EYE Chart Radio (not sure why it is capitalized that way) is a weekly podcast from north of the border, focusing on technology and, in particular, Apple technology. Mike LaPlante (@lippo on Twitter, or http://eyechartradio.libsyn.com on the web) will talk to us (may talk to us, has some ideas about talking to us) about:
The State of Podcasting:
My podcast setup and workflow:
Apple Stuff:
Questions
Mike has been involved in tech ever since he was enrolled in college in an advertising program in Windsor, ON. The typesetting machines were just beginning to be replaced by computers and he found it fascinating, even though the green type on a black background was hard on his eyes. After a few years of learning DOS commands, a college buddy, who worked at an art department of an auto parts distributo,r turned him onto the Mac. More specifically, Photoshop. It was that program alone that made him realize he would have to mortgage his first born and get himself a Mac. It was a Quadra 700 series and he never looked backed.
He used his Mac in his consultancy business, concentrating on the burgeoning greenhouse industry in southern Ontario, working mostly with Photoshop and QuarkXPress. That is until the world wide web came along. Mike learned to code HTML and built web sites for those same clients that used his services for promotional material and everything from shipping boxes to trade show exhibit artwork.
Then, with the help of Dave Winer and Adam Curry, a new form of media was born: podcasts! He loved listening to the likes of Adam, Brian Ibbott and Michael Butler. But it was two podcasters out of L.A., that worked in the motion picture industry who had started a show called My Mac Guys that gave Mike the bug to start a show of his own. It was around this time that he also started working for Chrysler Automobiles where he met an equally-enthusiastic Mac fanatic, Jeff Oppen. Jeff, like Mike was also a musician. Oh yeah, during this whole time since being in college, Mike was in various rock cover bands that played at various clubs and bars in the Windsor-Chatham, Ontario area. Mike plays guitar, ukulele and harmonica.
Jeff and Mike started a show called The EZ Mac Podcast. It had segments to teach folks how to do something cool on their Mac every week. But Jeff wanted to do more of a variety show and The EZ Mac Podcast got relegated to being a show once a month, and The JabberCast was the show they did every week. That show was picked up by the local college radio station CJAM-FM and broadcast for a few years while The EZ Mac Podcast fell by the wayside. Eventually, they also left CJAM because of “artistic differences,” and continued on with a show called BigJD and Lippo In The Morning. BigJD had aspirations of being picked up by some radio station far from Windsor on a morning zoo show. Fortunately, that never happened, and BigJD and Lippo got sidelined.
That was fine by me because I was now doing EyeChart Radio with Ken Ray. I had met Ken at a Macworld Expo in San Francisco in 2006 and we kept in contact during the course of the year until we’d meet up again in San Francisco. When Ken started EyeChart Magazine to help out his bottom line, he had the idea to do the podcast to help promote the magazine. The rest is history and now I’m doing the show on my own.
We will attempt to stream the meeting over the Internet: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wap-general-meeting.