I
often get asked by my friends, what’s a Podcast? What do you do on this Podcast
of yours? How does it work? What’s it for? So let me start at the beginning of
my own journey.
I
joined Twitter in the January of 2012. I can’t believe it’s only been 18 months,
but I was told by a close friend that I had to join and that I would love the
football banter. I wasn’t sure considering I wasn’t very technical, but thought
I should have a look. I did, and for some reason, I’ve over 4,000 followers, unbelievable!
I
won’t go into too much detail as you probably know everything there is to know about
me, but just in case you don’t, this is a short summary. Born an Arsenal fan to
an Arsenal mad father, who I love dearly, went to my first match around the
early 70’s, seen everything there is to see with our great club, season ticket
holder at Highbury (which I still miss dearly) and now the Emirates etc. But my
most special night was at Anfield on 26th May 1989.
I
now Tweet and chat to the most fantastic people who I would never have met
without Twitter. Along the way, I was asked by a Tweeter to write a blog about
being there for that special night at Anfield. I thought – me and write? My
first reaction was – Don’t be silly. I’ve never done anything like that before.
But then I thought, why not? So I gave it a go and it went down a storm. I was
so shocked that my day and night at Anfield would interest anyone but it seemed
to.
I
then got approached by a wonderful man called Steve Bald. He wanted to set up a
podcast with female Arsenal fans and asked if I would like to appear on it. I
actually laughed and said, ‘Really? Me? How will this all work? Will anyone
want to listen to my dulcet tones going on about the club I love?’ Surely not I
thought.
We
started early January this year, but we don’t actually meet. It’s all done via
Skype. Just imagine listening to a radio programme, that’s what a podcast is. We
started with lots of different team mates and for various reasons the team
changed. By early March we had a team that consisted of three girls and one
guy. I am now going to introduce them to you, they’re not just my friends
they’re my family! I have a Pod husband and two fabulous Pod daughters!
Let’s
start with my podcast hubby, Gareth.
Gareth
and I got talking on Twitter about our beloved club back in February. I thought
he would be a great guest on our pod, so I asked him if he would like to guest
and he said he would love too. He arranged a date to come on for a chat and
never left, he was that good. He and I are married! Well in the podcast world
we are, and we have two wonderful pod daughters. Let’s start with one of them,
her name is….Kate.
Kate
is our podcast host and a very good one at that. She was picked with me way
back when and we’ve not left each other’s side since. Steve had been our
original host but he had to leave unfortunately for personal reasons, and in
stepped Kate. She has a calming influence on all of us and is very well
respected. A lot of twitter followers like the way she deals with all of us and
she loves our club too.
Kay.
Kay
joined us as a guest in mid- February. I thought she was great straight
away. Kay is a great girl with a great
knowledge of the game, very passionate and forthright. That’s what we all love
about her.
So
that’s our team. I wouldn’t want to be without them. Everyone brings something
different to the table and our listeners definitely have their favourites. As I
always say it’s ‘Horses for courses’.
We
often ask our followers for their weekly questions. All of us try to answer in
our own way with our own opinions and some of the times we will disagree. But isn’t
that what football’s all about? Opinions?
We
will cover any Arsenal related topics, and we just chat like any other fans. Obviously
the same topics come up regularly – transfers, lack of signings, lack of
silverware, cost of tickets, cost of merchandise and even the cost of the food
at the ground! We have started to have Twitter guests on the pod, and again,
they bring something different to the conversation, which is always nice to
hear. We’ve also had a couple of ex-players on and they always bring some interesting
stories with them. We all like to hear those stories, don’t we?
When
we finish our chat, it has to be edited and sent up to iTunes and our website. Of
course, I have nothing to do with this. My wonderful pod hubby does that. He
also puts in some great music at the end and a title which is normally quite
humorous. Our pod normally lasts around
an hour, but trust me, off air, we talk for much much longer – some of the chat
could and would never be aired! Once it’s produced and ready to go, the team
will Tweet it and put it on our Facebook page. We then await the feedback.
So,
there we go, our little podcast that started with a few girls chatting about
AFC has now turned into a popular listen and it seems to be go down really well
with the male fans as well as the female ones. I hope this has given you some
insight into what we do and how it’s produced.
If
you’re interested in listening, then you can go to our website which is www.goonergirlspodcast.co.uk.
If you are on Twitter and would like to follow us, we can be found at the
following:
Amanda
: @Goonergirl1969
Gareth:
@Gareth_Stringer
Kate:
@GoonergirlKate
Kay:
@Ladycaramelldn
Remember
: Keep the Faith and Always Arsenal.
Amanda
Born and brought up in Mumbai, India. An eternally optimistic and fiercely loyal Gooner Girl for life. Bachelors and Masters degrees in Creative Writing (with Media Studies) from Edge Hill University, England. Passionate about words, sports, music, tv, movies, travel and art. Columnist, editor, writer and guest writer for many online publications on different topics.
Anushree has three published short stories, including one on Amazon: “L’Effet De Papillon“. She is working on her first novel.
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