Channel Erk

History

Posted by Erk on June 13, 2009 with 1 Comment


The Beginning

The Channel Erk story starts long before Channel Erk even existed. In May 2007, Erk thought he would be trying this “podcasting” thing that he’d heard about. It intially started as Erk Pod but mainly as a way to talk about the Australian version of the reality TV series Big Brother. That show had the imaginative title of “Erk to the Diary Room”.

Erk Pod starts in earnest

After Big Brother finished for 2007, I was addicted to this podcasting caper. Obviously though, I couldn’t talk about a TV show that had finished for the year. I’d then worked the “Erk Pod” format similar to what it is today. In December 2007, Erk Pod gained a co-host in the form of my friend Drue.

Daily Erk?

2008 was a big year for Erk Pod. In addition to Erk Pod, Erk attempted a daily podcast called “Erk Pod Mini.” Rather than a weekly show of roughly an hour, Erk decided to supplement this with a daily 5 minute (or so) show. This was very handy in terms of audio editing and production in particular. Apart from a couple of days where Erk had hard drive failure, Erk Pod Mini lasted for5 months. During this time, Erk Pod was re-titled “Erk Pod Maxi” to highlight the difference between the two shows. Once Erk Pod Mini ended, Erk Pod Maxi gradually returned to it’s former name.

Erk Pod Round Table

Also during 2008, Erk decided to try live podcasting in the form of  a “Erk Pod Round Table”. At the end of each month, Erk gathered some people together either in the studio & on Skype. This grew from a tech based hour long show into a multi-hour show with audio and video. It was during this  time that many great conversations and friendships developed. Erk Pod Round Tables were held at the end of each month for each month in 2008. Erk put the concept on hold for the first half of 2009.

Erk back in the Diary Room

If that wasn’t enough, Big Brother returned to the TV screens so “Erk to the Diary Room” returned with Erk, Drue and Ben hosting. BB08 turned out to be the final season of Australian Big Brother so that is the end of the “Erk to the Diary Room” concept.

Nannapoopoo

Towards the end of the year, there was a challenge called National Podcasting Post Month. Like the writing version (National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo), the aim was to produce daily content for the month of November. Because Erk had already had 5 months of experience with “Erk Pod Mini”, he thought that he’d invite co-host Drue and regular guests Orange Tim and Squeak to produce daily shows as well for November under the Erk Pod banner. Erk produced “Echo Romeo Kilo”, Drue produced “Da Novemba Advencha”, Orange Tim produced “Despatches From Agent Orange” & Squeak produced “A Podcast For November”. Da Novemba Advencha & Despatches From Agent Orange have continued beyond November and are now hosted separately from Erk Pod.

Echo Romeo Kilo beyond Nannapoopoo

Echo Romeo Kilo started as a daily show for NaPodPoMo which featured on-the-job recordings as well as (mostly) daily interviews. After the end of November, it became a semi-regular “ambient noise” podcast recorded on various locations.

Erk goes to the dark side?

Fast forward into 2009 and Erk decided to start a music show that he called Erk FM. I had access to various music and played some music during the Erk Pod Round Tables. I decided to use the music and do a weekly music podcast as well. Since starting Erk FM, I’ve been exposed to a wider range of audience members. Also, I am now a member of the Association of Music Podcasting.

Erk’s Mum joins in

In February 2009, Erk’s mum Judy caught the podcasting bug and joined forces with Erk in a show called “Blast From The Past” where we look at social and family history and compare it to the current day. It is often referred to as the “back in my day….” podcast.

Channel Erk is born

It was around this time where the Channel Erk concept was born. The actual decision to come to use the name Channel Erk came to mind in the shower. Also, podcaster and journalist John C Dvorak was continually mentioning his “Channel Dvorak” on shows such as Cranky Geeks and TWiT so I thought that was a good idea. So the name Channel Erk and www.channelerk.com was born with all of the Erk podcast related activity accessible in the one spot. But because of the way the podcasts and the sites have grown, there were different sites on different servers for different shows. Fast forwarding to May 2009, Erk decided that he needed to fix this situation hence all 4 podcasts and all 4 websites are combined into one.

Erk goes to the US

April and May were a massive couple of months for Erk as I went to the USA on what I called my podcasting tour across America. I met various people in the flesh that I’d spoken to only online as well as new people too. Erk Pod and Echo Romeo Kilo content was recorded in the US while Erk FM and Blast From The Past content was pre-recorded before leaving Australia and released weekly.

Back home, busier than ever

Since coming back from America in early June, Erk has been working on this site (Channel Erk v2.0) and getting back to recording weekly episodes of Blast From The Past and Erk FM. After recording an episode of Erk FM with Erk, Judy decided that she wanted to do a music podcast of her own where she picks the music and presents the show. Carrying on from Blast From The Past, it is called “Judy’s Blast FM”. It will be recorded weekly with Judy presenting the show and Erk producing it.

So that is a brief history of what is now Channel Erk. At the time of writing there has been:

  • 218 episodes of Erk Pod (some duplication with other shows)
  • 115 episodes of Erk Pod Mini
  • 35 episodes of Erk to the Diary Room
  • 12 Round Tables
  • 37 episodes of Erk FM
  • 32 episodes of Blast From The Past
  • 48 episodes of Echo Romeo Kilo
  • various promos
  • various interviews & appearances on other shows
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Erk Pod

Welcome to Erk Pod! Welcome to Erk Pod. Erk Pod is Erk's talk podcast that started in 2007. It is Erk's longest running podcast. Each week, Erk covers a variety of topics. Some of them are serious, some of them are wacky, some of them are personal and some of them are work related (insert usu...

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Welcome to Channel Erk!

Channel Erk features a series of audio podcasts & other media projects produced in Australia. Ranging from news, music, variety & more, Channel Erk is dedicated to entertaining you each and every week!

  • Listen To Channel Erk



    Listen in here 24/7 to selected Channel Erk episodes, podsafe music and live recordings at various times.No downloads or subscriptions required.


  • Judy’s Blast FM (Sun)

    On Sundays, Judy presents a wide variety of music as she discovers that there is more to music than country and/or western. Episodes are released on Sundays.

  • Erk Pod (Wed)

    Erk features a wide variety of subjects including serious & wacky news, Channel Erk updates, interviews & a lot more. Episodes released on Wednesdays, occasional interviews on Mondays.

  • Echo Romeo Kilo



    Echo is on hiatus at the moment. It is an ambient noise/soundscape podcast.

  • Erk FM (Fri)



    Erk FM is Erk's music show bringing you great indie & podsafe music down the pipe & into your ears each & every Friday.

  • Blast From The Past (Sat)

    Erk & Judy present a variety of topics on Saturdays including family & social history, music, general stories & more.

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  • Recent Comments

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      Using Facebook for self-promotion? Who'd do that?!?!?!?!

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