Interview: Living in Las Vegas
Daisy Timm (DT): Welcome. You have been doing the "Living in Las Vegas" podcast since January. How long before that did you move there?
SW: Thank you, Daisy. We moved to Las Vegas on August 1, 2005.
MW: We bought our Las Vegas house in October 2003 and the construction was completed on March 15, 2004.
DT: What made you decide to make to live in Vegas? Were there any other cities you considered?
SW: As of June 2005, both of our kids had graduated from high school. With our oldest already in college and our youngest going to college in the Fall of 2005, there wasn't much reason to stay in California and continue to pay the high cost of housing. We choose Las Vegas because we love the weather and the housing prices, compared to California, were very favorable. As an example, our Las Vegas house is 40% of the price of our California house and 60% larger! Nevada is also very friendly from a business perspective. And, finally, there is no personal income tax in Nevada.
MW: I think we were up for a change and it was really exciting. I think the kids are over the shock of the move and handled it really well. I still miss my friends in California terribly but they will be friends for life and we are doing a good job staying in touch. Everyone loves to visit Las Vegas so we've had tons of visitors!
DT: Do your kids listen to the show?
SW: They will occasionally listen to the show, but, as you might expect, I don't think listening to their parents blather on about living in Las Vegas is on the top of their list of things to do! (I think parental units stop being cool toward the beginning of high school!)
DT: You talk on the podcast about buying a brand new house and customizing it down to the type of the hinges on the doors. If you had it to do over, would you still do all that work or would you get something that was all ready to go as is?
SW: I would. Although there is a lot to deal with when buying a new construction home, it was really fun picking out how we wanted our house appointed. Plus, the new-home-smell simply can't be beat!
MW: There were definitely days I questioned our decision to go the new construction route. I'm really glad that we did and I love our home. I recently went house hunting here in Las Vegas with Scott's mom and her husband. They wanted a resale house and there were a lot of great homes in that market as well. We did a lot of work upfront and were able to enjoy our home immediately whereas I think buying a resale home may require more upkeep, repairs, etc after move in. Either way, in Las Vegas, there are many great housing options, even high-rise condos, which have been sprouting up near the Strip.
DT: In this day and age of blogging, what made you decide to do a podcast instead?
SW: I have a pretty strong audio background and thought that, from an entertainment perspective, I could create a better product doing a podcast. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to produce a show that, from a content perspective, had the feel of a well-produced commercial radio show. That explains why our podcast features sound effects, music bumpers, and theme songs throughout the show.
MW: Scott is definitely the creative genius behind the show. I'm along for the ride and loving it. I had not even heard of podcasting until Scott told me about it and at first I was not sold on the notion of them. Scott had done a podcast relating to music maybe a year or so ago and it did really well. That got me interested in this medium and it's been fun to be involved. The podcast is really something we enjoy doing together.
DT: Since you have an audio background, were you able to post your first episode easily? Did you consult any guides or websites?
SW: The first podcast I ever distributed was actually the Great Relaxation Music podcast (which has since podfaded due to scheduling conflicts). Because the production of our podcast is similar to how I would record a song for a CD, that piece of the puzzle was pretty straightforward. Prior to posting that first podcast, I read Apple's "How to place a podcast on iTunes" document which provided more insight into the RSS/XLM component. I also looked at the RSS code of other podcasts (can't remember which ones) to check the proper layout of that file.
DT: Were there any podcasts that inspired you?
SW: Funny thing is, before doing our own podcast, I really didn't know much about ‘em. After doing what we do, I have become a fan of the Podcast Brothers show.
DT: What's your favorite part about podcasting? What do you dread?
SW: Great question. I get a kick when Melissa and I are talking about something and we fall into a "groove", meaning, the topic is funny, entertaining and flows naturally. From an inspirational perspective, far and away my favorite part of Podcasting is the listener feedback.
MW: We have so much fun doing this together which is my favorite part and we hope that we are helping others looking to move to Las Vegas or those who already live here. I also like that it gives us a reason to get out there and explore and try new things here in Las Vegas. Scott is the technical guy, I'm technically challenged, so all the production is done by him. I'm afraid I'm not much help there. I guess I would dread the day he asks me to do something technical.
DT: How much time does it take to prep, record and post each episode?
SW: From writing the script/outline to announcing the show's availability to our mailing list, it takes three to four hours to produce a show.
DT: Throughout the episodes, you seem to have the perfect music to go with the Vegas theme. Where did it come from?
SW: The show's intro music is something I wrote for just for the show. The exit song, "Gin and Tonic" is off of my "Guitjazzathon" CD. The other bumpers are from various websites like the freesound project.
MW: Scott is being very modest here. He is a very talent musician and even has recorded several CDs. It's one of his passions. He is also very passionate about the Living in Las Vegas podcast so he is always looking for a way to make it better. Just the other day he told me he thought we need a music intro to our main subject since we had music intros for "Hot and Horrible" and "Melissa's Job Search". Next time we recorded a podcast, he had it done. The first time I heard the music intro for our main subject was during that recording and it was perfect.
DT: Do you listen to any other podcasts?
SW: I listen to the Podcast Brothers on a regular basis. I'll occasionally listen to Keith and the Girl (I am amazed these two can do so many shows a week!). I tend to seek out podcasts that talk about the business of Podcasting.
MW: Scott calls me in to his office regularly to listen to podcasts that he finds. I'm not a regular listener to any one podcast yet. I hope to do some research and find some podcasts on gardening in the desert. That would definitely be helpful with all the landscaping we've been doing.
DT: Thanks so much for talking with me. I look forward to your further adventures.
You can check out my overall review of "Living in Las Vegas" here.
Stay tuned next week for an episode review of "Trips for Travelers."
Powering off.
posted by Daisy Timm at 9:49 PM
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