podcast fanatic

The Statistics
What’s it Called? Upon Further Review
What is the show’s website? http://www.furtherreview.net/
When was the first episode produced? June 2006
How long is the average episode? Around 30 minutes
How often is an episode released? Once a week

The Review
Having hung round in podcasting communities for a while I’ve picked up on the fact that podcasting is not the easiest thing in the world to do. There are technical difficulties and money problems and listeners being fickle and competition and a whole host of other issues. I speak from personal experience when I say that reviewing things isn’t a walk in the park either. Straddling the line between providing an actual opinion and being reasonably objective can be fraught with hidden dangers. Upon Further Review combines the difficult arts of podcasting and reviewing.

New Yorkers Greg and Clea review three items each week. Review subjects are an eclectic mix and have included an animal shelter, a brand of water bottle, books, websites, movies, the US Open, department stores, computer games, the new Billy Joel CD set and, the only standard item included each episode, podcasts. The hosts spend a couple of minutes describing the item, playing audio clips where possible, and the remainder of the review discussing in some detail the features they like and don’t like about the subject before providing a rating out of 10. The discussions also generally include information about what the hosts believe could be improved about the subject to increase the rating.

It’s always evident that Greg and Clea have a sound knowledge or experience of whatever they’re reviewing: combined with the fact they’re both intelligent and articulate this provides for an entertaining half-hour of audio in addition to well-informed opinions about the subjects.

Greg and Clea have wide ranging interests and consequently will review just about anything one or other of them is interested in. I can appreciate that this helps keep them from getting bored with their podcast and undoubtedly helps attract a wide audience to try out the show but, as no one will share all of the hosts’ interests, the wide range will also put some listeners off sticking around for the long term. Some listeners will have a relatively low level of tolerance for content of no relevance to them and to be mindful of that the show should stick to subjects that the majority of their listeners (and potential listeners) could reasonably be expected to either be interested in or have access to. Alternatively, if the hosts really want to review everything they could release special-interest episodes which would allow their listeners to more easily select what segments they wish to listen to.

The show’s blog has good show notes with comments functionality which is, as yet, under-utilised. As with lots of podcasts the blog format is limiting in that content is only able to be arranged chronologically and this is a show that would benefit from being able to access blog articles by subject. Time stamped show notes would be an awesome addition.

The Rating
Will stay subscribed and, almost always, listen right through

Reviewer: Bernadette
Date review first published: 24 September 2006