New podcast: Matt Scrafton returns

utmp

utmp

Well-known member
We spoke to Matt Scrafton about the reason the Gazette’s initial reporting of the Oyston court case wasn’t up to scratch and the battles he was fighting internally to cover it.

He also explained what it was like covering BFC without fans and how he would’ve boycotted were he a fan, as well as how the investigative journalism side of the court case was what actually made him apply for the job.

All that, plus his take on the defeat at Gillingham and a quick preview of Saturday’s game against his local club Lincoln.

A must listen this one Pool fans. Episode 11.

www.upthemightypool.co.uk/utmppodcast

First 23 mins: Scrafton on the Gazette’s role in the Oyston court case
23-36: Review of Gillingham defeat
36-58 Potential transfer dealings and the club’s recruitment model
58-end: Lincoln preview
 
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voyeur said:
Too long!

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They aren’t too long in my opinion. I find them to be a good listen and I appreciate the effort they put in to these podcasts. To just completely dismiss it as ‘too long’ is a little bit harsh.
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utmp_ said:
The first 20 minutes is about Oyston if you just want to listen to that part. We covered a wide range of topics.
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Maybe release it in chunks? Separate topics. I think more people would listen to a 10/15 minute podcast, released more often.

At least give a list of start times for specific topics - like Youtube playlists do for each song.
 
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I'm retired but have a life to live, still, and would agree with Voy on this, it is far too long.

A precis of the content would probably be a good idea, and then if someone is interested in hearing more about what was said they can then listen to the full podcast.

Just my opinion of course, but I have better things to do than sit through over an hour of chat. Sorry.
 
I listen to pods on dog walks, and hate the faff of having to select another pod after 10/15 mins. I appreciate one long pod for an hour or so.

interesting he confirms Owen had descended into the realm of paranoid fantasy post court case, as I suspected. That consortium business was a joke.
 
Appreciate the feedback on the length. We’ll look at trying to reduce to 40 mins and breaking into sections. It’s difficult when most of the content is too interesting to cut out!
 
utmp_ said:
Appreciate the feedback on the length. We’ll look at trying to reduce to 40 mins and breaking into sections. It’s difficult when most of the content is too interesting to cut out!
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I like the current format. If people can’t listen in one go then they don’t have to. You can always listen to half in the morning and half in the evening. Keep up the good work.
 
Class_of_2010 said:
I like the current format. If people can’t listen in one go then they don’t have to. You can always listen to half in the morning and half in the evening. Keep up the good work.
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yeah, if you’re going for serious in depth discussion with serious guests you need the length and the wide ranging discussion topics. Start cutting it down you end up withshallow magazine type pods. The Seasiders podcast marries laughs with features and opinions and analysis and long and short pods. I think what you have at the minute is a different USP and something to look forward to as a serious listen.
 
utmp_ said:
Appreciate the feedback on the length. We’ll look at trying to reduce to 40 mins and breaking into sections. It’s difficult when most of the content is too interesting to cut out!
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I have no issue with the podcast being over 1 Hr long. If i don't get it listened to on a drive or a dog walk i will just listen to the rest on the next walk/drive. How can too much info and discussion about the pool be a problem?
 
Class_of_2010 said:
They aren’t too long in my opinion. I find them to be a good listen and I appreciate the effort they put in to these podcasts. To just completely dismiss it as ‘too long’ is a little bit harsh.
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It wasn't meant to be harsh, or critical, apologies if that was how it appeared. It's great what utmp is doing. And I appreciate some people like long podcasts to listen to. I think the majority will be overfaced by 70 minutes though. Something for utmp to experiment with, maybe.
 
Sorry but I found it very difficult understanding a word that Scrafton was saying. His talking style doesn't help either. I had to come out.
 
voyeur said:
Maybe release it in chunks? Separate topics. I think more people would listen to a 10/15 minute podcast, released more often.

At least give a list of start times for specific topics - like Youtube playlists do for each song.
Click to expand...

Find me a podcast that lasts 15 minutes! Seriously, the negativity on here is ridiculous at times.

Voy, your next comment about specific times is much more constructive/helpful.

I'm just happy that there is so much buzz about BFC atm. A new bar, two great podcasts and a young team with an exciting manager... not forgetting the BEST owner in the football league.

Keep up the good work.
 
TNGERINES said:
Find me a podcast that lasts 15 minutes! Seriously, the negativity on here is ridiculous at times.

Voy, your next comment about specific times is much more constructive/helpful.

I'm just happy that there is so much buzz about BFC atm. A new bar, two great podcasts and a young team with an exciting manager... not forgetting the BEST owner in the football league.

Keep up the good work.
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Negativity? That's your perception, I think. I didn't have time to expand at the time. I spend my time on here highlighting negativity and trying to counter it. I have provided constructive comment on here.

Loads of podcasts are much shorter than 70 minutes. There's a place for both but by and large a wider audience will be reached by aiming for conciseness.
 
Our main show is usually at least an hour, with the Friday Night Preview and Saturday Post Match Reaction shows usually at 30-45 mins.

An hour for a main show is about right. Don’t agree about a wider audience being reached by being concise.
 
We agree that 70 minutes is on the heavy side and had intended it to be shorter. But as a few have suggested, you can always listen in chunks. It’s some really valuable insight and we didn’t want to cut anything out that people might be interested in. We’ll definitely aim for shorter and more concise moving forwards.
 
I regularly watch or listen to podcasts that are an hour or an hour and a half long.

You’ve got a good thing going 👍
 
utmp_ said:
We agree that 70 minutes is on the heavy side and had intended it to be shorter. But as a few have suggested, you can always listen in chunks. It’s some really valuable insight and we didn’t want to cut anything out that people might be interested in. We’ll definitely aim for shorter and more concise moving forwards.
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70 minutes is about average for most podcasts.
 
utmp_ said:
We agree that 70 minutes is on the heavy side and had intended it to be shorter. But as a few have suggested, you can always listen in chunks. It’s some really valuable insight and we didn’t want to cut anything out that people might be interested in. We’ll definitely aim for shorter and more concise moving forwards.
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Fair comment - keep up the excellent work! Maybe mix it up - some long, some short? Or a long and a short version maybe?
 
clappers said:
I listen to pods on dog walks, and hate the faff of having to select another pod after 10/15 mins. I appreciate one long pod for an hour or so.

interesting he confirms Owen had descended into the realm of paranoid fantasy post court case, as I suspected. That consortium business was a joke.
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Did your dog cock his leg every time Oystons name was mentioned?
 
Personally, it doesn't bother me one iota if a pod is long, I actually prefer it if its an interesting topic to me. You can simply pause it and carry on where you left off next time you want to listen. Don't get where the problem is?
 
utmp_ said:
We agree that 70 minutes is on the heavy side and had intended it to be shorter. But as a few have suggested, you can always listen in chunks. It’s some really valuable insight and we didn’t want to cut anything out that people might be interested in. We’ll definitely aim for shorter and more concise moving forwards.
Click to expand...
Not had chance to listen yet to this one but will do later on - yours is already one I save to listen to "properly", i.e. not just as background noise whilst working. Have listened to all your previous ones and as other have said they're a great addition to the content already out there so keep it up and don't take any criticism too much to heart, you'll never please everyone, especially on here!

I find it much easier to get time to listen to podcasts than read long preview articles etc so what you're doing works for me. I also like that you generally release them a bit earlier in the week which gives people more chance to listen to them before the game.

Personally I've no issue with longer podcasts - i regularly just listen to them when I get chance whilst doing something else so no issues with listening to them in 2 or 3 visits - would recommend downloading one of the many available free podcast apps to your phone to anyone who finds it difficult to listen to longer ones, especially if that's because you're sat at your computer doing so. I listen to podcasts in the way I used to listen to the radio, just now i can pick content i want to listen to and when rather than relying on finding something at that time.

Some of the best football (not just blackpool) podcast content I've heard was the gtf interviews seasiders podcast did and they were 3x almost 2 hours! If the content is good enough, the time is irrelevant for me. The andy morrell interview you guys did was great too, just not quite the same level of controversy to cover from that slightly earlier era so didn't need 6 hours!
 
I seem to get the podcast later than most, my provider hasn't got the Scrafton one available to download yet, hope it is there later today.
 
This was a great listen, some really interesting stuff.

Great that we’ve got two decent podcasts at the moment, along with the blogs too.

The length is perfect for me. Like to listen in the car or in the gym. If I can’t listen in one go I just go back to it another time.
 
Length is sometimes driven by content.

For example I find ex-players talking completely boring. Its the same old stuff usually.

However if you got Steve Mcmahon to properly lift the lid and talk about his disdain for the oystons then 2 hours wouldn't be enough and time would fly by. Whereas if you got will watt to talk about his ineptitude about covering any of the oyston matter it wouldn't cover 2 minutes (not that I'd listen to him).
 
SeasidersPodcast said:
Personally, it doesn't bother me one iota if a pod is long, I actually prefer it if its an interesting topic to me. You can simply pause it and carry on where you left off next time you want to listen. Don't get where the problem is?
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This.

Joe Rogan has been the most popular podcaster for years, and a lot of his episodes are 3 hours plus, with a few being made per week!
 
Always listen to the pods.. If I can't listen to all of it at once I just come back later.... Not a problem at all... Keep doing what your doing lads... Great stuff.
 
It was nice to hear Scrafters confirmation of what went wrong with Opoku. I agree with Critch that if you’re serious about promotion half season loans in key positions aren’t the way forward.
 
I've struggled listening to Matt S before - he has a very staccato voice! Is it a Lincolnshire thing?!

Sounds like Gabriel will be a full season loan then.
 
I found the sound quality pretty rough as well, certainly when MS was speaking.

I think it was good that you covered that first topic, as I haven't heard the Gazette side of it before. It is very interesting that the EG didn't feel they could justify the cost of having a dedicated resource to cover the court case ; whilst I understand it has cost implications, what on earth did their senior management think was more important at the time?

I thought Matt was very diplomatic about their coverage of the early parts of it - the stringer from the company that owns them missed more sessions than he attended, and it was only towards the end of the main case, and before we went into the raft of supplementary days that they got in a lady who came up from Essex and did a good job of getting the newsworthy stuff back to them relatively quickly. I thought she was good, she certainly had a good feel for what were good quotes.

I know how time consuming it was to report accurately and fully on what went on. But it shouldn't have been left to J4F to make sure that Blackpool fans were kept abreast of what was going on.
 
utmp_ said:
Yes Scrafton’s laptop is a slight issue and the audio was worse than last time. We don’t have the same level of investment as the Seasiders pod!

Appreciate all the feedback. Stay tuned for some more exciting guests...
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I’m really enjoying it enough to invest in a mug! UTMP!

I’m still very grateful to Robbie for covering the case in so much detail it was like being there myself!
 
clappers said:
I’m really enjoying it enough to invest in a mug! UTMP!

I’m still very grateful to Robbie for covering the case in so much detail it was like being there myself!
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Not just me clappers (thank you though). The people who did it on the first few days when we had no idea what was coming or how much work would be involved did some sterling work.
 
Another one for a long podcast. I've not actually listened yet, (I will do!) but unless it's got a load of extraneous crap on it, which I'm sure it doesn't, keep it long. You can pause and return to a podcast any time. I often listen to podcasts over a couple of sittings. It doesn't take any effort. You just stop it and then open the app again and it starts from exactly the same spot. In fact, Google Podcasts even kindly starts you from 30 seconds before you stopped it so you get to recall what it was about.
 
Top podcast guys, keep going. Don't have a problem with the length as I find your topics interesting while also having a variety each week. As others have said, with Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc available it's now very easy to listen when possible. Long may it continue, keep up the good work!
 
I like the longer format that covers everything I can pause it if I want. Don't like the idea of several 15-20 minutes separate chunks
 
basilrobbie said:
I think it was good that you covered that first topic, as I haven't heard the Gazette side of it before. It is very interesting that the EG didn't feel they could justify the cost of having a dedicated resource to cover the court case ; whilst I understand it has cost implications, what on earth did their senior management think was more important at the time?
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you’re making the mistake of thinking the Gazette is a local company making local decisions. The ‘management’ of the Gazette has no more leeway to go and commit a few hundred pounds to hotel stays and train journeys to London than the local branch of McDonald’s or Tesco does. In fact probably less. Their job is to fill the spaces between the ever-declining numbers of adverts while sticking to a small budget that shrinks every year. So what if there’s a big local story?

PS I enjoyed the podcast, sound quality notwithstanding. Nothing wrong with a longer format if you’ve got things worth talking about. I enjoy Seasiders Pod as well, but feel I get quite a bit more value from UTMP
 
Good podcast, first time I’ve listened. Scrafton was good value with the Oyston stuff and the Gillingham analysis

Ignore the comments about the length, anything above 30 minutes is perfect me as I can listen during my morning run.

Nice to have two very good dedicated Blackpool podcasts now to listen to.
 
At least I started a debate. :)

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I think the length of podcasts very much depends on the subject matter and the approach of the broadcasters

If you are light on content keep it short

Football tends to be content heavy and therefore lends itself to longer pods

UTMP is a great addition to the unofficial football content BFC fans can now access

There’s something for everyone
 
Definitely room for variety, and length is content dependent. I just find people talking about football can be waffly and dull in many instances. But not always. You need a good 'host' to keep it moving along and relevant I think.
 
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