So there I was…trying to figure out a way to expand the Heck Yes Podcast. We’ve crossed the two year point of production and I was thinking that the show, or concept of Heck Yes, needed something new. I polled a couple of listener friends and mostly they thought the show was fine and that maybe a couple of thought out “bits” would be a great addition. This was welcome feedback, but I started to think back to the early fun days of MySpace (when it wasn’t about glitter comments and 14-year-olds) when I would come up with sarcastic & thought-out blogs and the enjoyment I got out of those. I would even look for “Blogger” gigs and try to showcase my entries…needless to say, nothing happened with that career arc.
When Heck Yes started, it took the place of that blog world that I had once occupied – a space that I could rant in a semi-comedic way about the daily process we call “life”. While this filled that creative outlet, something seemed to be missing. Something even more creative than 1-2 guys sitting in front of microphones going on about Road Warrior, Metallica and the mysteries of Van Halen…something more thought out. Lets step back a moment.
Many years ago while I was working as phone tech at AOL, we would dabble in website ideas. One that found some minor success was “The Tatooine Times”. This “Onion” inspired take on the news events in the Star Wars universe was collaborative and fun – it filled the bland days of customer complaints with the joy of fictional news in the anticipation of the Star Wars prequels. Not long after the Tat Times, I had an idea for “The Weekly Bitch”..a short-lived site that featured the rants of cubical workers as they went on about movies, life, music and the people we encounter every day. This site, while a fun idea, didn’t really take off.
Which leads us here, nearly 10+ years later, as I start to think “hey, what if a bunch of friends contributed to one space about the misadventures of life?” Here we have this “Heck Yes” base that we can operate from, why not bring in some other friends/writers to the mix. This isn’t just a blog site, this is a “companion” to the podcast. It doesn’t have to be related to the topics we cover on the show (honestly, how many columns can one person write about Road Warrior?), it can be pretty much anything that the columnist comes up with. We’ll release an assortment of articles/columns adjacent to the release of each podcast – probably twice a month because we’re lazy.
If you like it, fantastic! If not, oh well, we’ll keep doing it!
Have an idea that you’d like discussed or expanded upon? Send it in, we welcome the challenge! Do you want to write for the companion? All the better, the editor (me) is welcome to this as well!
Like any idea, this will evolve and take shape just as Heck Yes has taken shape over the past 2 years…granted it’s been different shapes of Road Warrior, Top Gun and Star Wars discussions…oh and Van Halen…and yeah, a little Metallica. Come along for the ride, it might just be fun!
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Cory Nelson
Producer & Editor of Heck Yes!
