Thinking about being a part of the GaragePunk.com Podcast? Good! The more, the merrier. We have a pretty full schedule of shows right now, but vacancies do come up from time to time, so it’s entirely possible that we can squeeze a new show on periodically. Just don’t expect us to post your show immediately if you submit one. Be patient and we may eventually get to it. Please read on…

First and foremost, it really helps if you fully understand exactly what podcasting is before you decide you want to produce a show. The Wikipedia entry on podcasting is a great source of info. If you haven’t read it, please do. A little edumacation never hurt nobody…

If you’re unfamiliar with the basic how-to’s on creating a podcast show, please take a few minutes to read the Beginner’s Guide to Podcast Creation. This tutorial will give you all of the information you should need in getting started. Further information, tips, and resources can be found in the podcast forum at Podcast Alley.

We also highly recommend using a program called Audacity for recording your shows on a computer. Audacity isn’t the best, but it definitely is the cheapest solution—especially for someone just starting out or experimenting—since it’s FREE. You can import audio into Audacity and cut and paste it into other tracks and mix them, turn them backwards, process them, add soundbytes and FX, etc. It is also available for both Mac and PC. Another highly recommended program is PodProducer (although it is strictly for PCs). If you’re a Mac user, and you’ve got GarageBand, you’re in luck because it comes with excellent podcasting tools built right in and is easy and fun to use. Fuckin’ A!

Of course, if you want to do everything live and not have to edit anything—probably the most fun way of doing it (for the listener as well as the podcaster)—you’ll need a slightly more complicated setup. There are complicated ways of routing sound from one program to another on your computer, but the easiest thing to do is to get an external mixer, a microphone, a turntable, tape deck, mp3 player, CD player, live band or whatever you want to use and plug it all into the mixer, run it into your computer, and start recording. So you would be mixing everything “live” on the mixer and just recording a single signal in Audacity or whatever you are recording to.

Here are a few guidelines for submitting shows:

1) All shows should be recorded as MP3 files. Please make sure your podcast show is ripped with the following specs before submitting:

1. Bit rate: 80 kbps
2. Channels: Mono (not stereo!)
3. Sample rate: 44.100 kHz
4. Max file size/show length: ~35mb/1 Hour

The general rule of thumb is to try and keep your file size down to around 30mb. It’s important to remember that doing your show in mono sounds WAY better when ripped at 80 kbps than stereo at the same rate. That’s because 80 kbps mono is equivalent to 160 kbps stereo. Yep, it’s true! And besides, this is primitive rock’n'roll, not Yngwie Malmsteen, or Korn, or Huey Lewis, or Celine Dion, or… you get the idea. Just like your old ’60s garage 45s, the mono ones sound better, anyway.

2) If you are already a DJ at a radio station (commercial, public, college, whatever) we must ask that you please do NOT submit shows that were done live over the air or pre-recorded for that station. Doing so would require explicit written permission from the station for redistribution (since that station actually owns the rights to that production), and it’s just something we don’t want to mess with. Plus, we’re trying to encourage people to produce shows specifically for our network, not just take something produced elsewhere to share with us (the only exception being if the show includes a rare live band performance, such as the Gories playing live on CITR in 1989 which we recently podcast). Doing so would be like WFMU rebroadcasting a show from another station, like Little Steven’s Underground Garage or something. It doesn’t make sense. They’ve got their own programmers to do shows for them, right? So do we. So please submit unique shows that you produce specifically for GaragePunk.com only.

3) Show producers are given 100% control over what sort of show they want to do as long as it falls under this whole “primitive rock’n'roll” umbrella. Sorry, we’re not looking for metal or generic alternative rock shows. So try to stick to the garage-type stuff and related genres (surf, psych, freakbeat, greasy R&B, old rockabilly, proto-punk, power pop, surf, swamp rock, etc.). All of our podcasters signed up with Blip.tv when they joined, and that is where the show files are hosted, therefore each podcaster had to agree to Blip’s Terms of Service regarding content and copyright. You will need to do the same. You are also free to use any music that you can find listed on the Podsafe Music Network, just please make sure it fits in with what we’re trying to do here, namely garage rock and garage punk (and related styles as listed above). Also, all shows must be approved for inclusion on the blog before they will be posted. Usually this will be done by me (kopper).

4) During your announcement breaks, instead of giving a radio station’s call letters (like most DJs do on normal broadcast radio stations), give the name of the podcast network: GaragePunk.com Podcast. This can be done simply as “You’re listening to [Show Name Here] on the GaragePunk Podcast network.” (You don’t need to include “dot com” if you don’t want to.) Please try to mention that at some point during each announcement break, if possible. Also, please include as much relevant information about each song as you can, such as band name, song/album titles, record label, and, if possible, you can also occasionally give out website URLs for bands or labels so people can find out more. Hell, tell a story about the band, too, if ya want. Web URLs don’t have to be given for every song played, obviously, but once or twice during a show would be cool, and I’m sure the bands and labels will love you for it.

5) You can make your shows whatever length you want, but the ideal length of a podcast show is around 60 minutes. The maximum length should be no longer than 90 minutes. The MP3 files can therefore range from around 15mb for a short, 30-minute podcast to 30 or 40mb for longer shows. Also, it’s very important that you embed your MP3 file with the appropriate ID3 tags for your show prior to uploading it to Blip.tv. This is so the correct information displays when your file is played on an MP3 player such as an iPod. With no ID3 tags embedded in the file, nothing will display. Make sense? Please follow these guidelines for doing this (doing this is easy if you have iTunes):

• Name: Your show name and episode number (i.e., My Stupid Podcast #1)
• Artist: Our network name: GaragePunk.com or GaragePunk Podcast
• Album: The name of your show (i.e., My Stupid Podcast)
• Composer: Your Name (i.e., Joe Blow)
• Comments: Write a very brief description of the show and where to go to get more information (i.e., www.garagepunk.com).
• Artwork: Please embed a square piece of “album art” here (such as your show or episode logo/image) – sized aprox. 300 x 300 pixels.

6) Since we have a full schedule right now, don’t go too crazy recording a ton of shows for us. We have 10 or 11 “A-Team” shows that post every three weeks, and another 8 or 9 that are done less frequently, like once a month or so (the “B-Team”). If you’re new to our roster, try to stick to about one show per month, and hopefully we’ll be able to post them all for ya.

7) After your show is posted, please try to remember to revisit the blog occasionally to check and see if anyone’s left comments about your show(s) so you can respond if ya want.

8) Also please include the following information in email format sent with EACH podcast:

1. Show name
2. Name of host (please include your GaragePunk.com Hideout profile link)
3. A short (100 words or less) description of the show that might include the styles of music featured, theme (if any), specific artists, etc.
4. Playlist (please include artist/title/record label info)

9) Another thing we recommend show producers do is to tie in specific topics (bands, labels, movies, jokes or other discussion threads) that come up on the Hideout’s Discussion Forum into your shows. This isn’t required, but we think it would be cool to keep some kind of dynamic between the Hideout and the Podcast. It also helps encourage a sense of community that be conveyed thru the podcasts.

10) Try to remember to embed your MP3 files with the title of your show (under “Name”), the name of the network that’s hosting it (GaragePunk Podcast, which would go under “Artist”), your name (under “Composer”), a short description (under “Comments”), and your show’s “album art.” All of this stuff can be easily added to your show file from within iTunes (highlight the show in your library, then click on “File” > “Get Info” and then click on the “Info” tab in the window that appears on the screen.

Ready to submit a show? Great! Now what? Well, first, you need to join Blip.tv if you haven’t already. It’s also smart for you to read over and agree to their Terms of Use and Copyright Policy while you’re at it (those are there to protect Blip from copyright infringement which may occur by people including copyrighted material on their shows, IF someone decides to complain, demand that the copyrighted material be removed, or, in extreme cases threaten legal action [NOT very likely]). After that, you’ll just login there, go to your Dashboard and upload your show file (don’t forget the description!). Then send an email and either include your Blip login info (un/pw), or send along the permalink to the show page or MP3 file (which you can get from your Blip account for that specific episode under the “Share” tab). If everything appears to be cool, you’ll be notified when the show will most likely post on the site. Please upload static MP3s only, DO NOT upload MP4s, Realplayer files, WMAs, or streaming MP3s (no streaming media at all). Just simple MP3s with all appropriate ID3 tags as noted above. If you have ANY questions about ANY of this, feel free to ask. We’d be happy to help. Thanks!