Quote ="sally cinnamon"RD's critique is totally correct. Given the time and effort the hosts are putting in, they may as well produce a good product as churn out something cringey.
As someone who has to navigate the commute to work in London and runs a lot, I consume a lot of podcasts, and you see a huge variety in quality. A good podcast can beat other forms of media - for politics and NFL I much prefer listening to the podcasts I subscribe to than the mainstream news which is soundbite-dominated. In a 40 to 60 min podcast you can get a level of interesting discussion that you just don't get from other media sources. But a lot of podcasts just fall flat. Other than issues around set up (poor sound quality is an immediate killer) the single biggest turn off to me is when the presenters spend time trying to be funny (especially with cringey humour), chatting about their personal lives, side jokes and whatever. The listener has downloaded the podcast to listen to someone discussing the topic of interest, not to hear about the hosts.
There are some really good football podcasts: my current two favourites are Nessun Dorma (90s football) and These Football Times. They are nostalgia podcasts talking about previous seasons, teams and players which is right up my street but they cut out the side talk and have some really interesting discussion with different viewpoints added. Another good fan-led podcast from another sport is Mile High Report (Denver Broncos), the hosts cut out any attempts to make themselves the focus of the show, they aren't trying to be controversial or have hot takes but offer interesting viewpoints that are worth listening to.'"
Can an opinion be "totally correct"?
RD and yourself obviously have your own views on what constitutes a good sports podcast, but that just means that this pod isn't for either of you. I'm sure there are satarical takes on football and NFL that you avoid for the same reason but that doesn't mean they dont have their place.
I assume that the name and style of the pod came from the unofficial match day programme which i remember being sold outside Wilderspool back in the day which also took a satarical view on The Wire. In that sense the pod is true to its roots.
I don't get the impression that for a podcast focusing on a single team, they stuggle for subscribers, hence I can't see the format changing and RD shouldn't get upset about his feedback not being taken onboard.
It does raise an interesting point about whether there is a gap in the market for weekly fan pod on The Wire without a focus on satire.
