Duel of The PotterCasts

Much like blogging used to be the "hip" thing for people with no lives to do (and still is...for awhile longer anyway), a new sensation is sweeping the teenage nation: Podcasting. So what is Podcasting? Basically they are online radio shows. However, Podcasting can be done by anyone who has the means to put together a show, not just professional companies. And the best part of all this is that listening to Podcasts are FREE!!! Now there are two new Harry Potter Podcasts online, MuggleCast and PotterCast, and now that I've listened to both of them, I can honestly say that both of these shows show people exactly what you should do when you make a Podcast, and what you should make sure you avoid when making a Podcast.

Just to let you know right now, if you are not a Harry Potter fan, don't worry, this blog isn't really about Harry Potter (which means you can continue reading this, oh wonderful, extremely patient editor of mine). First lets take a look at MuggleCast, which is the brain child of MuggleNet.com. This Podcast mostly features young, American teenage boys, talking about book theories, news, and answering fan mail. In many ways, MuggleCast is nothing more then a "Ebert & Roeper" with a Harry Potter twist, but I'll be darned, "Ebert & Roeper" is fascinating to watch and so is this...er, except we listen to this. MuggleCast will look at some (seemingly) very minor topics, then the three members will share their theories on the topic, they will talk about rumors, and they will dissect this topic like it was a science frog.

And the results are fabulous. Not only do they make you want to look closer at every single twist in the books, but they sometimes make it so that you'll want to read the books over again. It's fun to listen to these people share their theories, answer fans questions, and act as if this is something anyone can do. Oh sure, anyone can talk about the exact same things these guys do, but very few manage to make it as interesting as these guys. One would think that being almost nothing more then one long discussion, that the shows (normal) running time of around an hour would get tiring, but these guys are so lively that they manage to keep you interested throughout the whole thing (and even leave you wanting more). On top of that, the sound quality is GREAT for a fan made Podcast!

While it is not perfect (some of the fan voice mails are hard to understand), it is more then what I expected it to be. And then we have PotterCast, which was birthed from the first "real" Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron. Now PotterCast is definitely a different beast from MuggleCast. Since The Leaky Cauldron was the first major Harry Potter fansite to make it big, they have access to things that MuggleCast might not. PotterCast has a news section, a debate section, some advertisements (which means someone must be getting paid to do this Podcast), and the first episode even had a telephone interview with Bonnie Wright (who played Ginny Weasly for both of you people reading this that don't know who Bonnie is).

Oh, and the hosts are several adult British women (just for the record). From the sounds of things, PotterCast really should be kicking MuggleCasts butt...and yet, PotterCast looks like a big failure in comparison, and it's for various reasons. For one thing the audio for PotterCast sounds like complete garbage most of the time. Sometimes it's too loud, sometimes it's too quite, a round the table conversation had all the women at different sound levels. My sound knob received a workout like it had never had before, and I was constantly tweaking the sound for the whole hour of the show. On top of the various sound drop outs, some of the sound during interviews and stuff you can't make out. I should have been very happy being able to listen to Bonnie actually have an interview (which is something I've never seen), but the sound is so messed up I couldn't hear what Bonnie was saying 75% of the time.

Seriously, I know this interview was done over the phone, but the audio sounds like it was recorded in a trash can with a portable cassette recorder. Granted, I know I'm getting to listen to this for free, but since there was at least one advertisement, I would hope that some of that money would go to some good sound recording equipment. PotterCast also had a discussion on book six, but the discussion was SEVERELY lacking! Except for a couple of cute moments (two of the girls having a fangirl moment when Harry and Ginny finally kissed on page...something), but the discussion was just a little, I don't know...boring. They were doing the exact same thing the guys at MuggleCast were doing, but somehow they were doing it in a way that just made me drowsy. If it weren't for the fact that I had to constantly tweak the volume, I might have fallen asleep during the show.

Granted, I should point out that while MuggleCast has had three episodes in the can (with a forth coming out this weekend), PotterCast only has one, and there's a very good chance that PotterCast could iron out many of its problems in the future. Still, it's just strange that PotterCast, with all it's resources, turned out to be quite a dud, while MuggleCast got everything right right out of the box with very limited resources. So for all you Harry Potter fans out there, MuggleCast is the Podcast to listen to. And if you are not a Harry Potter fan but the idea of Podcasts intrigues you, then just download iTunes and check out their selection. I'm sure you'll find something there that suites your needs.