Season two of ‘Tales of Southwest Michigan’s Past‘ began on January 1st, 2023. Many podcasters take the holidays off, or schedule a break at the beginning of the new year. I thought about this, and decided not to. As a quick recap, in season one I created a total of 133 episodes in my first year of podcasting. Espisodes aired on Tuesday, Friday and Sundays.
I began the year with just two episodes a week on Tuesday and Friday, and added Sundays to include interviews with guests on subjects of local history. In total, I posted 39 guest interviews on the season, with 5 of those guests returning for multiple interviews. I just posted a New Year’s Day episode featuring the top dozen interviews of season one. Here is the link if you want to listen to that episode. The guests who were on my show more than once in season one were Jim Jackson, Bobbie Mathis, Dave Eddy, Dennis Skupinski, T.R. Shaw and Amberrose Hammond.
Spotify issued a 2022 Wrapped report for Tales of Southwest Michigan’s Past, and they reported:
The Tales of Southwest Michigan’s Past show was in the top 10% of most followed podcasts on the platform. Also, 28% of listeners subscribed, which helped it earn this ranking. It was also listened to in 16 countries, and was in the top 15% of most shared podcasts globally.
They also described the listeners as ‘Adventurers’ and that 40% of those that shared did so by text, 23% through Facebook, 21% by direct link, 15% through other social media sites like NextDoor, and 1% through Instagram. They also indicated that I produced more content than 99% of the other podcasts in the history category in 2022. These stats were calculated by Spotify, and do not include the results from other platforms the podcast is shared on such as Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, Overcast, etc. However, is it very interesting results and very humbling.
The creation and management of the podcast has been a lot of work, and I am happy that people are enjoying it. I do all of the research, scheduling, recording, editing and marketing solo. I hope as the podcast builds in audience size, that I can bring on some other team members to help me make it grow. I am very thankful to my guests who has taken time to be on the show this year, and supported the work that I am trying to do in this field.
I look forward to another great year in 2023 with season two of Tales of Southwest Michigan’s Past. I hope that you will continue to listen if you have already been doing so, and listen in if you have not done so yet. The show can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox and many more podcast applications. If you use a podcast app that the show is not on, feel free to message me on which one it is, and I will take steps to add my show to that platform.
In 2023 I would like to include some advertisers to help offset the costs of production. I will be adding a new link later this month on this website where prospective advertisers can apply. I will be selective about those that I choose, and will only select those that have products or services that align with my show. I hope to roll this out by the end of this month. In season two I am also introducing a new introduction audio segment.
I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!
