I AM currently doing three podcasts—Cold Brew which is my anything goes podcast about music, sports, lifestyle and travel; Haul of Justice which is a pop culture podcast sponsored by Filbar’s that will debut this Thursday, October 22; and The Boot Room that will appear on Premier Football (Sky Cable channel 265) this Friday, 23 October.
I think I am one of the first podcasters in the Philippines having done The Back Four Bums—a Philippine football show I did with my colleagues Bob Guerrero, Cedelf Tupas and Ebong Joson in 2011. Around the same time, I did a comic book podcast with Jiggy Cruz and Chef Edward Bugia called, Level 7.
I have done a few more since then. And that leads me to now.
While living in the US, I loved listening to late night radio talk shows. Even when I should have been sleeping, I stayed riveted along with thousands of others in the New York-New Jersey area listening to stories of hope, heartbreak and intrigue.
And it also reminded me of the film, Sleepless in Seattle, that I loved not only because of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but also because of its romantic late night radio talk shows.
When I began listening to ESPN’s various podcasts such as First Take, Pardon the Interruption, Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney, the Bill Simmons’ Podcast and others, I knew what I wanted to do.
Although I’ve done television work, it’s a tough job to break into because of favoritism, a barkada system, and well, you don’t easily replace icons, I ventured into podcasting as an alternative venture.
In this pandemic, I returned to it with good friend, Ariel Vanguardia, doing a series of Usapang Basketball and Hoops Coach International podcasts.
Doing music, sports and pop culture podcasts is fulfilling as they are my passions. Well, there’s travel, but I guess that will resonate better when this pandemic is over.
Doing these podcasts brings me back to those late nights in Manhattan with my radio dial tuned to WFAN and other stations.
Cold Brew is a solo show and so far, I have interviewed Ateneo Blue Eagles Coach Tab Baldwin, OPM legend Jose Mari Chan, and another local music icon in Raymund Marasigan (of Eraserheads, Sandwich, Pedicab, Assembly Generals, Gaijin, Cambio and Basement Lung fame). I air these when I can and depending on my sked.
For Haul of Justice (Thursday 8 p.m. on Filbar’s Facebook page), I am with Jiggy Cruz once more and ABS-CBN’s Nikki de Guzman.
In the Boot Room (on Fridays over the Premier Football on Sky Cable Channel 265 and Cignal Channel 271), I will be working with former Azkals Anto Gonzales and Nate Burkey, another former national player in Rely San Agustin, and women’s football player and Coach Simone Jaldon.
Here’s hoping you tune to these podcasts and give them a try. And of course, would love to get some feedback so I can do better.