Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Pinball Podcasts

Pintastic New England·video·48m 57s·analyzed·Aug 23, 2022
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball podcast panel discusses production, burnout, and co-host chemistry at Pintastic New England.

Summary

A panel discussion at Pintastic New England featuring hosts from multiple pinball podcasts (Classic Pinball Podcast, Head to Head Pinball Podcast, Backbox Pinball Podcast) exploring their value propositions, production approaches, burnout challenges, and co-host dynamics. Panelists discuss the tradeoffs between highly produced content vs. conversational authenticity, remote vs. in-person recording, and strategies for sustaining podcasts long-term.

Key Claims

  • Classic Pinball Podcast focuses on machines from the 1960s-1980s, differentiated from other pinball podcasts that emphasize tournament play and new games

    high confidence · Dave O'Neill, Classic Pinball Podcast, describing niche positioning

  • Head to Head Pinball Podcast distinguished itself by featuring Australian perspective (Steven Martin) and focusing on competition/new games with strong on-air chemistry

    high confidence · Joe Lemire discussing the podcast he co-hosted with Steven Martin

  • Backbox Pinball Podcast started in 2019 to prominently tell stories of women in pinball and international players

    high confidence · Lauren Gray, Backbox Pinball Podcast founder and host

  • Joe Lemire recently finished sixth at the World Championships and maintains a competitive ranking in the double digits

    high confidence · Joe Lemire, discussing his current WPPR ranking

  • Highly produced podcasts require minimum 2-4 hours of editing per hour of content depending on sound effects complexity

    high confidence · Lauren Gray citing radio production experience and labor requirements

  • Backbox Pinball Podcast hired a dedicated producer to handle editing, allowing hosts to focus on content quality

    high confidence · Lauren Gray explaining production workflow

  • Slam Tilt podcast hosts (Ron Hallett and others) experienced burnout from producing too many episodes and had to cut back

    high confidence · Event moderator referencing prior podcast panel discussion

  • Head to Head Pinball Podcast ended weekly production; now produces one episode annually at Pintastic New England

    high confidence · Joe Lemire explaining current production schedule

Notable Quotes

  • “We kind of carved our own niche for classic pinball and that kind of thing. So some tech tips in there, some playing tips, some history and background of old school pinball.”

    Dave O'Neill, Classic Pinball Podcast@ 1:24 — Core value proposition differentiating the show in crowded podcast landscape

  • “It was just so much fun because it's just me and Steven Martin along so well... that podcast was more of just us hanging around and like having fun together.”

    Joe Lemire@ 2:02 — Emphasizes co-host chemistry as key differentiator for Head to Head Pinball Podcast

  • “Our value proposition is that we want to tell the stories that aren't getting told, whether they be female players or international players.”

    Lauren Gray, Backbox Pinball Podcast@ 4:30 — Core mission statement for podcast expansion beyond women-focused content

  • “I'm getting paid in like you know solenoid points you know it's like it makes you feel good.”

    Lauren Gray@ 6:19 — Reflects community-driven motivation despite unpaid work; humorous pinball reference

  • “When you hear those very produced things, I'm talking about the Spooky team, but they're one of them. When you hear how much time, I know how hard that is. It takes time. If you're listening to an hour worth of podcast, at minimum it took that person two hours to edit it.”

    Lauren Gray@ 9:14 — Concrete production labor assessment; acknowledges Spooky's 'Super Awesome Pinball Show' as high-production reference

  • “Something needs to change about the show. So that's when I like 2.0'd it and brought in Rebecca... it has revitalized me and the show.”

Entities

Dave O'NeillpersonGeorgepersonLauren GraypersonRebecca SalempersonJoe LemirepersonSteven Martinperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Multiple podcasts experienced burnout-driven closure or format reduction: Head to Head transitioned to annual episodes, Pinball Players Podcast largely ended, Slam Tilt cut back production; editing/production labor identified as primary burnout driver

    high · Event moderator: 'They were doing too many, and they had to cut back.' Lauren Gray: 'as being on two podcasts that kind of stopped because editing is so difficult and they didn't have time to do it anymore'

  • ?

    community_signal: Backbox Pinball Podcast receiving direct audience engagement through email/text/Instagram with listeners expressing concern during breaks and asking about show status; strong parasocial connection

    high · Lauren Gray: 'our listeners, they email us. They text us or they, you know, message us on Instagram... Is everything okay? Because they become like part of your extended pin family'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pintastic New England hosts annual podcaster panel featuring multiple podcast formats; Head to Head Pinball Podcast records one episode annually at this event

    high · Joe Lemire: 'we're going to be doing episodes, you know, we just decided at this point that we're going to do an episode every year at Pintastic... we should be doing an episode Saturday'

  • ?

    community_signal: International pinball community engagement: Head to Head Pinball Podcast valued for Australian perspective; Grant from Australia identified as engaged Classic Pinball Podcast listener; international players featured in Backbox Pinball Podcast (Barcelona guests mentioned)

    high · Joe Lemire on Steven Martin: 'it was always fun to try and do get our time zones to line up and now he's over at Haggis Pinball so it's cool to get... it was always just every week.' Dave O'Neill: 'we get good feedback from one of our number one fans, this guy named Grant in Australia'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.147

0:00
Tonight we're going with our podcaster panel and podcasters like to talk so I basically am here to kind of get them started. We do have a slide of information that was on the screen there that will tell you the basics so we We don't have to do this crazy go down the line, well, does your podcast have guests? Does your podcast have ads? That's all right here on the slide. So for each of our podcasters tonight, I start out with the one famous question. And Dave O'Neill from Classic Pinball Podcast, I think you've heard this question before. With over one million podcasts available online today, why should I spend some of my valuable time listening to your podcast? Why not? No, I don't know. We're a different kind of pinball podcast.
1:00
It's a classic point of view of older pinball machines. I come at it from a technical aspect. Both George and I are over 50, so we have like 60s and 70s and 80s is kind of our claim to fame. And a lot of the pinball podcasts out there, George listens to more than I do. a little more tournament talk, a little more new game talk, and we kind of carved our own niche for classic pinball and that kind of thing. So some tech tips in there, some playing tips, some history and background of old school pinball.
1:36
Okay. And Joe Lemire, hiding under that baseball cap. Of another podcast. Yeah, we've heard you on a few podcasts, but I'm particularly interested in head-to-head because of its international nature.
1:53

Lauren Gray@ 17:29 — Demonstrates burnout solution through co-host partnership pivot

  • “You have to be worthy of their giving you their time by at least not annoying them, you know, take out the mistakes... once you edit it out, when you can't think of the game edit out the part where you're struggling to find it.”

    Event moderator/radio professional@ 13:17 — Radio industry standard for podcast production quality and audience respect

  • “I love the live reaction. Like every once in a while, like, Rebecca, I forgot to tell you about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, oh, and then we'll just talk about it. Those are always the funnest conversations.”

    Lauren Gray@ 22:44 — Advocates for spontaneity and unprepared moments as audience-engaging content

  • “You have to find the right person to do a show with. You're not going to gel with everybody.”

    Lauren Gray@ 23:53 — Co-host compatibility as critical success factor

  • “This is totally hacked together but it works but it's kind of our show is kind of not really polished like that so people expect it's kind of it's uh i don't know endearing i guess the word.”

    Dave O'Neill, Classic Pinball Podcast@ 28:39 — Acknowledges production roughness as brand characteristic rather than liability

    • Jeff
    person
    Ron Hallettperson
    Eric Stoneperson
    Maureenperson
    Grantperson
    Classic Pinball Podcastproduct
    Head to Head Pinball Podcastproduct
    Backbox Pinball Podcastproduct
    Pinball Players Podcastproduct
    Slam Tiltproduct
    Super Awesome Pinball Showproduct
    Haggis Pinballproduct
    Riverside FMproduct
    Zencasterproduct
    Pintastic New Englandevent
    World Championshipsevent
    Spooky Pinballcompany
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dave O'Neill deliberately incorporates old-time radio production techniques (sound effects, movie clips, theater of the mind storytelling) to capture live broadcast authenticity despite modern podcast medium

    high · Dave O'Neill: 'I always loved old-time radio... I love that stuff. And so I try to incorporate that now into our latest episodes... I try to do like a theater of the mind thing too. So I try to spin a good yarn'

  • ?

    community_signal: Steven Martin transitioned from Head to Head Pinball Podcast to Haggis Pinball; Joe Lemire noting he still talks to Martin occasionally but misses weekly interaction

    high · Joe Lemire: 'so it's cool to get. I still talk to him here and there, but I miss him because it was always just every week... now he's over at Haggis Pinball'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Classic Pinball Podcast deliberately shifted tone over past year from heavy news coverage to lighthearted content in response to pandemic/world events; intentional tonal change to bring joy back to audience

    high · Dave O'Neill: 'maybe like a year or so now, we're kind of bringing the funny, we're bringing lightheartedness to it... The news was heavy. Everybody was kind of bummed out. So we want to try to bring some joy and frivolity back to the world'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Podcast production tools evolving: hosts using Riverside FM (podcast-specific alternative to Zoom), Zencaster, Anchor, traditional Zoom; software choice impacts guest experience and post-production workflow

    high · Lauren Gray on Riverside FM: 'It's like Zoom for podcasters.' Joe Lemire on Zencaster: 'they have to really explain it to the guests because it doesn't download the file until you're once you're done recording'

    • So while it was going, what was the special value proposition of the Head to Head podcast? How did it distinguish itself? It was just so much fun because it's just me and Martin got along so well, which is really that's how it all went. When Ryan left, Martin wasn't sure if he wanted to continue and he had me on for a guest and we really clicked and we just, it was always fun. It was, I always felt that that podcast was more of just us hanging, just us hanging around and like hanging out.
    2:28
    So we got along so well. When Dave and George hang out, they talk about what, classic is a matter of definition, of course, but 70s, 80s, 90s games. When you were hanging out with Martin, what were you talking about? It was mainly competition, like Dave mentioned. It was competition, new games, talk about the news, stuff like that. And for reference, what's your current ranking in the worldwide pinball player rankings?
    3:02
    60-something? In the double digits, anyway. Yeah. I just finished, the best thing I can say is I just finished sixth at the World Championships at the end of the month. Wow, okay. I lost to Eric Stone so there's nothing wrong with that you can see how Eric Stone plays tomorrow morning right here in this very seminar room at Pintastic New England yeah so it was always fun because they also just getting Martin's perspective because he's from Australia so it was always fun to try and do get our time zones to link up and now he's over at Haggis Pinball so it's It's cool to get. I still talk to him here and there, but I miss him because it was always just every week. You just always look forward to just getting to talk pinball, which is something I love to do, which I think is the same for all of us up here. Right, yes.
    3:56
    So, Lauren, we've got two New Englanders here because we are trying to have New England content. Tell us about your special value proposition for your podcast. Sure. For everyone who doesn't know me, I am one of the hosts of the Backbox Pinball Podcast. It's a podcast for lady pinballers and their friends. So I started the podcast back in 2019 to tell stories of women in pinball. Not to say that their stories weren't being told, but they maybe weren't out there as prominently. So that's why I started the podcast. Then I bought on my amazing co-host, Rebecca Salem. And our value proposition is that we want to tell the stories that aren't getting told, whether they be female players or international players. We like to have players. We just interviewed some folks from Barcelona.
    4:42
    So that's kind of what we bring to the table. And, of course, we're the Texans. It took us 12 hours to get here, but we were very excited. When we walked out of the Logan Airport, it was 70 degrees. Oh, my God, it was so nice. It was so, so nice. But we're just really excited to be here. Yep, that's the longest day of the year. And the summer solstice, and you're up here to take it easy. Okay. What do you like about your work so far? Have you had particular episodes where you felt you really did something spectacular? You know, I love podcasting. I worked in radio for several years. Podcasting feeds my soul.
    5:26
    We did a... Our episodes are very lighthearted for the most part. We talk to people. We have fun. But we do tackle more what I'd call more serious subjects. And we had an episode on mental health.
    5:37
    And, you know, we do this for fun. It's just we have a good time. But my co-host, Rebecca, got some feedback from somebody that said that our little podcast helped him understand mental health and some challenging things he was going through, which just made me stop. And I'm like, I just do this little show. Don't make any money at it. you know I do it for fun and the fact that I impacted somebody's life in a positive way like I just sat down and I was like I'm not gonna cry not gonna cry but um if I can just if I make one person's life better whether I make them laugh whether they're like I didn't know that or that's cool like that to me and I know Rebecca feels the same like I was like all right that's how I'm getting paid I'm getting paid in like you know soul points you know it's like it makes you feel good. And George and Dave like to talk about places which you know when you're a New Englander and they're name-checking all you know Lincoln Park or Salisbury Beach and all these places that were great pinball locations of the past now gone fun and games in Framingham that that's enough of an emotional resonance for me, I guess, as a former arcade operator myself. Dave, do you think you have any particular bragging points, like an episode that did something like you really did what you set out to do? Yeah, I've always kind of, I always wanted to get in radio years ago, and I don't know, I went to a little bit of college for it, didn't really work out, and became more of a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer. And then when Jork presented this to me, he's like, I want to do this podcast. I was like, dude, I don't really have time. I've got a full-time job and I've got my pinball business top of its life. But if you want to kick it off and run it, I'll be there. So it's great because I get to explore working in radio. And then I always loved old-time radio. And I always loved how they do sound effects and different clips and that kind of thing, from the days before TV. And I love that stuff. And so I try to incorporate that now into our latest episodes, maybe the past 10 or 15 episodes, where I'll just throw George different sound effects and different things and different clips. And I watch a lot of movies, so when we're talking about something, I'll make a note to my wife Maureen, who's there as well, and I'll whisper to her, hey, make a note of this. Make a note. I got a clip. So then I'll feed George all these clips. And I'd say, lately, Lately, I'd say maybe like a year or so now, we're kind of bringing the funny, we're bringing lightheartedness to it.
    8:18
    I'm laughing all the time throughout the podcast. You always hear me laughing. I crack myself up a lot of times.
    8:25
    I say some dad jokes and that kind of thing. But we try to keep it light, especially during the last couple of years. It was very heavy. The news was heavy. Everybody was kind of bummed out. So we want to try to bring some joy and frivolity back to the world. So that's what we were trying to give back.
    8:41
    All right, and I guess we could talk generally about how produced you think a podcast ought to be. Anyone want to start with that? Because we're talking about dropping in some stuff, and I think the early days of Classic Pinball Podcast was underproduced, if I may say so. Oh, it was very underproduced. Just a tad. Shoestring budget. Yeah. Any comments on what you're aiming for or what you like in another podcast but doesn't fit for you? I mean, I have a radio background. I know how much work, when you hear those very produced things, I'm talking about Chris Franchi, but he's one of them. When you hear how much time, I know how hard that is. It takes time. If you're listening to an hour worth of podcast, at minimum it took that person two hours to edit it, and that's if they didn't do any sound effects. If you're adding sound effects, let's add, let's double that. It's going to take them four hours to produce that content. So I love it. I will say we farmed ours out to a producer. We actually pay somebody to do that for us because it lets us concentrate on the content. Wow. Because it does take a lot of time, and it's a bit of a bummer sometimes because I'm tired, I've got a regular job that I have to go to.
    9:58
    And we hired a producer, and it's been great. But I feel like you need to strive to be somewhere in the middle. You don't want it to sound too slick because I prefer more of a conversational, like we're just hanging out having a good time um but at the same time like i love when i hear like you know sound effects from a machine or you know kind of just fun fun sounds because it's just it adds to it because it feels you feel like you're in an arcade so yeah it's it's it can be like that when um like jeff is since he comes from radio like i mentioned he's very much he's very anal when it comes to everything has to be as good as possible and you'll see um we're taping an episode Saturday, I think, just his setup of the equipment he has to be able to play. He has his different clips that he plays on the podcast on demand. He can push buttons and stuff like that. It's ridiculous. I can definitely see why, I mean, as being on two podcasts that kind of stopped because editing is so difficult and they didn't have time to do it anymore.
    10:57
    Certainly, like I said, you've got to really love it, or that's a good idea of just farming it out to someone else to do it. But yeah, I can't imagine how much time Franchi puts into the super awesome show with the amount of clips and stuff that they have into there. But Jeff shows, the show that you were on, the Pinball Players podcast, an amazingly produced show. If you go back and listen to Jeff and Joe's show, I love it. The sound effects from the game shows that he would do, the stuff that he would find. I'm like, oh my God, I haven't heard that from this TV show from back in the day. I don't even know where he finds those. I don't know. It's amazing.
    11:36
    Yeah. Yeah, that's good. And what, if you were to go back into it, Joe, what do you think you would do?
    11:51
    I mean, ours isn't technically ended yet because we're going to be, pretty much we just decided at this point that we're going to do an episode every year at Pentastic. Oh, well, we're honored then. Yeah, we should be doing an episode Saturday. And that was really the last episode we did was here in November Is that when the last show was Yeah November And that was so much fun So it pretty much it will come back if Jeff his job is so ridiculously time-consuming that he just doesn't have time.
    12:26
    And that's why he jumped on Super Awesome because he doesn't have to do any editing. And that's the hard part of podcasting. And I definitely understand why it burns out tons of people. I certainly don't think that I would be able to have the time to be able to do what's needed or required especially if you're that if you care that much about the quality like he does like I can't imagine like see that you gotta do it all the way or that's it so as much as I'm like don't worry about it doesn't have to be perfect no no it has to be okay well I guess I would argue for that only to the extent that I would say it is a request that your listeners spend some time you know even if they're driving or doing something functional at the same time you are commanding their attention and i'm a radio guy too so i i would take the position that you should be worthy of their giving you their time by at least not annoying them, you know, take out the mistakes. I think there's been some podcasts have had this situation where they should have had a screen open with IPDB so they can just look up the game and don't, was that the game? You know, that kind of stuff, just as soon as he edited out, when you can't think of the game edit out the part where you're struggling to find it. Once you know what the game is pick up from there. Sometimes though that's kind of endearing because it's like okay these people are mortal they're going to make some mistakes and kind of thing it's kind of gives like a human element to it if you're just kind of like what was that again? You're kind of thinking about it so you're kind of bringing along the people with you. I don't know who's trying to call me. Oh Eric Stone's trying to call me. Oh interesting. Should I pick it up?
    14:28
    Text him, say I'm busy. As an aside, if you go to the Pintastic New England YouTube channel, you can see the prior podcasters panel we had with Jeff Parsons and Jeff Teolis, Sarah Line,
    14:47
    and that would fill in some of the details about some of these podcasts. we certainly had an interesting discussion about the two worlds of pinball and I think right here Lauren I don't know how much you play competitively but certainly these other two guys they are I'm no Joe Lemire I mean like I do all right so the two worlds of pinball are tournament players and everybody else it's true and you would think of Dave O'Neill primarily as a game restorer, so he's often that getting into the mechanics. Although I will say I did make Rising Star up and coming November at the tournament over here. Nice job. I qualified, and all of a sudden, who is this guy? I kind of came out of nowhere. So that was kind of fun.
    15:39
    I won no part of him in a classics tournament. Oh, gosh. I can't wait to play tomorrow because the whole lineup there, pretty much own.
    15:48
    It's not necessarily a good thing. There's a way. It's not going to play as good as your stuff. Oh, I know. It will play a little different maybe, but, you know, at least that's why I don't practice at all. That's why I haven't practiced on my games. That way I know what the game is and what the rules are, but I get to play fresh on someone else's interpretation of the game. So we'll see how it goes.
    16:06
    And the fourth person who was on our prior podcaster panel, Ron Hallett, from Slam Tilt. That certainly brings up the example of facing the burnout question. They were doing too many, and they had to cut back.
    16:23
    And so, Joe, you've seen the burnout question up close. Lauren, do you worry about this is someday it's going to overtake me and I'm going to burn out? It's funny. If you listen to our last episode, we didn't do any episodes in May because we just had a lot of stuff personally going on and in our communities. And, you know, I think especially with COVID and this whole, like, the whole world kind of, you know, went inside the house and did not come out, I think people are more aware of mental health and, like, saying, like, hey, we're going to give you some grace and give you a moment to, like, recoup. But you have to be able to know when you're like, okay, I need a break. And hopefully your listenership, like, will stay with you as long as your break isn't that long. and as long as you communicate with them because we use social media, things like that. But I've seen burnout and you can feel it and then you kind of have to answer that question. So for me, I had done the show for about a year and a half, almost two years, and I knew, I was like, I got to do something. Something needs to change about the show. I love the show, but I need to change it. So that's when I like 2.0'd it and got Rebecca. And I was like, I need a partner. and I did a partner search and ended up, Rebecca and I were friends and she ended up coming and being my co-host for the show and it has revitalized me and the show and the dynamic has totally changed because our show is primarily guest centric. So it was me and a guest. I love all the guests. They're all amazing individuals, but sometimes some guests are a little easier to play tennis with. Like, you know, it's like some guests get nervous and I totally get that, But it's more of like I'm trying to pull stuff out of them, whereas some guests, like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It's very conversational. But when you have a co-host, it makes it easier to kind of carry that and kind of work that out. So burnout is a thing. You have to be aware of it, and you have to be able to pivot, I think. Either change your content maybe or do something different. And having Rebecca as my co-host has kind of just pumped new life into the show. So I really enjoyed it. yeah and it's it all matters really it's the different hosts look at it differently i know that certainly when it happened like martin and jeff were very different with like martin had he wanted like it was a weekly show and he really wanted to do it weekly and then when he really couldn't do it weekly anymore it just kind of was like that's it whereas i was like you know we can just take a break you know we can not it doesn't have to be weekly and well it's supposed It's supposed to be weekly. It's like, okay, well, you know, it's all of, like, what you've been doing for so long of what the frequency is, what the expectations are from the audience.
    19:09
    And, you know, like, same thing, Jeff, we would just take breaks, long breaks between episodes. But then, you know, then it just became the joke that, like, you know, Jeff would just not, like, we weren't doing the podcast anymore. And Franchi was all over Jeff about, like, oh, he doesn't really do a podcast anymore. so you know I mean it was all in fun but I mean I don't I'm sure that that bothered Jeff to some degree because he wanted to do it but just didn't have the time so it was just kind of like but it all like it matters is if how flexible you want to be and if you can if you can just take a break and if I guess your audience is fine with doing that and then once you take the break do you just is it that much like is it better now you're like wow my life's been so much better not having to worry about having to do all this stuff so it's like I can definitely see from both from both directions I imagine that um and you know sometimes you know you put it when you put a lot of work into the stuff and then you know and sometimes you get a lot of negative comments about stuff that I'm sure doesn't help with wanting to continue when you're struggling to put out episodes so well Lauren you have advertisers does that give you a sense of obligation a little bit um we do have um I'm wearing um our advertiser one of them forever the flip um he does custom hoodies but we also have a sponsor, District Cutlery. It's tough because it's like, hey, we love you. Don't leave us. But we got to take a break. And our listeners, along with our sponsors, like what we do. So they've been very flexible, very understanding. But you also do feel a sense of obligation. Like people, and not just to the advertisers, but also to our listeners. Because our listeners, they email us. They text us or they, you know, DM us on Instagram. Well, yeah, is everything okay? Because they become like part of your extended pin family, and they're just, where's the next show? Is everything okay? And, you know, those kind of things. So there is a sense of obligation not only to our listeners but also to our sponsors. So I try to not trig out about it too much, but sometimes it's just like, hey, man, we got to take a break. Like life happens. with ours, with George and I he'll always he's got some time on his hands he takes care of the house, that kind of thing does his projects he's got going on but he's all done working, he's retired I still have my Dr. De's Pimmel restorations that I do I got rid of the corporate life a little while ago but I definitely got that going on bless you so he basically has this thing he has called a sheet he thinks of different things throughout the week writes it all down in talking points and he'll come at me cold. We don't meet ahead of time and talk about things. He just hit me cold with all his ideas and gets my live reaction. And then I'll think of things to actually mess him up as well. We both try to mess each other up and kind of have fun like that.
    21:53
    So then the audience gets to see live reactions from us. Other podcasters listening, you might want to consider trying that if you think you're getting in a rut. And it keeps things fresh. We had a run down.
    22:04
    I get the sense most of the two and three person podcasts I listen to, I think they are plotting out, you know, we're going to talk about this and talk about that. But if they're driven by what the manufacturer just announced, something that is predictable anyway. I mean, that's always kind of fun, like just having a live reaction to something. We definitely have an agenda, like a rundown of like this is, and I know where we need to post that. I was like, if we're not at this segment by 40 after this episode is going to go over an hour, which we try really hard not to have our episodes go over an hour.
    22:44
    But I love the live reaction. Like every once in a while, like, Rebecca, I forgot to tell you about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, oh, and then we'll just talk about it. Those are always the funnest conversations, but at the same time, those are the conversations that can get long-winded because we didn't talk about it ahead of time. So you kind of have to kind of, you know, figure that out. And that's usually our news segment. We have like a small news segment, but it's always fun to get a live reaction. That's what makes radio, just having an instant, something that isn't totally rehearsed. That's why, again, my experience with old-time radio shows, there are a lot of live moments. And so I grew up with that. I cut my teeth on that. And so I kind of like to capture that again. I try to do like a theater of the mind thing too. So I try to spin a good yarn of what I'm thinking about, an old story or whatever from arcade youth or that kind of thing. And so paint a picture for people. Sometimes George says, you know, oh, I want to get in, I want to get in. Sometimes, you know, I'll even say, you know, George, you're stepping on my lines. You're kind of saying, even publicly, I'll say, you're stepping on, say, put your blinker on. You know, give me your blinker. Give me a left turn signal, whatever. But we have fun back and forth. We kind of give each other crap back and forth. And the audience gets to experience that, too. So it's lighthearted. Yeah, no, definitely. And I think that, you know, you have to find the right person to do a show with. Yeah. Because you're not going to gel with everybody. and you need somebody that, like, for me, me and Rebecca were both super high-energy people. And, like, she's my kind of extra, like, if you kind of get what that means. But it's always fun to have that give and take. And, you know, we try not to step on each other too much, but both of us just get so excited about stuff, we're like, oh, my God, oh, my God.
    24:19
    But, you know, sometimes it's hard not to step on the other person. It great when you both excited about the same thing You kind of bring the enthusiasm to the audience loves that too and they feed off that It great That was the big difference between Martin and Jeff is that Jeff hated things going too long and Martin we could just talk forever and we could put on a two-hour episode, and Martin wouldn't care at all. But Jeff was like, no, it's too long. He's just like, no, no, stop it. I can tell. That's a radio thing. You better not go over your 20 seconds. Do not. Once the song hits, you cannot go over. So sometimes I know we'll go over, and Rebecca was like, Lauren's getting upset. I was like, nah.
    24:54
    So it's hard. That brings up a technology question. Are you and Rebecca in the same room, or are you doing this remotely? We do this remotely. We use a specific software that's created for podcasting. It's like Zoom for podcasters. It's called Riverside FM. So Sheila's in Austin. I live in San Antonio. About an hour and a half drive time between the two. And then we also bring in our guests. Same thing. It looks just like a Zoom call. and it's challenging in that way too. Do you have a back channel of communication between yourselves while you're doing this? If we usually text each other, like if there's something going on, like the guests will be talking about something and I'm like, hey, I forgot X, Y, Z and or like, you know, hey, make sure we talk about this and we'll text each other. But we're essentially in a call and sometimes if it's really gone off the rails, we'll just like do a timeout, producer Jen, cut here. We'll just say, hey, we need to like, start this segment over or if we need these, but that's really rare. Usually we can just kind of text each other on the back end. Okay, so, yeah, I was thinking more of the second-to-second thing, like, you know, cut it off already is just in line with what you were saying. Yeah, it's, you know, I mean, we're a little long-winded, but also, you know, that's why having an editor is really nice because I think everything that she and I say is gold. It's like, it's wonderful, but having a third, like, set of ears, it's like, well, that got a little long-winded. Like, you know, we can edit that down, which it's kind of nice having that. Yeah. And, Joe, with Martin, were you doing any kind of back-channel communication to keep each other in line? Yeah, like we'd have a chat open on Facebook or same thing with Jeff.
    26:36
    We used Zencaster. Oh, yeah. It's a web-based. I used Zencaster before, yeah. Which is great, except for the fact that at the end of it you have to let it, a few times, like they have to really explain it to the guests because it doesn't download the file until you're once you're done recording and then you have to sit there and wait for it to do it's like anchor too yeah so a couple people left and be like bye-bye yep they're out there so yeah so you have to um and that was always the fun the funniest thing with both of them is that um because i have um i have a really fast internet connection so mine would be done forever and then like martin would just be sitting and he's like this is ridiculous like how how long everything it was taken and annoyed Jeff too. But yeah, we always had a way to just, also within it, you can type in there as well. So either that system or not. And you can also, there's like a hands-up thing to like say that you want to say something. And Dave, how about you and George? Do you do a back channel? We do, well, we're doing Zoom call. Basically we use Zoom if we're going to not be together. And he's like an hour, almost hour and a half away. But I find that without face-to-face, and also when we do the Zoom call, we never turn our video monitor on we're just doing just like like a phone call you know we just totally do it old school it's kind of but it's fun that way but we find that it's it's better when we're both in the same room so uh it's just because you know we'll step on each other's lines too much so when we're together it's just better camaraderie it's a better vibe it works great uh we feed off each other uh we almost can i don't know i know where he's going with something and I'll just build on it so it's better in person.
    28:13
    But even the software we use is just kind of, it's like, it's Anchor. We'd like to get knowledgeable about, like, you know, some real sound recording software to use and that kind of thing. Get updated, and that would be kind of cool. Because right now, I just did a sound effect the other day. I supply them all with this stuff. I just basically took a sound effect, a mic, and a Bose Bluetooth speaker and played them on top of each other and recorded that as two sounds on top of each other. came out pretty cool but it's totally like you know totally hacked together but it works but it's kind of our show is kind of not really polished like that so people expect it's kind of it's uh i don't know endearing i guess the word you know so it works though the guy who does these top quality pinball restorations and you want to have this rough edged uh not quite polished Yeah, okay. Fair. Fair point.
    29:07
    But I'm not, you know, put it this way. If I was producing and editing, okay. Because I actually do get on George for that. It's like, George, I really think we should do policy. Nope, I just finished it. I'm doing it this way. And I say, okay. You know what? This is your piece of it. I don't have time to do it anyway. So I'm doing the things. You do that piece. I'll just do my thing here. Try to bring the funny, bring the tech. And I'm okay with it. And our audience, we get good feedback from one of our number one fans, this guy named Grant in Australia. He's, like, always emailing up the show. He's always saying, oh, that was a great show. Always, like, just attaboy all the time. When we don't do it for a couple weeks, sometimes it's the last time we didn't do it for a month, he's like, I missed your show. Put your show back on. I want your show. Come on, guys. So he's cheering us on all the time. So it's that kind of show. It doesn't really need to be highly overproduced and polished. You might lose something by doing that. So I don't know. So far, so good the way we're doing it. Yeah. Well, Lauren, I hope you take this as a cue to maybe try doing one show in the same room with Rebecca.
    30:15
    Where you could gesture to each other. Well, the software is like a Zoom call. So we can see each other. We use the video. So we can see each other. Most people do. We don't. I was just like, wow, you don't use the video. But that's an issue. If you don't have the video, you can't. There's no facial cues.
    30:32
    I'm very expressive. If you haven't been able to tell, what I am thinking and feeling is written on my face. So she can see I'm going too long or like, oh, let's not go there. But there is magic. There is magic recording live together. I know this, but this is the next best thing that we have. Also, because we're a guest-driven show, we always have to have that technology because we have guests from all over the world. So it works. Although we don't normally tell, we try to warn our guests like, hey, we're going to be able to see you. But the first thing they say, you're not recording this, are you? And I'm like, no one will see what you look like. It's okay. It's just for us. But our guests always freak out like, wait, wait, I thought this was a podcast. They're in their pajamas. Yeah, they're in their PJs, you know, hairs, like whatever. And I'm like, it's fine. It's just for us to see each other. The in-person episodes are always the best. Yeah. This will be our third Pentastic. episode, I think, and it's always my favorite. My favorite episode. We just drag people in, drag our friends in to talk and everything like that.
    31:37
    And we were just talking before we went on. Rebecca and I were hitting our 100th episode and we're like, maybe we should do one live 4th of July weekend because that's going to be about the time it hits. So maybe we will do something live. It'll be totally fun. No pressure. No pressure. I just said something. It's going to be awkward if we don't do it. No one's recording this. No. You're going to do your post-pintastic wrap-up? Yes, we're going to be out there recording interviews and bits in here and talking about the show. That's kind of what we like to do is go and get all these mini interviews and kind of splice them together and do a recap that way. Well, we try to have our podcaster table. We heard. We're very excited about it. But I don't know where it went to. We will go find it. We have a specially shaped table. Yeah, it's interesting, though. You're trying to bring the pinball culture,
    32:33
    and I think tomorrow's session with Lauren and Rebecca will get more into this. You've got to do a lot with your voices. It's about art. It's about playing techniques. It's about certain devices on the play field. so you've set a big challenge compared to other topics that a podcast could cover that there's so much there that and some of the parts that in other podcasts that really and drag for me is when people just sort of are talking about oh i like that game and they name a shot and again i might be driving and you know i don't want to be doing too much picturing of particular play field devices in my mind while I'm driving. So keeping more to just the general excitement or talking about things that they can follow, of course, the tournament standings and something like that. If you don't talk too much about and then he had a particular shot and that won the game for him or something like that. And it's interesting also, because in the 1990s, the principal way of conveying the culture I think with zines like this is one of the most prominent pinball zines multi ball went for 22 issues some were small some were big like this this these issues have a 45 rpm record included in every issue so that's why I like it as a record guy pin game journal pin game journal and Mr. Pinhead Classified. That was a great one. Pinhead Classified. That was a woman. Woman, yes. Yeah. So Kelty Alta Mueller. Yes. From Tulsa, Oklahoma did about 25 issues of Pinhead Classified. And then there were other zines that, you know, like Silver Knight, I think did four issues or something. So there's, but these guys really got a lot of momentum, got very slick. and they were starting from a point of, you know, we don't want to talk to factory people, we just talk to random players, we run into it, arcades and stuff. There were a lot of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts people involved in the founding of this, so I got in with them early.
    35:09
    Is there something more? Is there a new future? Like we got some streamers in the room here that might say, why are you doing this audio only thing?
    35:22
    What's the upside? I feel like there's just, it's a big old buffet, kind of what you like. Podcasting has exponentially grown over the last decade. I mean, anybody, you can Google that if that's statistically true. I feel podcasting, this is Lauren's opinion, it's a lot more personal. um it's a lot to me it's a lot more engaging it's that whole aspect of theater of the mind you're painting a picture and to me it just feels a lot more personal um I love streaming though like I watch streaming all the time uh Rebecca streams on Twitch with uh her partner Jordan uh Fliptronic they I it's there's a little something for everybody but I feel to to me podcasting is a much more personal medium like I feel like when I when I imagine when you're doing the podcast, there's like, who's your, who are you talking to? And in radio, they're like, you're supposed to be talking to a listener. I just kind of think of it as like, like this, we're sitting at a table and our podcast is like, okay, we're sitting at a table just talking with our friends about pinball. What is that like? And I just feel that's a little, it's a lot more engaging to me, me personally, but also with other mediums like Twitch and streaming that you see them working that chat hard because you want to have that engagement And I think that that how they create that there but for us it already built in because people understand radio and that medium has been around for a really long time and for me streaming is a lot more difficult at least for me personally not only is there quite a big barrier to entry when it comes to costs which stupidly we put in the money to get a streaming rig and then realize that we don't have the time to use it so we have a really nice rig but But the person I streamed with isn't really around much.
    37:13
    People always hear it like it's really weird to hear from people like I don't play pinball by myself, generally speaking.
    37:20
    I tend to, like I have a house full of pinball machines and they just sit there unless there's someone there to really play with me. Because I don't, to me, pinball is a social thing that I do, you know, to be social with other people. So I don't. Hence, Pintastic. Yeah, exactly. This is, you know, one of my favorite things to do every year because I just, I don't know, just playing by myself, it's like, it's just not as fun as playing with other people, and I feel like that's also another reason why we don't stream because most of the time it's just me, and, you know, people give me tons of crap. I'm like, well, why don't you just play by yourself? I'm like, I don't want to. It's just like, oh, it's not as interesting. I'd rather go, you know, I'd rather do other things. So it's, plus having to move it to different games, and at least the layout of our house, it's a pain in the butt. But, yeah, I find that podcasting is more personal. And, you know, you're talking with other people that you're like-minded with that you can just – it seems a lot more natural versus if you're streaming. You're just constantly trying to find someone in the chat to talk about, to talk with. And sometimes there's just no one's talking. So it's like, well, I'll just talk to myself, I guess.
    38:27
    And, Dave, you talked about the old radio aspect. So you have something there. I like that. And I also like having a podcast, having audio only. You can actually engage your mind listening to that. But for me, I'm always in my tech area working on pinball machines, restoring things. So I can be doing that, engaging my mind, restoring things, and listening at the same time. If I'm watching something, you're totally engaged with watching it. You can't really get anything else done. So I try to multitask. And same thing if you're driving, you shouldn't be watching anyone out there. You should not be watching your Twitch stuff or whatever. Public service announcement. No, no, no, all podcast stuff.
    39:05
    But that being said, I do have my thing of live streaming. I do a YouTube channel. I have a Dr. Dave's Pinball Restoration YouTube channel where I do all my restrooms that I've done, I've finished, I actually put out there how they play, what I've done to them. So that's my live streaming kind of thing on YouTube. Well, so let's follow up with this idea then. do any of you want to identify a podcast about pinball that has one person, where the one person talking keeps you interested?
    39:41
    Because there are so many, which is two people or three people. So there's definitely, from this small sample size. I am going to say one of my favorites is Mrs. Pin. she is a personality she's just full of life and I do enjoy her energy but it's tough it is tough I specifically did not want to do that kind of podcast because you're out there by yourself just doing that but she creates magic with her podcast but that is an incredibly difficult thing to do you even need Christians on with her now yeah I was going to say he does a lot of it I think all the people who try to do it single just realize that it's just kind of – Well, there is that one guy, the Canada guy, right? There is. We can understand that. You know what? Never listen. Love him or hate him, he has an opinion, and people listen. I mean, it is what it is. He's sort of the Howard Stern of pinball, right? Love him, hate him kind of thing? Yeah, that's what it's like. The thing, people feel very passionately one way or another about him. And his show is popular, and it was popular enough to put behind a paywall. So, you know, good luck to him. Wait, you can make money doing this? Yes. That's the rumor. That's what I've heard.
    41:02
    All right. Well, tune in tomorrow for the tips. Anyone in the audience want to pull this in a particular direction? Any comments there? You like what you're hearing? You want to ask anything?
    41:16
    Okay. So Derek's coming around, our audiovisual team leader. And by the way, this Pintastic episode here, the seventh Pintastic, is a super audio-visual showcase. So that's another reason you might want to come down to see the greatest aggregation of AV equipment ever applied to any pinball show. Right, Derek?
    41:40
    Okay, it's working awesome. Joe, are you still looking for hoops? So I assume that this had to do with the fact that Bruce just messaged me about hoops as well. Yeah, because he's watching me.
    41:54
    Yes, I am. Again, I'm in line for a local hoops once it gets sold. But then again, that didn't work out the last time. Right, Bruce? So, yes, I am. Yep. Now it makes sense. Yeah.
    42:09
    This is stuff of legend like Dayhuff's quest for an electromechanical Charlie's Angels. Yes, forever and ever. That was like in the online RGP world. that was an ongoing thing for years. So you can make that into a storyline unto itself. A subplot.
    42:30
    Yeah. Do you guys have continuing subplots of updates on some controversy or thing that's happening to you? Well, the last one, there's always something spicy. I wouldn't want to say spicy, but there's the endless saga of Lorne trying to find a Night Moves. night moves would be like my hoops or like you know it is the cocktail table it's ridiculous I love it it's just so bad that it's good it jumped the shark but the latest thing was I found out that Rebecca had a seen amount of unread email notifications and it became a thing like we had listeners from all over write in and tell me about the tens of thousands of email notifications on their phone and I cried on the inside because I am like I have a zero email box rule and I thought Rebecca did too and I found out she did not and I'm like, I don't know if you can share my inbox anymore. But it's like, it's funny stuff. I don't know where the email is. She thought you were deleting the email. She thought I just deleted everything. I read them all. I wonder why you have no time. I put them in folders. I was like, Rebecca, they're in folders. But it recreated this whole subplot for like four or five episodes. If you can edit tomorrow's presentation, you should put in something about things to establish with your podcasting partner. Compare notes about the lifestyles. Email styles. Yeah, so you know.
    43:54
    I had a beautiful Caribbean cruise you could have had. It's kind of a sister game. I know, it's very similar.
    44:02
    Okay, so plot lines? Continuing? Continuing saga. Yeah, I'd say the Rush LE I bought. My first new in box game ever. I'm a big Rush fan that has ramps it does have ramps it certainly does it's very weird yeah it's not very strange very out of character for me I know and people are going to believe what I bought it's like well I'm a Rush fan I'm going to give this a shot and you know great game and I you know pony of the dollar for it you know and I put about another thousand dollars worth of mods and toys and went all I'm going to go and do this whole full thing in and go crazy in the game in fact so crazy they didn't really get to play the game much, and were so busy working on the game and fixing its quirks and putting all the stuff in, putting a couple subwoofers on it, and it sounds fantastic. It shakes the room. But after a while, after a couple months, they go, you know, I'd really rather play a Ballyhocus Pocus right now. So, yeah, so that's... And so George kept calling it my dollhouse, because I put dolls in there and so forth, and they're action figures, darn it. All right, I see another question coming in from a ringer. Mr. Fliptronic, do you have a question? Yeah, so we're all obviously here because of pinball. Is there maybe another hobby that if you had the chance to podcast about, what would it be?
    45:29
    I know for our last podcast panel, that would have been drinking. For me, it would probably be board gaming.
    45:37
    Board gaming? Amusement are roller coasters because I'm a coaster enthusiast as well. Oh, that's cool. But I have like a few. Cedar Point. Cedar Point, man. Yep. But I own like 200 board games, so that's my other main hobby. Yeah.
    45:51
    Roller coasters is another one that's very, it's got that visual component. How are you going to bring that across? Or are you going to take your phone with you and record while you ride? Dwight has actually designed a board game. In fact, nobody knows that. That's why me and him are like best friends. I've tried to get him here. They won't let him come here. It's very sad. But yeah. Boyd Sullivan, pinball designer. Designed board games first. That's awesome. What a cool fact. I know. I love that. Yep. Oh my, pinball takes up so much of my time. Like I wish I had other hobbies.
    46:28
    It takes up so much of my time. Because I run Bell's along with, like a Bell's chapter along with doing all of my competitive stuff and the podcast and everything else. Probably my biggest hobby, if you were going to call it that, is baking. I love to cook and bake. Cooking podcasts are kind of hard because you really got to go theater of the mind for that one. It's hard to do a cooking podcast, but it would probably be on baking in particular.
    46:55
    For me, I'd live, breathe, and eat pinball. I can't think of doing other podcasts besides that. No, I got nothing. Okay. Well, let's... I know it was a stretch. I was like, baking?
    47:10
    I'm sure there are podcasts for that, because it's a podcast for everything. It's a podcast for everything. There is a pod... Whatever you are into, like somebody has made a podcast for it. Maybe there's only like three episodes, but there is a podcast out there for you. Makes sense.
    47:23
    Look at how many pinball podcasts there are. Like, it's, you know... Yeah, we'll be able to do a lot of these panels, even, you know, trying to have different podcasts represented every time. so all of you podcasters out there listening to this one or watching this on YouTube contact me for future podcaster panels here at Pintastic New England any parting shots final remarks this was a lot of fun it was a great opportunity and the biggest thing I can depending on who watches this if you want to do a podcast do it get started I think there's always this idea that it has to be perfect you'll get to perfect don't listen to your first couple episodes they'll make you sad just get started whatever you're into whether it be pinball or whatever and this is for anything but particularly for podcasting just do it and don't listen to the first couple episodes ever again alright anyone else last remarks alright so we did end on time yay tournament radio style All right. Off to the tournament and all the other exciting things going on at Pintastic New England. And our seminar program resumes Friday morning, 9.30 a.m. Eastern with Eric Stone. Thanks, everybody.
    48:42
    Thank you.