TheForce.Net Starts Podcast
(source: TheForce.Net, 04-07-05)

In what has definitely come as a surprise move, TheForce.Net has now begun its own "podcast" (a downloadable or subscribable fan-made radio show), hosted by a gentleman named Erik.

The first episode was released yesterday and runs for just under 15 minutes (14:56). The stated intent for the show is recap recent TFN news, discuss one feature topic per show, and include an "End-of-Episode Commentary" (similar to those on, for example, ChronoRadio or Star Wars and Beyond). The feel of the show is more of an audio blog, more akin to the news segment(s) of Star Wars en Direct than, say, Requiem of the Outcast. The two things that are most notable here are the release schedule (3 - 4 times per week) and the fact that the show will not contain spoilers at all.

The show is handled well. It's a one-man show, sans any guests. It is certainly more news-oriented than most news magazine style shows that exist in fan audio already. If you're into Star Wars and would rather catch your news as audio rather than bouncing to different websites to pick up news listings, this should be a good way to keep up with things. You can check out the news byte (with a download link on it) at the link below.

Now, this new podcast comes as a surprise, owing to TFN's past with fan audio. In the past, TFN's fan audio interaction has been almost exclusively the domain of TFN Fan Films, which was formed after the merging of TFN Theater with Jeff Yankey's FanFilms.com. Early on, TFN Fan Films hosted Jedi Talk's fan audio parody series, Stormtrooper Bob, as AIF files. They also picked up Digital Llama Radio (then Digital Llama 2.0) for 13 new episodes (two being 2-parters) after DLR's initial non-TFN run of five episodes. The DLR/DL2 shows are still officially hosted at TFN. Stormtrooper Bob, though, was removed from TFN by request of the Jedi Talk team back in September 2003. (The team may release a higher-quality file version of Bob in the future somewhere else.)

TFN Fan Films also, for a time, allowed fan audio discussion on their message board (which, by the way, is where much of the casting for Second Strike was done). They also included fan audio teasers, such as that for Rise of Nobility. Shortly after the release of Second Strike, a short time before the release of Rise of Nobility, though, TFN essentially backed off from fan audio. The discussion on fan audio was moved from the high-traffic fan films board to a (so far) low-traffic fan audio board and TFN Fan Films officially decided that they would not be hosting fan audio projects (outside of DLR/DL2, which was, of course "grandfathered in" by then). Intead, they'd focus on fan films, both from Star Wars and other franchises.

Since then, fan audio coverage has been very low-key at TFN. Star Wars en Direct is promoted via news bytes on their HoloNet (misc. news) section (and, luckily for all of us, SWD's own Sebastien Mineau is the moderator for the fan audio board, making it a good, if small, place to congregate). Interviews with authors sometimes put ChronoRadio or Requiem of the Outcast on the radar of their Books section. TFN Fan Films, though, after objections to factual (confirmed by TFN's own Josh Griffen via phone) comments made in ChronoRadio #10, effectively banned any ChronoRadio news bytes (or, presumably, any Rayzur's Edge Audio news bytes) from TFN Fan Films. Further news bytes about Requiem of the Outcast, among several other programs, seem to have been completely ignored, despite frequent communications from fan audio community members like Rich Sigfrit.

Thus, to see TFN now taking what appears to be an interest in Star Wars fan audio again is both an encouraging and somewhat confusing sign. We can only hope that the podcast continues to grow and brings more new fans into the fan audio genre.

Congratulations on a nice first podcast, Erik. Best of luck to you in bringing a new spark of fan audio to TFN.