Hi, my name is Sean Steffen, and I am a relative newcomer to the Galaxy media world. As I begin to forge my own path as a Galaxy journalist, I thought it wise to sit down and pick the brains of some of the field’s biggest figures to help me better understand my own role in this topsy-turvy new media landscape. It is a series I am titling “Galaxy Media Profiles”. For my first installment, I sat down with Josh Guesman, Producer and Co-Host of the ever popular Corner of the Galaxy podcast.
Sean: Tell me a little about yourself and how you got your start in sports journalism.
JG: I think my start came comes like a lot of people in sports. I was a fan of the LA Galaxy. I attended my first game in 2007 (not because of David Beckham, but because my Sunday league soccer team said they were going to a game). The Galaxy were playing the Houston Dynamo and ended up losing by a bunch, but it didn’t matter. I was hooked. I immediately went out and got season tickets. So I started following the team on the internet and talking with my best friend about the team. Then I started writing my thoughts and opinions out in a blog (a very bad version, and as you’ll learn, I’m a horrible writer). Pretty soon i was asked if I could come on as a guest on a podcast called “Around the League” to be the 2nd LA Galaxy fan reporter. After a couple months of doing that, someone approached Jared DuBois (my co-host) and asked if he could do a weekly LA Galaxy podcast. I had no idea what I was doing, but I wrote some show notes, and we started recording. I did the editing although it was rough, and the rest is history. That’s how our first show got got started, and that’s what has led me down a path to being a commentator on the Galaxy. Make no mistake about it — I don’t consider myself a reporter because I am far too biased. I am a Galaxy fan. But I also believe I am very honest about what I see and what happens on the field. My access to the players is a necessary part of that because we always want the best content. And you can’t have the best content unless you’re interacting with the team directly.
Sean: For those who don’t know, what is Corner of the Galaxy?
JG: That’s a fun question to answer. It used to be a weekly internet radio show (podcast) that covered the LA Galaxy with discussion and fan interaction. But really, after realizing there is very little in the way of Independent MLS/LA Galaxy coverage, we’ve become a Multi Weekly Internet Radio Show and a place for LA Galaxy Articles, News, Analysis and Opinion. We have two regular Podcasts a week Corner of the Galaxy and CoG: From the Box and a special interview arm, CoG: Short Corner. I work with three co-Hosts on our radio shows– Jared DuBois, Cory Ritzau and Adam Serrano. In addition, I have three very good (and most of them professional) writers. They’re the ones creating the content for our website (www.cornerofthegalaxy.com). We are independent and completely volunteer based. No one gets paid by anyone. Any fundraisers we’ve done have only helped to invest in equipment or website hosting. But, of course, we’re always looking for a sponsor.
Sean: What were the main reasons for starting Corner of the Galaxy?
JG: It started as a fun side project and from someone looking to add content to his startup soccer broadcasting group. That startup is the North American Soccer Network (NASN.tv), but it went through a couple iterations before it became NASN.tv. But after starting it, we realized there isn’t a place for discussion about the LA Galaxy. And that is what we strive to do– create independent discussion through high quality programming. We want this to be a place of information but also a place for fans to talk about their team. We have a voicemail people can call into, and we have email and twitter and everything else we can get onto. You can ask any question at anytime, and we do our best to answer those questions the best we can. It’s as interactive as we can make it right now. We’d love to do it live, and we’d love to do some live video, but that’s just a bit more down the road.
Sean: Can you walk me through the steps of producing an episode?
JG: This is always fun. For CoG: From the Box, it usually starts with trying to coordinate a guest to come on and discuss topics with Adam Serrano and me. That usually has to happen five or more days in advance, but sometimes it happens way later than that. We strive to involve as much of the media as we can. We try to get new guests every week, but we have our favorites and some people just will never be available on a Monday night. Then Adam and I usually kick around some topics to discuss. Once a topic is decided on, I produce show notes for that show. Show notes for both regularly produced shows are about the same. I write intros for the very first segment you hear. Those vary from 30 seconds long to 90 seconds long. In the case of MLS Cup previews, they are around two minutes or so. Then I write questions for the guests, facts about the topic I’m talking about, background information on our guests, and any other stuff I want to make sure to include in the show. I schedule times for the co-hosts and the guests to call in or Skype in. Now we’re finally ready to record. Most of the prep work takes a couple of hours for each show, sometimes more if there are more guests or a player interview. I also need to gather any player audio that I’m using for that show and coordinate with the LA Galaxy and/or Time Warner Cable for goal calls if we’re using those. It’s a lot of emailing and a lot of coordination.
Now we’re ready to record. We use Skype to record all of our shows, whether that involves someone calling into our show via a telephone or it means that someone uses a good microphone and top quality equipment to “Skype-in.” Usually whomever I am working with sees the show notes, and we have a brief discussion and rundown about things we want to cover. We always have to keep it brief, otherwise we might talk about actual show topics before the show. I’m responsible for timing and recording as well as connecting with our guest. Recording takes anywhere between 30 – 90 minutes. We record like we are live, which means if we screw up, we fix it live. We don’t re-record segments trying to make them perfect. We like that we aren’t perfect.
After recording, I take those files and go into GarageBand. This is where I add music, player audio, game audio, previously recorded interviews and everything else that is outside of the base recording. Depending on the show, editing can take between 45 minutes to 2 hours. It just depends on what multimedia is being added to that episode.
Once the final cut of the show is done, I have to upload it to the NASN.tv FTP site where the head of NASN.tv, Trevor Heyward, gets it ready for distribution. He takes my 100% complete file and gets it to our iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and NASN.tv website and SoundCloud for distribution the following day.
Sean: How many people are involved? How much behind the scene work goes into each episode?
JG: I produce and edit everything. My co-hosts alway have input on the show notes, but those are my responsibility. But between PR for the team and interacting with guests, there are a lot of moving parts. Usually at least 4 people per episode are involved in getting the show to the listeners. And you can see by the steps above, there is a ton of behind the scenes work. And that doesn’t even count Home Games where I attend and arrive at the stadium at least two hours early to read game notes and find out information on lineups and then live tweet much of the game with my insights and then go down to the post game press conferences and locker room to get audio. Hours and hours of behinds the scenes work goes on like this for every single episode.
Sean: How many listeners do you average per episode? Was Corner of the Galaxy an instant success, or have you had to build your listener base little by little?
JG: Our listenership numbers average about 40,000 per month, maybe around 5-8 thousand per episode, but obviously some episodes really work, and some don’t. Our MLS Cup Preview for the 2012 cup was downloaded and listened to over 12,000 times at a point in our broadcasts where 3,000 was a good number. So it all varies. And we’ve had to gain listeners 1 or 2 at a time. Our first show was listened to by ten people. Eight of those people were probably me.
Sean: I have noticed you guys are very active on twitter in terms of interacting with your listeners. How important has social media been in terms of building your brand?
JG: Social media, especially twitter, is the only reason we’re here. If it weren’t for a dedicated twitter fan base, we could have never started this thing. Now that we have a larger footprint, twitter isn’t our main driver, but it’s still where we get to interact with fans. I want the opinions, and I like it when people disagree with me. I try to be very, very honest about what I see. And when I’m wrong, which happens a lot, it’s good to know people will remind me about it.
Sean: How much has the media landscape changed since you began your career in sports journalism?
JG: I can honestly say I’ve seen how the internet and twitter have changed things — some of it good, some of it bad. Anyone can be a reporter now. That’s a good thing. I love the differing viewpoints of every single person. It adds to the collective opinion. But I’ve also seen very talented writers not be able to survive because people won’t pay for quality content. We obviously benefit from the ability of anyone to get their opinions out, but we also have an eye on sponsorships so that we can start returning some of the time investment all the great people who work with me have dedicated to making this a success.
Sean: For a journalist like Ives Galarcep, it would be seen as improper to openly support one MLS team over the others; however, when it comes to journalists who cover a single team, the opposite seems to be true. I mean, people would find it kind of weird if the hosts of Corner of the Galaxy weren’t Galaxy fans. Given this difference, what do you see as the role of team specific sports journalism as compared to guys who cover the league more generally? I think it’s fair to say you know more about the Galaxy than someone like Ives, but would you say this familiarity comes at the expense of at least a partial hometown bias?
JG: Well, first of all, Ives always seems to know everything, and he’s very good at what he does. But of course we had to be Galaxy fans. We have to comment on the team, and it helps when you’re invested in the outcome. We want to pass along our passion for the sport and our team, so we always have to step back and say “How biased is biased?” With all of that being said, sometimes the people most passionate about their team are also the ones who can be the most critical. I swing wildly between trying to stay levelheaded and letting whichever player who screwed up on Saturday have it because I want points. And for me it’s been a real learning process. Once we were established enough to hold LA Galaxy press credentials it was tough having regular interactions with the players and still criticizing them. I once apologized to Mike Magee for being so tough on him on some of the shows. And he told me that I was doing my job. It was my job to criticize and to point out defects in what I was seeing. And once I realized that, as a commentator, it’s my job to call it like I see it and how I feel it, things went better for me. But I do see the players as real people, so I am always cognizant of that fact. I always try to inform, entertain and criticize – in that order. Don’t make your primary goal in life to criticize. Give the facts, make them fun and let people draw their own conclusions. But eventually, even a fan has to vent and call what they see on the field.
Read More as we discuss aspects of LA Galaxy
You can follow Josh on twitter at @jguesman and catch Corner of the Galaxy.
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