Martin: To be able to renew everything, we need the phone number and email of the podcast creator and he’s not willing to help us at all. I’ve been fearing this for a while since I don’t have the information for GoDaddy, where the site is set up. Libby and I inherited the podcast and took it over. We’ve basically kept it going since in 2015 and, since we can’t release content through GemCityPodcast.com, it felt like the time to end it.
Ballengee: We were already planning to end the podcast soon. We don’t want to quit podcasting, but we both felt it was time to make some changes. The way our founders set us up, we couldn’t expand to Spotify and different platforms. We couldn’t monetize it. There were several reasons it was time to take a break, change platforms and re-evaluate frequency. There’s a lot to figure out.
Martin: I became friends with a lot of people through the podcast. That’s what’s most important. There are so many people in the area working to bring art and positivity to the community. Interviewing them changed me. It cemented my love for the city, which had waned as a young man. Growing up, I felt like the city abused me in a lot of ways. As a grown man, I’ve invested my time and energy into shining a light on what’s going on in the city.
Ballengee: With the podcast, I became more like a grassroots journalist. I’ve been evolving because I’ve been having these honest one-on-one conversations about things going on in Dayton with people I wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to talk to.
Martin: I’m definitely not done podcasting. I still love it and feel the urge to do it, but I’ve wanted to do something fresh for a while instead of somebody else’s thing we took over. We may end up doing it under a different name but, right now, I’m focusing on myself. I’m off the market the rest of 2020. This is a hard year for everybody so I’m going to get centered and figure out what the future holds.
Contact contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donthrasher100@gmail.com.
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