Podcasts were an obscure practice a couple of years ago, but now, the narrative has completely switched. There are many podcasts out there, but there are some shows in the Boise area that have gained traction. The Takeover Sports, The GameChat Podcast, and Blue Turf Sports are ones to mention.
The Takeover Sports
The Takeover Sports, hosted by Boise State graduate Ryan Sieckert, talks about all professional sports but puts his own twist on it.
Sieckert does sports trivia and games like “guess the team logo” with his guests to loosen things up and make for an entertaining listening experience for his audience.
Sieckert has been hosting his show for two and a half years, which all started in the Pulse Radio fishbowl recording studio. Now, he has 394 followers on Instagram and 41 subscribers on Youtube.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Sieckert
With so many podcasts for listeners to choose from, Sieckert said he wanted to create a show that is entertaining for both his guests and listeners.
“My goal is to every single person I have brought on to leave and come back. And that’s my goal,” Sieckert said. “But what we’ve done is we’ve incorporated so many different ways of making more people watch, and every single review [left by listeners] that I’ve had has been awesome, and I’m so blessed.”
Sieckert mentions how creating a podcast is a big-time commitment, but he is persistent in his ability to hook new listeners in.
“We’re full of creativity, satire, sports, facts, information, stuff you didn’t know … things that can make you interact with us, and you can come on the show and talk with us,” Sieckert said. “The way we can bounce off each other, we flow well. There’s not a lot of dead air. There are no weird transitions — it’s all natural.”
This podcast is straying away from the normal formula and creating its own path, which gives listeners a new listening experience.
GameChat Podcast
The GameChat Podcast is hosted by four current Boise State students, where they talk about NFL, Fantasy Football, NBA, MLB and all other professional sports.
Jack Morgan, a senior business student, who is one of the hosts, speaks about how this podcast happened naturally in the spur of the moment.
“We would just talk about sports every night, or just as we’re watching it and I was like, man, it’d kind of be fun to put this out and let people hear it,” Morgan said. “We recorded the first episode, and it was way easier than I thought and it was a lot of fun, then we kept going from there.”
Morgan continues by mentioning some of his favorite moments since doing this show.
“I interviewed the TV announcer for the Seattle Mariners, so that was really cool. I’d grown up listening to him forever,” Morgan said. “We also do what is called a restart draft. It’s basically just what if the NFL restarted and had a draft where all the players were in free agency, and they were drafted to a new team.”
Morgan wants a variety of topics on his show that allows for interesting talking points but also wants to engage the audience by asking questions and polls on their Instagram page.
One of Morgan’s co-hosts, junior civil engineering major Eli Loudenback, talks about how being a part of the show has been a learning experience.
“I’ve honestly learned a lot about other sports that I’ve never really watched,” Loudenback said. “Then one of the more interesting things I think I’ve taken away is kind of digging deeper into how teams deal with the salary cap and how contracts and things like that work.”
Loudenback, while he has learned a lot, mentions how this show is meant for casual sports fans.
“Whether you’re a casual sports fan or a serious sports fan [listening] to our podcast, I think it is a lot like being in a conversation with a bunch of guys just talking about sports,” Loundeback said. “You might learn something or you might want to get involved in the conversation and we have a lot of chats with people in our Instagram DMs.”
The GameChat Podcast has been gaining a following with its casualness and audience interaction, which were the keys to success for Morgan and Loundeback.
Blue Turf Sports
Blue Turf Sports.com hosts a podcast called “Bronco Report,” which is hosted by Boise State beat writer B.J. Rains and KTIK radio host John Mallory. They discuss all sports associated with Boise State, but this podcast mostly focuses on football and men’s basketball.
“Bronco Legends” is another podcast Blue Turf does, which is where they talk to former Boise State coaches, players and administrators. Most recently, they had Grant Hedrick, backup for Kellen Moore and would go on to lead the Broncos to the Fiesta Bowl championship.
Podcasts have been popular and there are various options for listeners, but these are a few in the Boise area.
