LVW Column: Digital Vegas

Here's this week's Weekly column, using the success of the Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza to make the point about the lack of podcasts coming out of the MSM in Vegas.

Digital Vegas: Podcasts need to be portable to be relevant

By STEVE FRIESS

Even for me, even with all that I say and write and do to evangelize the cause of digital media in this city, it was a stunning, perplexing, delightful moment.

My husband and The Strip Podcast co-host Miles Smith was similarly surprised. He arrived a little late, and, looking around the room, he asked me, “Are all these people here for this? Are you sure they’re not just hanging out here because they saw the lights were on?”

No, they were all there for “this.” And, in doing so, they proved something I’ve been insisting for three years now: Vegas enthusiasts and media consumers in general are thirsty for quality digital content by providers who respect them. They also want to be able to listen to, read or watch it wherever and whenever they want. And when these people find it, they’ll go to the ends of the Earth to support it.

The “this” that Miles referred to was the first-ever Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza, which he and I participated in on Saturday before an impressive crowd at the Palms. We performed a half-hour version of our weekly celebrity-interview show after a live half-hour version of Five Hundy By Midnight, a tourist-centric weekly show hosted by Minneapolis couple and Vegas obsessives Tim and Michele Dressen. And after us came The Vegas Gang, a twice-monthly program in which a panel of five gaming-industry experts mull business news.

None of us knew quite what to expect, and nervous “I hope people come” text messages flew between us on Saturday morning seeking mutual reassurance. We got a bit of a late start promoting the thing because the idea only occurred to Vegas Gang moderator Hunter Hillegas, owner of RateVegas.com, around Father’s Day, and details were only nailed down around the Fourth of July. We timed it to occur during the New Media Expo, the year’s largest podcaster convention, because Tim and Michele were attending that, and we figured that fellow podcasters, at least, would show up to support the effort.

But it didn’t go like that. There were a couple of folks from the conference, but then there was the couple from Oklahoma City who planned an impromptu vacation around it. There were the folks from Miami who gave away tickets to the 6 p.m. Mamma Mia! to come see us instead. And there was the guy from Southern California who flew in and out that night. Not to mention the countless folks who watched the proceedings via the streaming Internet video provided at VegasTripping.com by owner Chuck Monster, another Vegas Gang panelist.

I don’t mean to merely prattle on about this to brag about our success. But our impressive attendance underscored that I’ve been right all along. Each of the producers of the three shows at the Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza knew the sizes of our audiences, and we knew from e-mails, blog posts and voice messages that our listeners are quite engaged. Still, it was a mental twist to see so many of them in the flesh.

Why it is taking so long for Las Vegas’ mainstream media to figure out that the future is in content that can be consumed whenever and wherever the user wishes is baffling.

Read the rest HERE

Palooza Pix and Stuff

It was a crazy, wild, fantastically exciting experience and even for me, a challenge to put into words. Thanks go out to the Palms and my podcaster colleagues as well as to Vegas.Com, Huntington Press and the LVCVA for the donated swag we gave away.

And since I've really got to tear out of here, I figured for the moment, I'd leave y'all with photos and such to peruse. Anyone out there who has more and/or better images, please send them to me?

Sparky of Las Vegas shot some great photos, including the one above, and they can be found here. This one below is my favorite, representing how I get, uh, animated. This is from the Q-and-A after the three shows did their thing, so that's Hunter Hillegas from RateVegas.Com to the left (whom I affectionately liken to a pre-suicidal Owen Wilson), Tim and Michele Dressen of Five Hundy By Midnight, and then me and Miles.


Hunter has more than 100 images that can be found here.

Also, Sparky took some video but the only part that came out was the Vegas Gang's panel discussion with George Maloof. You can watch that here or on the image below. It's about 20 minutes long. I know that Hunter will post the audio of this discussion, which may be of better quality because it'll be coming direct from the sound board, soon.


We have video and audio of "The Strip" and the Q-and-A and I'll be finding ways to get that up and into our feed in coming days. Right now I've gotta run. Bill Clinton is speaking in Vegas tonight and I've gotta figure out what I need to do about it.

Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza, Here We Come!

Hunter Hillegas of RateVegas.Com had the idea and now it's about to be a reality! Miles and I, Tim and Michele Dressen and Hunter and his ragtag group of merry Sin City commentators will be converging on The Palms from 4-6ish p.m. on Aug. 16 for the first Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza.

Each of us - The Strip, Five Hundy By Midnight and the Vegas Gang will perform an abbreviated version (30-35 min apiece) of our programs in front of a live audience! The event is timed to coincide with the year's biggest podcast convention, the New Media Expo, which will be in Vegas for the first time from Aug. 14-16. Click here for all the details.

Well, maybe not all just yet. There's more to come. Miles and I will be conducting a live interview with a celebrity and we haven't secured who that might be just yet. There's also efforts afoot to produce a high-profile visitor to the Vegas Gang's chat and we're working on giving away prize packs for the lucky winner drawn during each show just to sweeten the pot.

Anyhow, mark your calendars!

Do The VegasTripping Folks Smoke CRACK?

WOW. So I was having a pretty difficult Sunday, having gotten the call that my uncle, struggling with pancreatic cancer in New York for 18 months, finally succumbed and not being able to do anything but focus on the flooding in Fernley, Nev., so I could file this piece for the Times and then fly back to Vegas to see "Love" at 7 pm for a story I'm working on.

Then, in the midst of all that, I start seeing emails and text messages congratulating me and/or asking if I'd noticed that the fine folks at VegasTripping.Com had done this:


And this, too:


That's NUTS. And a great, great honor. You can read about the Person of the Year thing and the Best Blog write-up at those links or check out all the Trippies winners here.

A few other Trippies outcome observations:

* Readers voted The Bellagio both best overall and worst "swanky place." Odd.

* There's a great deal of hate spewed from the Trippies editors at all things Venetian. Worst overall, worst "swanky joint," worst value, worst rooms, worst nightclub (Tao), most overrated, Then, randomly, the Venetian get editors' pick for best room service.

* On the other hand, there's a ton of hate from readers for Circus Circus, from worst grind joint to worse eats to worst carpet.

* The editors are uniformly down on Vegas gambling in general, giving a "they all suck" to table games, slots and casino. I may need to dig deeper on that in the Weekly.

* The Deuce got editors' pick for best place to get laid. But they don't 'splain!!!

* Congrats to Tim & Michelle at Five Hundy for taking the best podcast categories, VegasTodayandTomorrow.Com for reader-voted best site and RateVegas.Com's iPhone edition for editor-selected best site. The reader-selected LeavingLV.Net for best blog was an inspired choice and evidence that, even in this saturated age of Vegas media, there's still room for an innovation to fill a niche.

Congrats and thanks to all!

Some Podcasts You Should Hear

It's that I find a new podcast to love because I barely have time for the ones I already listen to regularly.

That said, I'm now hooked on Wings For Wheels, a superb twice-monthly half-hour musician interview show by Dave Lifton, who has as hosty an NPRish voice and manner as I've heard on a non-NPR podcast. He's a listener of "The Strip," and I always give our listeners' shows a shot, but what's impressive is that he really doesn't go all-out music geek to the point that non-music geeks like me feel out of place. Lifton is also one of the only other independent podcasters like us who lands real made-for-podcast interviews with celebrities. I loved hearing from Michael Penn again, I found the chat with Chris Isaak's drummer fascinating and, of course, his and Five Hundy's Tim Dressen's rundown of great Vegas music on Episode 8 (how could it not have been Ep 7, Dave?) made me walk my dogs around the block five times so I could finish. Subscribe to iTunes here or visit the site here.

I also unearthed Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam's podcast, "Alex Beam Reads His Hate Mail." It's only once a month for about 20 minutes, but it's one of the most creative uses of the medium by the mainstream media I've seen thus far. Subscribe to it on iTunes here or visit the site here.

Meanwhile, it's World Series of Poker season in Vegas and poker podcasting pioneer Phil Gordon is back for the third year, this time he's essentially a Very Special Guest for a daily podcast of between 4 and 20 minutes length called the Expert Insight WSOP Podcast. It gives the quick highlights, interviews and some analysis. BUT -- what non-poker fans will be most fascinated by is not all the poker jargon but Gordon's chronicle as he psyches himself up before an event, analyzes his play midstream and then, at least thus far, explains why he lost. It makes this vaunted tournament far more human when a respected pro can sound excited, hopeful, exhausted, dejected and anxious as he moves from event to event. It should only get more intriguing as the Main Event, the $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament, begins on July 6. Subscribe to it via iTunes here or visit the site here.


Finally, I didn't mention it at the time, but I sub-hosted for Rob on Podcast411 again interviewing Heather of Rubyfruit Radio on Episode 204. She does a lovely podcast playing all female-sung indy music, largely of the Indigo Girls variety. Hear that here or right-click here and download it to your computer. Subscribe to Rubyfruit Radio via iTunes here or visit the site here.

Happy Listening!

Boned!

As we discussed on the show this week, I was triumphant in a close game versus Tim Dressen of the "Five Hundy By Midnight" podcast on a new podcast quiz show called "Boned." The episode is now up for your listening pleasure by going here. You can also find it through iTunes, of course.

My interview with Five Hundy!

Just in case you don't get enough of either MY voice or that of Tim and Michelle from Five Hundy By Midnight podcast, here's the Elvis-meets-Sinatra moment you've all been waiting for.

I interviewed Tim and Michelle as a guest host for Rob Walch, brilliant maestro of Podcast411.Com, who now has a job that doesn't allow him to do as many as he used to. I also interviewed Heather Smith from Rubyfruit Radio, and that show will go up in a few weeks, I gather.

Anyhow, listen to me pretend to be Rob interviewing Tim and Michelle. For those of you unaware, Rob interviews other podcasters about their shows, their technical set-ups and their advice for others. Tim and Michelle were terrific guests. Afterward, they even emailed me an egregious WHHSH violation that I've yet to post but will do so soon.