By Grace Frost
Long-time OKRFM community radio co-hosts Ben Rask and Matt Whitfield last week released the first episode of their independent podcast – the team’s latest undertaking in pursuit of careers in the entertainment industry.
The Broadford Secondary College students, now the faces and directors of their own show, released the podcast exclusively on Spotify last week after six months of planning, recording and editing.
Titled ‘The Amateur Shittalkers’, Mr Rask and Mr Whitfield embrace a ‘light-hearted’ approach to podcasting in the hope of attracting a teen-based audience and eventually taking the show world-wide via social media.
The duo got their start at Mitchell Shire-based radio station OKRFM, where they regularly interviewed local musicians and influential figures, hosted over-the-air games and learnt to use radio equipment.
The co-hosts drew upon the interview-based content they had created for OKRFM in order to inspire their own, unrestricted comedy-based chat-show, primarily wanting to deliver episodes on ‘people who have an impact’.
“[We plan on talking with] social media influencers, business owners, people who we think people will want to listen to and that have something to bring to the table,” Mr Whitfield said.
But the boys said they wouldn’t settle with merely interviewing their guests, instead wanting to take part in the conversation to bring laid-back, jovial discourse for listeners to laugh along with.
“It’s about bringing other people to the conversation. There’s a lot of podcasts out there where people just [speak] like we do on radio, where we just gotta ask the questions and we listen,” Mr Whitfield said.
“With [the podcast], we enhance more of the comedic, light-hearted side of it. We really engage with what our guests are saying a lot more.
“We listen to it and say ‘would we listen to this?’. If we think that we would listen to us, [then] we’re very happy to produce that content.”
The team plan to use their podcast to branch out from their roles on radio, with less restrictions to what they could produce.
“We love community radio, it’s such a great thing and such a great experience, but you’re restricted to what you can do and say, and this is an avenue where we can take the next step of following this pathway and career we want to have a crack at,” Mr Whitfield said.
Mr Rask and Mr Whitfield, both in year 11, remain committed to hosting on OKRFM on a less regular basis while they put all their efforts toward seeing their new show succeed.
Episode one features Mr Rask and Mr Whitfield sitting down with musician and band member of Swimstate Beau Farrell, who grew up with parents in musical theatre and the difficulties, labels and stereotypes he faced while pursuing the arts in a country town.
“We have a chat about him as a kid going to school, who was doing theatre and how he still strived to do what he wanted to do and break out of the niche [of the sport focus you find in country towns],” Mr Rask said.
Episode one was released as a Spotify exclusive, and the team make their YouTube debut in episode two set to drop in coming weeks.
To access the show and the show’s social media accounts, people can visit linktr.ee/amateurshttalkers.
