Smith wrote and directed, Mosier produced, and fellow classmate Dave Kline served as director of photography (DP), was made for just $27,575. In October of 1994, Smith and Mosier who could only afford one print took it to a near-by film festival where it generated just enough attention to be noticed and then bought by the Weinstein Brothers' Miramax Films. The film would eventually gross over $3 million at the box office, develop a large cult following for both the movie as well as Smith; this success coincided with and contributed to the beginning of the Indie film movement with which Mosier, Smith, and Kline and Miramax Films played large roles in. Smith and Mosier would continue to work together on the next seven movies, until in their 40's they took different projects. There was no animosity between the two but they found that after they worked the long hours associated with the film industry, spent time with their families', and attended to the rest of life they rarely got to just sit and chat anymore. Smith proposed that they get together once a week, a goofy conversation and record it as a podcast; their commitment to the fans of producing one a week would serve as a guarantee that they kept at it. The show has been going since February of 2007, there have also been several national and international tours where Smith and Mosier record the show in front of a live audience. Beginning just over two years ago Smith started adding more podcasts and eventually formed the Smodcast Network which distributes them as well as a daily live streaming morning show.
        Smodcast as a rule has virtually no format, each show consists of Mosier and Smith talking about something, which they may have heard on the news, had happen to them recently, is relevant to the time of year, or, just as likely seemingly coming from nowhere. The two will talk about the topic with Smith often proposing bizarre what-ifs which may end up being acted out or simply lead to another topic. The general tone of the show is humor though when serious things have happened in the lives of the hosts they are addressed, often creating emotional and open moments. The format combined with the openness of the two hosts often creates the feeling that the listener is sitting in the room; regular listeners feel a very strong sense of having come to know Smith and Mosier, and that's the best part. I truly enjoy this show and even after over 200 shows eagerly await its Sunday release.

The Adam Carolla Show is quite a bit different than Smodcast in a variety of ways. At the time of its launch Adam served as the main host, with "Bald" Bryan Bishop providing sound effects and Teresa Strasser gathering and delivering the news. The show is produced every weekday, and done in the format that combines ellements of a late night show with those of a talk radio show (minus the frequent commercial breaks). This makes sense because before doing the podcast the same crew had been the of KLSX's nationally syndicated morning show; having taken over for Howard Stern after he left for satellite radio. The had great success during its three year run until it was canceled when KLSX changed from a talk format to a Top 40 format. When the show was cancelled Adam still had around 1 year left on his contract with CBS Radio; this meant that he would continue to be paid as long as he didn't take another job in terrestrial radio; given these circumstances Adam and his friend Donny decided to give podcasting, which they were only vaguely familiar with, a try. The response was much larger than they anticipated; the first show on a Monday was downloaded over 250,000 times, by their third show they were the number one show on iTunes, and they would eventually surpass Ricki Gervais as the Guinness World Records holder for the most downloaded show ever.
When the show was first launched it had a bit of a different format than it does now, consisting of essentially a one on one conversation between Adam and that days guest. It wasn't long until the show changed to resemble the terrestrial radio show, including having Bryan and Teresa rejoin the show. Ever since then the show's format is; the roughly 90 minute show begins with Adam giving what is essentially a monologue, but instead of jokes it is about something from his life, usually something that has irritated him; it is not a true monologue in that the co-hosts frequently interject, following this is a news segment, then the guest is brought in for the second half of the show and the guest is interviewed by and chats with the hosts. The guest segment generally takes two forms, either way the guest is interviewed about their personal history and whatever they have to promote; from there Adam will either tell the guest to sit in on the news and interject whenever they feel like it or the hosts and guests will discuss anything they find interesting. Which of these to results occurs is mostly but not entirely dependent on whether the guest is entertaining or not, if they consistently give one word answers or are otherwise dull the news provides an escape from Adam having to spend another 30 minutes dragging conversation out of the guest.
There have been two major personnel changes since the launch of the show, however they do not seem to have hurt the shows quality long term. The first was the departure of Teresa, who like everyone one the show had elected to take a short term pay-cut in exchange for potentially greater rewards once the show was profitable; however a change in her father's financial situation made this no longer possible and she returned to terrestrial radio. The second departure was that of Adam's longtime friend and show co-founder Donny, few details have come out about the reason for the departure, other than the two could not agree on the future of the show.
I greatly enjoy this show, the daily nature of it means there is almost always at least one episode to listen to, which is a wonderful reserve to have.

P.S. For those who would like more information or to download these shows here is a link to Carolla's website http://www.adamcarolla.com/   and here is one to the Smodcast's website http://smodcast.com/ , I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Ben