« Previous (Podcast Review: The Overnightscape) | Main | Next (Podcast Review: HOT Radio) »

February 10, 2005

Podcast Review: The Skinny on Sports

This entry posted in: 4 stars , I do not subscribe , Podcast Review

Skinny on Sports - Podcast - skinnyonsports.com

Format: talk show
Content: sports talk
Rating: 4 stars
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 10 minutes

Andy and Matt Skinn are podcasting a good, compact volume of sports talk once a week (usually Sundays) for all the sports interested podcatchers out there in podcast-land.

If you're a regular reader of the site, or have looked at the back posts, you're probably aware that I'm not much on sports. Don't watch 'em, don't really pay that much attention to them. But I've long been surprized that sports podcasts aren't a lot more popular, given the fairly common shared interest in various sports not just in North America but seemingly world-wide. However, I do see that that's changing; while the iPodder.org : Podcasts directory only lists 7 or so, SportPodcasts.com lists around 30. That's great news for you sport fans, I think.

Back to Andy and Matt's podcast. The guys have a good format put together. They've broken each episode into 4 quarters and an overtime, dividing the 'cast into 5 roughly equal-length segments, each about a different sports topic. Their topics often involve recent games and/or predictions for upcoming ones, but they often also discuss the intersection of sports and society (issues such as women playing men's sports or steroids in Major League Baseball). They've also had a few interviews and seem likely to have more. They have fairly insightful things to say about all these subjects and seem knowledgeable about the sports side of things (I'll have to defer that decision to the more sports-knowledgeable among you since I hardly know the difference between a full court press and an offside pass). Their sports "obsessions" are dealt with in a fairly level-headed manner, which is refreshing.

The style of the podcast is likewise refreshing and easy to listen to; it has the feel of a couple of guys having a conversation at the water cooler (which I suppose it largely is, minus the water cooler). While in their interview at Podcast Alley they comment that they think they've gotten more comfortable since the first podcast, they were pretty comfortable to begin with and now they sound highly professional, with nary a stutter or hesitation to be heard. The audio balance between the musical bed and intro / outro music and their vocals is satisfactory. I would say, however, that while the use of the quarter-buzzer as a device to delineate between segments is effective and fitting, it's fairly loud and often obscures part of their commentary. While I'm sure it serves to keep them on target time-wise (because they are very conscious of their self-imposed 10 minute limit) they might be better served by playing it only when they're truly done with the commentary in any one section. File- and track-naming is satisfactory - while the track name doesn't contain the full podcast name they are consistent in using the name of the podcast for the artist tag, so the data is easily available.

All in all, if you like sports you're likely to enjoy The Skinny on Sports

Subscribe to mp3s.

Tagged:

Posted by cori at February 10, 2005 12:23 AM