“When we started The Signal, we decided really early on that The Signal would not have ‘fans’. We were all fans of Firefly.” Les Howard, Host – The Signal
Quitting your podcast, or simply moving on, doesn’t mean your podcast needs to end. With the right “Bobbys” in your audience, it’s possible to pass the torch over to people who still have a passion for your topic. People who your listeners already know, because they talk to them in the chat room every week.
After ending Greetings From Storybrooke, we gave the show to Bobby. Actual Bobby. Not an idealized Bobby. Bobby Hawke, the same guy who left us a voicemail as “Robert From Bradenton.”
The idea came up during a Hangout with our Patreon supporters the summer after we quit Greetings. We held these Hangouts every month. We’d spend a couple hours drinking, playing games, and generally “hanging out” with our most fervent supporters, the ones who gave us money. Bobby asked us if we’d ever consider bringing back the show. We laughed and laughed and laughed, then realized he was serious and said no. Our longtime listener Elizabeth Plascencia suggested we let our listeners take over the show.
I thought the idea was brilliant. Greetings would live on, and see Once through its final season! The best part? I wouldn’t have to do any of the heavy lifting! It was settled.
I joined Bobby for several Skype calls to help him with all the technical details, and the new Greetings From Storybrooke launched on October 22, 2016, about four years and one month after our embarrassing, unprofessional premiere podcast. It featured Bobby Hawke as the host, with Elizabeth Plascencia and Tony Hooper as co-hosts. A few months later, Monica Jones would join them to round off their fearsome foursome. By the time Once’s finale aired two years later, they’d produced an additional 37 episodes of the podcast, pushing our final episode count to over 200.
The new crew. Damn, these guys were good.
I did some production work on the new podcast. I’d create the episode posters for Bobby before they recorded. After they were done, I’d pull down the live stream from YouTube, publish it on our YouTube channel, then edit and publish an audio version. It took some time, sure, but nothing like I spent as a host/producer/editor.
If we made one mistake when we ended Greetings, it’s that we didn’t give any indication that the podcast would ever come back. In fact, we said several times in stark terms that it would never come back. When the podcast did come back, many of our former listeners had already unsubscribed. I did what I could to communicate that Greetings was publishing new episodes, but Bobby and the gang never saw the levels of engagement we enjoyed, which I know disappointed them. I did what I could to promote their show, up to and including making guest appearances. Their numbers grew, but Greetings From Storybrooke never fully recovered from being canceled.
Still, the new Greetings gang held together what remained of our community for just a little bit longer. I was a proud Papa, sitting back and watching every episode. At first, I saw them copying what we did, but before long they discovered their own strengths as podcasters and grew the little show we started in our garage into something different and new that I got to enjoy as a fan of theirs.
The current and former hosts of Greetings From Storybrooke, hanging out after the season finale. We’re only missing Liz.
When Once Upon A Time announced its final episode in June of 2018, we invited any of the hosts who could make it to our house in Orlando to watch the finale and do a Facebook Live after it aired. While we hadn’t live streamed in months, and were beset with many technical issues, the whole event felt easy-breezey, like a family reunion where the family actually likes each other. Bringing everything to a close, sitting in our home with some of our most passionate and prolific listeners… How beautiful. How poetic. How right.
Hanging out with Bobby and Tony at Universal Studios the day after the finale.
If you must quit, I highly suggest asking your listeners if they would like to take over your fancast, preferably before your final episode. I can’t put into words how magical it was to see my fairy tale dream live on, long after I woke up and went back to the real world.