The Chronic Rift
A few months back I was researching an upcoming interview with writer Keith R.A. DeCandido. And in doing my research, I found out DeCandido was involved with a pop cultue podcast, The Chronic Rift. As a podcast, the show is only a year old, but it’s beginnings date back to the early 1990s (with a public access TV show about “fantasy, science fiction, and other genres.”) After downloading a few episodes for my Ipod and immensely enjoying them, I contacted the original creator/podcast producer John Drew and email interviewed him about the show. The Chronic Rift recently joined Mevio (“an online video and audio network for episodic entertainment”), so we get to discuss that development among other engaging topics.
Tim O’Shea: How did the Mevio deal come about?
John Drew: Well, they approached us saying that they liked what they heard and wanted to know if we were interested. I’d heard of Mevio, but I always thought they were more focused on their video content as that’s what you see when you first visit the website. Upon further examination, I saw everything they had to offer in the form of file space and bandwidth; it really seemed like a no-brainer. We haven’t begun any actual advertising on the show yet as we’re still waiting for advertiser approval of our overall show (They don’t dictate content, but they get first refusal of the overall show.), but the advertisers are major brand names and the ones I’ve asked to work with will mesh nicely with the show.
O’Shea: I’ve really enjoyed seeing episodes from the original public access show aired at The Chronic Rift’s MySpace page, will you be offering more of those classic videos at the Mevio site or what are your plans?
Drew: I have thought about posting them there. The episodes I’ve been posting have been posted as they originally aired back in 1990. I’ve been posting them on MySpace, but Mevio just might make more sense now.
O’Shea: How many of the current Chronic Rift crew were involved in the public access original incarnation?
Drew: Keith, Andrea, Judy, Orenthal, and Dan Persons were all involved in the original incarnation. The other folks are people I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know through the internet and then in person in recent years.
O’Shea: A recent episode featured an ABC fall season preview from the 1960s, hosted by Adam West and Burt Ward (as Batman & Robin)–where do you unearth these and other audio gems?
Drew: I must admit that most of these gems are on You Tube. I really should make a point of noting that and perhaps putting links to such things in the show notes.
O’Shea: The show seems to cover a variety of different niches in pop culture, as the show joins Mevio is there any interest in expanding the range of topics you cover, or do you want to stay focused on the core of what the show covers now?
Drew: When we first did the access show back in the 90’s, we were primarily a science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic art show which was embraced by the pop culture fandom in general. When we started up the podcast, we discussed branching out and as you can see, we do cover more than our original premise. I think it was Keith who actually first referred to it as a pop culture podcast.
O’Shea: Given the show’s presence on MySpace and Facebook, as well as the website itself, with forums and a blog–how much have the tools of the Internet and technology in general allowed you to grow your audience?
Drew: Wow! I knew the internet could be a powerful tool, but I never knew it could bring such notoriety or popularity in such short order. When I started this, I admit that my main purpose in doing it was to spend more time with my old friends who I don’t get to see as much as I’d like. We made up the Rift website for those few fans we thought we might get. There are now nearly 100 subscribers on the site, with over 200 fans on Facebook, and over 100 on MySpace and Twitter. It’s a nice feeling knowing the show is being well-received.
O’Shea: The show has interviewed a great number of guests, I hate to ask you to single out any, but who do you consider among your favorite guests? And do you have a short list of “dream” guests–and if you don’t want to reveal that, what guests do you have on the horizon?
Drew: I’ve enjoyed getting the opportunity to reconnect with many of our public access guests through the podcast and to meet new people as well. I’m touched that so many people remember what we did all those years ago and are still enthusiastic about being involved in an episode, whether it’s an interview or a Roundtable discussion. One of my favorite podcast guests would be Joseph DeLacey, the horror writer. He’s a very down-to-earth kind of guy who is having some great success with his writings and still manages to have a “You really like me?” attitude. When it comes to the public access show, I have to say that meeting two of my heroes, Gary Gygax and Kenneth Johnson, was the highlight of my time producing the show. Gary was on one of our early episodes discussing role playing games. We kept in touch for years after that, exchanging Christmas cards and such. I was able to help him out when then TSR tried to sue him over a game he developed that they said was very much like Dungeons & Dragons. I had taped him giving a demonstration of the game, Dangerous Journeys, at I-Con and he used the footage in his case. He won the case. I still have the signed copies of the game books he gave me on my desk shelf. Kenneth Johnson was one of those names I recognized as a kid growing up of television screenwriters. He has been another person I’ve kept in touch with over the years and I’m hoping to get him on the show in the near future to talk about the new V series. I’ve been waiting for the dust to settle in regards to the case he had regarding his screen credit.
O’Shea: What’s the biggest challenge to keeping a show like that going–and how do you divvy up the load to make it more manageable for everyone?
Drew: Well, when we did the public access show, it was Keith and I as the primary producers with Keith doing 98% of the grunt work and me shaping the show and direction. When I asked the gang to get back together for the podcast, I made it clear that they weren’t going to have to do much work. Whatever they wanted to bring in regards to reviews and commentary would be welcome. I do most of the grunt work now and I’m loving it. I line up the guests and then offer the interview opportunities and Roundtable hosting chores to the gang. If they want it, I step back. If they don’t, I buckle down and make sure I know enough about what I’m talking about to sound coherent. 
O’Shea: Do you find that your job as a teacher helps give you new ideas for the show, or vice versa, do the skills you’ve honed as the show host helped make you more effective in engaging your students?
Drew: I have used some of my experiences as a teacher to work out some ideas for the show. Judy is a teacher as well and it was great sharing a Roundtable with her regarding technology in the classroom. Andrea and I had a good time doing the summer reading ideas for teens this year. We’re going to do it again next May, but we’re going to play with the format of that somewhat in regards to content and participants.
O’Shea: Care to divulge what shows or books or movies or other media properties you’re most looking forward to in the fall? Or do you want to save that kind of valuable info for the show?
Drew: I haven’t been shy about saying I’m looking forward to V, Medium, and Dollhouse mostly. I’m also jazzed about Flash Forward as I’m a Robert Sawyer fan. Books are tough as most of my time is spent reading books either for my classes as a teacher or my classes as a student as I work towards my Masters in education. Movies are also tough as I don’t get to many of them what with teaching, podcasting, and trying to keep two boys, 3 and 8, at bay with a whip.
O’Shea: Any parting thoughts?
Drew: I just wanted to thank all those who download our episodes every week and stick with the weekly content. Being a show that deals with so many aspects of pop culture, we’re not going to appeal to everyone. Before we switched to Mevio, we were on Podomatic and I’d get the rankings for our show. A podcast on Torchwood was always beating us. They haven’t had a new show in two years! And they only produced three episodes! But, it’s Torchwood and that has its devoted and growing audience. Our numbers rise whenever we talk about something that has a large following, like Harry Potter or Star Trek, but I try to avoid that kind of stunt programming for numbers. We’ll talk about it if we can add something to the discussion otherwise we leave it be.
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