Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts: The Gass House

interviews with real people hosted on libsyn

This series is all about showcasing Libsyn podcasters. Its sole purpose is to introduce these awesome podcasts to the world as well as share their podcasting insight to empower the community!


Q & A with James Gass from The Gass House


When did you start podcasting?

I started podcasting in October of 2009 with a craft beer review show called Southern Beer Review which I still do to this day.

Why did you start podcasting?

My wife and I did a podcast for the university I work for and when that ended, we wanted to keep podcasting. We weren’t sure what we wanted to podcast about until she looked at her beer in hand and said, “lets review craft beer.”

What’s your show about?

I currently produce five podcasts, all beer-related, but my latest show, hosted on Libsyn, is titled, The Gass House.

It’s an interview style show where I bring the audience extraordinary stories from everyday people. There are a lot of shows that interview celebrities, most of which I cannot connect with. So, I thought it would be great if I could find regular folks with great stories to tell.

Some of them are funny, some are tragic, and some are heart warming; and that’s just the first episode!

What’s your podcasting set-up? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.

When I first started, my set up was simple; two Audio Technica AT2020USBs and Audacity.

Since that time, i’ve moved to video and audio so, my set up has grown immensely. I’m currently doing two types of video podcasts. One is recorded in front of a green screen and the others are live streamed via Google+ HOAs (Hangouts On Air).

The HOAs are recorded to my YouTube account and then downloaded later. I edit the downloaded mp4 files to add intro and outro numbers and then throw them into an rss feed.

Exhausted yet? Yep, it’s a lot of work.

Here’s my current set ups for audio and video:

Audio

  • 1 Behringer XENYX1204
  • 1 Audio Technica AT2005USB (using the XLR portion)
  • Audio Hijack Pro for recording Google+ hangouts and Skype calls
  • Adobe Audition CS6

Recorded Video

  • 1 Cannon 7D DSLR
  • 1 Behringer XENYX1204
  • 1 Audio Technica AT2005USB (using the XLR portion)
  • Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 for video editing
  • Red Giant’s PluralEyes 3 for A/V syncing

Live Video via Google+ HOAs

  • 15” MacBook Pro (late 2012 model)
  • Built in iSight Camera
  • Same Audio Technica Mic
  • Premiere Pro CS6

How have you promoted your podcast?

For The Gass House specifically, I’m doing three things:

  1. Social media, i.e., Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc..
  2. Networking with other podcasters to hopefully land guest spots on their shows.
  3. Diving head first into the Libsyn community. That includes listening to The Feed, creating a promo to be played on that show, doing this Q&A to hopefully get on Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts, and following Libsyn on various social media. How does that last part help? Well, I usually hear about other Libsyn podcasters to hopefully network with them as well.
  4. I almost forgot about this one. Working really hard at promotion. Everything I listed in #3, I did all in the first two days of setting up my Libsyn account and releasing the first episode of The Gass House.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

Free isn’t always better; take the wallet hit and pay for podcast hosting.

In 2009 I signed up for a free service that hosted, and still hosts all of my other podcasts. The problem is that they have horrible support, no html players for your site, and unless you are one of their “big named” podcasters, they couldn’t care less as to who you are.

Libsyn, on the other hand, is great! Their support is great and they really seem to care about their customers and WANT to help them succeed as much as possible.

So, if you are a podcaster on a tight budget, go cheap on the gear and spend your money on a good hosting service. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.


So how about it people? Want to connect with a super passionate podcaster that’s creating top notch work that happens to be incredibly entertaining and inspiring. No brainer right?

Subscribe to The Gass House. Today.


If you’ve been looking to switch podcasting hosts we are more than happy to help you out with the least amount of friction possible!

Extraordinary Podcasting For All

Use code “creator” for up to 2 months free when you start podcasting or move to Libsyn.

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