The decision some months ago by local media company Production 63, to concentrate on producing programmes on-line has proven to be a great success.The shift from live events to on-line podcasting came about in light of the economic downturn. The company is headed by broadcaster Ger Sweeney who explains “people are being very cautious about what they spend their money on and we could see that live events were suffering. The whole area of podcasting is really taking off globally at present so with my broadcasting experience it was appropriate to see where we could position ourselves”.
The recent podcasts published on www.production63.com include interviews with some of the Mayors in Co. Clare who chat about their communities, memories of Christmas and their hopes for the coming year. Ennis, Kilkee and Shannon are featured and others are planned but schedules have delayed these coming on stream. Those logging on can find interviews with local people such as singer Vincent Di Placido who released his debut CD recently, Eoin O Neill who is known in music and broadcasting circles and singer/songwriter Mike Hanrahan introduces a beautiful song he wrote some years ago about clerical child abuse.
Other programmes include an interview with the incoming Director of the Ennis and Clare branch of the Samaritans as the Festive season is their busiest time of the year and a chat with Dave Marra from the Wine Buff about wine by way of helping people to understand it a little better. There’s an interview with an American author who has just published a book about the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and a series of Top 30’s by way of offering a wide range of listening options.
The company’s website is now home to almost 30 programmes of which many are Clare related. Podcasting allows a presenter great freedom and choice in relation to content and duration. It also means that at once the podcast is published it’s there to be accessed on numerous occasions and by anyone with a computer. Ger comments “our aim is to produce programmes that are different but have a definite Clare flavour. This is an encouragement for local people to log on and have a listen but it also allows those living abroad to be a part of the happenings at home”.
There are plans for additional programmes before Christmas and into the New Year since the reaction has been so favourable to date. The newest programme is titled “The Sound of Ennis” which is an audio presentation of the various sounds that are commonly heard around Ennis over the Christmas period. Ger concludes, “I’m very proud to be living and working in Clare and I’m keen to promote the county and the happenings here in a positive way. These programmes are designed to let us hear about some aspects of life in Clare, particularly at this time of the year. If nothing else it might give us all a much needed boost and bring a little bit of the Banner County to Clare natives across the world. We’re always anxious to have new content for the site so if anyone has anything of interest we can be contacted at info@production63.com.
For more see www.production63.com
