Yakkety Yak

This week we tried a little something new with Budacast - a totally LIVE show over the internet. While we can't say it went off without any hitches, the interactivity of the format was fun. Click 'read more' for more.

For our first "live" Budacast I carted all of my podcasting gear over to the Center For Independent Journalism and set up for the show on Blog Talk Radio about an hour early.

I was excited to try and do a live show, because Blog Talk Radio (BTR) lets people call in or chat live with the host and guests through the site's infrastructure. It seems like an awesome way to get listeners involved. Visitors to the BTR site can see what programs are on live, so that's why I thought we'd try for a 2-hour long conversation, giving us a longer time to hook some unexpected listeners.

Our guests were Matt Ellis who edits Pilvax - Writing from Central Europe about the latest edition of his magazine (which contains some translations of Hungarian work into English), and food guru Carolyn Banfalvi, who has authored books on Hungarian gastronomy and is editor of Chew.hu.

Doing a live show after such a long time was no easy task. I couldn't get the sound streaming over the line for about the first 20 minutes, which was embarrassing. Suddenly, I figured it out. Still, the technical glitches had me a bit flustered the whole way through.

Juggling two guests - both of whom were wonderfully forgiving - was also a challenge. I bounced back and forth, talking to Matt about his periodical and Carolyn about her books. I wasn't really satisfied with performance, but can't help but think that things will get better.

If you haven't heard about them or the neat stuff that they're involved in here in Budapest, you're in for a real treat - be sure to check out the latest episode of Budacast, "Found in Translation".

By the time we were nearing the end of the 2 hours I was so fatigued at having to pay attention to the technical aspects of the format - operating the board, watching the chat, etc. - and trying (with a hangover from the election party) to think and ask my guests questions, that I know what I'll be doing differently next time.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in and joined in in the chat room!

Stay tuned!

Uncle Drew