The Unknown Studio

We’ve been talking up the new format of the show a lot over the last couple of weeks. And as Scott and I put some finishing touches on the new episode, we have to admit something to you: the release of S02E01 will be delayed until later this week.

We’d like to borrow a page from the book of Nate Box, who only opened his elm café when he was satisfied that it was ready. We demand the exact same satisfaction on your behalf, fifties of listeners/readers.

When we’re ready with the new episode later on this week, there will be much fanfare. In the meantime, cozy up to a few outtakes from the Back to the Future movies:

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This post marks the last installment in our birthday celebration series. We think after this, we’ll have done enough navel-gazing to last us for, oh, I don’t know, about another year. Until we hit S03E01. In this post, we speculate on the future of the show and its place in this fair city. And, because they’ll form a big part of our plans for the next year, we’ll also talk a little bit about our friends from the League of Extraordinary Media (LEM). Thanks for reading this week, and stay tuned for our season premiere next week!

Doctor Emmett Brown conceived of a method of time travel when he hit his head on a toilet bowl while trying to hang a clock in his washroom. The Unknown Studio’s genesis is no less riveting, but it really involves drinking beer from a toilet, not bumping one’s head on it.

But we’ve discussed the past all week long. What of this triumphant future we continually espouse? A few things:

• This website was only the start — or rather, the natural progression of the Unknown Studio. We have plans to create some pretty cool video with the help of our friends at LEM.
• Since YEGSwap was such a rousing success, we’re looking at doing more events this year. Perhaps even all regular-like.
• The show itself will change — this we’ve already mentioned. But it will still focus on the goings-on in Edmonton.
• I will continue to swear, because I enjoy the sound of curse words (which means some of our listeners will need to put the kids to bed before tuning in).
• Thanks to the sponsorship dollars we have coming in (we LOVE Guru Digital Arts College and Traveling Tickle Trunk for their support and love), we’ll be able to do more timely, diverse things with the show.
• No one shot JR; it was all a dream.

One of the major points of beginning this podcast was to help citizens of Edmonton shed the notion that there isn’t anything interesting taking place in this city. And while I’m the first to admit that sometimes I feel bored, there are resources out there to help you make the most of Edmonton. This is one of them. So is theEdmontonian.com and TrueBritl.com. Mack Male created ShareEdmonton to show that very thing.

Two years ago, I was hell bent on leaving this place. Despite the fact that I was born and raised here, I didn’t feel like I had a personal stake in the city. This show has changed all that. There are thousands of cool people and cool things happening in old Why Ee Gee all the time.

The future? The future is about sharing that with you all. I hope you’ll continue to count yourselves among our 50s of listeners and readers. This city may not have been built on rock n’ roll, but there’s enough rockers and rollers here that the fortunes of Edmonton have taken a turn and will continue to take a turn for the better. And we want to be part of those fortunes.

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The Unknown Studio turns one this week. Today, in fact! A few of the articles we’ve published this week are celebrating this fact, with a look back on what we’ve accomplished over the year. Today’s installment is all about the podcast.

Yes, friends, today marks our official first birthday. The Unknown Studio turns one today — sometime later this afternoon to be precisely. And though we’ve already done a bit of a summary of the last year, using data from the ever-popular Fast Fifteen, I thought I’d get into a few more details about the show’s successes.

As we’ve explained before, this whole concept started at a tweet-up. It was all downhill from there. We started the show using the LibSyn podcasting service — which served us very well for a time… But eventually we wanted to host everything ourselves, with our own website, theme and all. That’s what you’re looking at right now.

But the consistent piece throughout our one-year history has always been the podcast. And while we started out our first six or so episodes with an average per-episode download rate of about 150, we’ve since grown… Read the rest of this entry »

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The Unknown Studio turns one this week (June 23). A few of the articles we’re publishing this week will commemorate our birthday, with a look back on what we’ve accomplished over the year. Today’s installment includes another look at the Fast 15 (check out the previous post here). In particular, we dive into some of the more interesting or peculiar responses we’ve had to a few of our questions.

In our first installment of our TUS retrospective, we gave you some very deep and thoughtful pie charts that detail the splits in responses to some of our Fast Fifteen questions. Some questions, however, yield such unusual results that they simply defy the concept of pie charts.

These are their stories. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16% [?]

The Unknown Studio turns one this week (June 23). A few of the articles we’re publishing this week will commemorate our birthday, with a look back on what we’ve accomplished over the year. Today’s installment includes a look at the Fast 15, a concept hatched during our second show as a way to “break up” the long-form interview with some quick-hit questions.

Into the second episode of the podcast, which was a long discussion about the city with councilor Don Iveson, Scott and I were already trying to think of ways to mix things up — to change the slow in small ways to make it much more interesting. At the beginning of Don’s interview I started scribbling into my notebook a series of really simple and fast questions we could ask Don to cap off the interview. I came up with the name Fast Fifteen, as the intention is for our guests to more or less blast through the list.

This almost never happens. Read the rest of this entry »

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Back in February, which seems like ages ago at this point, Scott and I were hemming and hawing about what kind of guest to have on the show. We wanted someone interesting and somewhat edgy, who wasn’t going to talk about love and all the silly mushy stuff. Because who wants to hear that on V-day, amiright?

Thanks to a tip from listener and Unknown Studio girlfriend (mine!) Rachel, we asked Brenda Kerber from The Traveling Tickle Trunk if she was willing to be on the show to talk about sex toys and the sex parties she helps organize. The show was great (you can listen to it here), and we started talking back then about maybe embarking upon a sponsorship arrangement.

I’m pleased to announce that, after some discussions, back-room negotiations, and fights to the death, the Unknown Studio has a new sponsor in one of Edmonton’s truly great, community-building businesses: Brenda Kerber’s Traveling Tickle Trunk! Read the rest of this entry »

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