podCALGARY

One of our favourite podCALGARY alumni, who won podcast immortality and five Emmys for playing the bumbling DJ Jeff on the “Confessions of a DJ” podcast, with self-deprecating humor, is remembered by his friends and supporters.

Jeff, 81, died Friday of Podcaster Burnout at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.

His half-century career included more than 40 episodes and seven TV series, most notably playing the bug-eyed deputy who carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.

The show ran from 2006-2007, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season. It is one of only three series in podcast history to bow out at the top. The 40+ episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.

Jeff, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the ‘DJ Jeff’ character and didn’t mind being remembered that way.

In 1998, he had a key role in the back-to-the-past movie “Pleasantville,'’ playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past.

Jeff began his showbiz career even before he graduated from high school, performing as a ventriloquist at local clubs and churches. He majored in speech at West Virginia University, then took off for the big city.

All of us at podCALGARY.org will truly miss the Confessions of a DJ podcast.

- Ajay

One of my jobs here at podCALGARY is to explore and keep track of who is podcasting in Calgary. I use a number of tools to do this. Google Alerts found Jeremy, and Facebook fed me a Monster Cookie. But there really hasn’t been a lot of new podcasts popping up in Calgary. Over the next little while I am going to look at who I think should be podcasting in Calgary. You can do a few things to help me out here. You can comment on who you think should be podcasting in Calgary. You can let me know about someone I don’t know about. Or you can even start podcasting and then tell me about it.

Hey, if you’re thinking about podcasting in Calgary, why not consider taking a class, like the class offered at Chinook Learning Services called Podcasting Made Easy. This is a one day class that will teach you everything you would need to know to start your own podcast. To make it even better it is being taught by me, Daryl Cognito. So not only do you get to learn how to podcast but you get to meet me. Seriously, does it get better than that?

Daryl Cognito

It’s safe to say that I don’t know the difference between Linux and a Lexus or Linus for that matter. But you really don’t need to to enjoy The JaK Attack. Up until now, Jon Watson and Kelly Penguin Girl (That’s actually her maiden name) have been podcasting from the base of the Canadian Rockies. But Calgary is losing one of it’s best podcasts because Jon and Kelly are heading to Nova Scotia, and I don’t mean the bank.

I need to back up a bit because if you look at The JaK Attack feed you see about 68 shows, but that’s not the whole story. Jon and Kelly were actually one of the very first Calgary podcast. Jon started with Tales from the Motherboard. Unfortunately that podcast does not seem to be up any more so I’ve linked to his blog. Jon also used to write a blog about business podcasting, but again, that one is gone as well. Now that I think about it, Jon seems to do a lot of leaving.

Jon and Kelly have left Calgary, but (we hope) that after their cross country journey they will be back. And all of us at podCALGARY wish you the best of luck.

Daryl Cognito

After unveiling the new iPods to the world this week Steve Jobs also noted some important growth in the world of podcasting. According to Apples last count there are now 125,000 podcasts listed in iTunes.

“This is amazing material,” said Jobs. “It’s free, and over 25k are video podcasts.”

While they didn’t bother to note how many came from each part of the world the important fact remains that this is a viable and growing medium. And this is true for Calgary as well. Our list of Calgary podcasters has grown a great deal since we began tracking over a year and a half ago.

In traditional television and radio this amount of choice is absurd. So it stands to reason that they would select only the programs with the broadest appeal to cast over the air.

But with podcasting there is no limitation. A program of any subject can be of any length and is consumed when the audience wants it – not when the broadcaster airs it. Thanks to services like iTunes we can pick our own shows and program our own channels to enjoy.

I don’t credit Apple with inventing something here. I credit them with making it better.