8 Wild Years Podcasting With My Daughters

Dave Swerdlick from StoryCub talks about podcasting with his two children and the wild ride it took them on.

I started podcasting in 2007.  

It began as a fun, family project with my two daughters.  I let them pick the subject for the show...anything they wanted.  Originally they said their choice was "American Girl Dolls".  I said "Great! We'll do our first show next week".  When next week came around, they had changed their mind and instead picked "Webkinz" as the subject.  So...we started the audio podcast the "Webkinz Webcast".  

In case you're unfamiliar with Webkinz, they are small stuffed animals that come with a code.  You enter the code on the Webkinz website and your pet becomes virtual.  You can then play on-line games with your pets.  Pretty cutting edge for it's day.  Webkinz are still very popular, but nothing like it once was.

Ganz, the maker of Webkinz originally only sold to gift stores.  I remember when I started seeing them show up at Target.  If I'm not mistaken, Target was perhaps selling grey-market goods? 

When we released the first episode of the "Webkinz Webcast" on iTunes, my daughter Zoe (dark hair) was 6-years old.  My other daughter Hannah (with the hat) was 8.  

As it turned out, the girls picked a pretty good subject.  "Webkinz" was the second fastest rising search term on Google in 2007, only bested by "iPhone".

The show was an instant hit.  The girls ended up on the front page of the Twin Cities Sunday edition of the  Star/Tribune newspaper, and picked up by the Washington Post and Seattle Times.  The show was also covered by every local TV outlet in the Twin Cities.  

We received listener Email each week by the dozens from countries that include Australia, Nepal, Taiwan, Singapore, and Argentina.

They even received an appearance fee from a local retailer.  The girls signed autographs and let anyone who stopped by be a guest on the Webkinz Webcast.

One thing leads to another, and as a musician, I started writing songs about Webkinz which ended up on the show.  I went under the pseudonym "SuperPet", and the album "Songs Inspired by Webkinz" was released as a download in 2008.  Fans of the show even made their own videos to go along with the songs and posted them along with other Webkinz Webcast Videos on YouTube. 

As the girls interest in Webkinz faded, the three of us called episode 110 of the "Webkinz Webcast" the last.  It was indeed a fun family project that took on a life of it's own.

My daughters, however were still having fun podcasting, but needed a new subject, so we created "Kid Friday". The show covers tech for tweens and teens. It looked like once again, we had another hit.

 Consistently in the Top 10 in iTunes "Kids and Family" video podcasts, the show was nominated for two Podcast Awards, including "People's Choice".

 Local TV coverage was everywhere.  Below are a few.

                     Kid Friday 2011 KSTP/ABC News

                     Kid Friday 2011 WCCO/CBS News

Kid Friday eventually made the change from audio to video.  Using a program called BoinxTV, Kid Friday now had "viewers" instead of "listeners".

The kids even had some of their friends on the show.  An interesting example is when Kid Friday went to (maybe) France in 2013.

The Kid Friday episode below from December of 2014, shows how the little girls who started the Webkinz Webcast grew up.

It started out as a family project.

Our agreement all along is that when my daughters were are no longer having fun podcasting, then it's time to stop.  After more than 200 episodes of "Kid Friday" the girls recently made that decision.  

We podcasted together for 8-years and it was a wonderful ride.

14-year old Zoe will be entering High School next week, and 17-year old Hannah is a High School Senior who is actually attending College.

Our bond remains the same, but the communication has changed.  

They don't call me at the office to tell me about what new Webkinz they want or the latest iPhone news, but instead send text messages asking for money to be added to their debit cards:)

After all, they are teenagers.

Yet Kid Friday is still alive.  Why?  Because it's hard to walk away from a Top 10 show. 

The image you see is a screenshot from today.

So I have kids who's parents are my friend, or work at the office on as special guests. You never know how it's going to turn out, and the kids really love it.

Plus I use this as a vehicle to promote my current business.

You can listen to an interview I did about podcasting on Seth Greene's show, released today on iTunes here: http://tinyurl.com/o5erbma 

My current start-up, StoryCub, creates video versions of children's picture books for digital.  It's gone #1 in iTunes and is viewed in 216 countries.