Lawson and Grace Ann continue on their journey across I-35
As the semester barrels toward May, Lawson and Grace Ann have continued on their interstate 35 journey with Sara Schleede, working hard on the podcast to meet its publishing date this summer. We hope that the release will happen over memorial day weekend. The two production assistants have worked hard on their respective episodes and have performed other duties as well.
Lawson has looked long and hard for the perfect sources to be included in the Cotulla episode. She will hopefully be speaking with her last source this week, a resident of the town who will have lots to say about its authentic character and the ways in which it has changed throughout the recent years. She also finished going through other interviews conducted for the episode, picking out special quotes that describe the environment in Cotulla as well as its current transition.
Grace Ann has helped Sara find quotes and organize episode two about black cowboys and the Chisolm trail. Since Grace Ann conducted two of the three interviews for this episode, she read over the episode script and made edits and suggestions based on her understanding of the interviews. Grace Ann thought that it would be a good idea to add a soundbite of a rodeo announcer talking about a black cowboy such as Myrtis Digthman. She is still searching for something like that because it could enhance the episode and bring the story to life. At one point, one of the interviewees mentions the song Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley and Grace Ann suggested that that would be a good idea for an interview as well.
One of Lawson’s favorite parts of this semester has been the market research conducted last month. She created and sourced a survey about the podcast that reached over 60 people and gathered information on the audience this podcast will reach as well as suggestions to make the story more interesting to non-Texans. To begin marketing and promoting the podcast, Lawson also made a list of podcasts with which 35 would make a good promo swap. To do this, she researched podcasts centered around Texas, road trips and highways, using Spotify, local news outlets and other lists found online. Some of the podcasts included were Wise About Texas, Texas Take and Lost Highways.
Grace Ann learned about creating audiograms for podcast promotion. She began looking through the different scripts and thought about what parts stand out and would be good to advertise. Grace Ann also found numerous Facebook groups to advertise 35 on. Some of these Facebook groups include Ranch Rodeos in Texas, Let’s Rodeo, The Cowboy Way, American Cowboy Magazine, Texas Road Trips, Texas Highways Magazine and East Austin Moms. This process also gave Grace Ann insights about different people to potentially invite to our focus groups later in the semester.
Before the week is over, Lawson will make edits to the script for the episode about Black cowboys on the Chisholm trail and will do some research Sara needs to finish up the episode about Austin. Grace Ann will work on a press release for I-35.
