After a third century of episodes, David Evans sheds some light into the method behind the madness that is Wolves Fancast.
300 episodes of Wolves Fancast.
Ruddy hell.
Seriously? 300? I really don’t know where that’s come from.
I’ve wanted to write something to mark this milestone.
On first draft, this piece seems more like ramblings. So take it as that.
For some reason, there are enough of you who to want to listen to us 300 times over. Unless we have just decided to keep recording regardless…
A little bit of history
On and off, we’ve being going for about ten years now.
Originally we were the ‘Wolves Football Fancast Show’ via the website footballfancast.com in 2007.
After a little break (two years) we came back in 2010 and eventually branched off on our own as ‘Wolves Fancast’.
Back in the day we saw a niche. You wouldn’t really get to hear about Wolves in the national press, unless there was a quick mention on Football Focus or 5 live.
So we thought, why not create that weekly coverage for fellow fans and fill that gap.
Ever since that day, our ambition has grown and we have set our own bar higher for what we want to achieve.
We’ve recorded shows in the highest heights, and shows in double dip relegation’s.
You imagine recording those relegation season podcasts every week. It was tough.
Well, not really tough. It is just football at the end of the day.
But oh boy, the pain! The pain of it! You’ve let us down again you… ruddy Wolves people you!
A bunch of virgins
I don’t really know where this tagline came from.
It started to spread about Fancast, and to be honest, we like it.
It’s the ‘cool thing’ to say about us.
Apart from the seven immaculate conceptions we have had as a group, we’ve embraced this new nickname.
Hey, you can even buy a t-shirt about us being ‘virgins’.
Evolution
As time has passed, we’ve had to change how we do this podcast malarkey.
Other people have joined the game, and it meant that we have had to look at ourselves and change the tone of voice and manner in which we discuss and report the life and times of our beloved club.
The club and Mr Timothy Spiers report on club matters (excellently may we add), so why regurgitate what they say?
The way we report matters had to change.
An example of this is our use of pop culture.
If you follow our strange Twitter account, you will notice our constant connections to 90’s films, Alan Partridge and wrestling (more on that in a second).
Why? Well firstly, why not?!
Secondly, it’s about connections.
If you relate an event or a moment to something relevant to your childhood, it will help you to understand and have a connection to it. That make sense?
It’s something Seth McFarlane uses heavily in his works and has spoken previously about his strong use of pop culture in Family Guy.
So that’s why we love using Gifs, Gifs and Gif’s again to explain what’s going on at Wolves.
We love pop culture and nostalgia. We think you do to.
Fancast doesn’t take things seriously. We love our club, but we also know that it can’t be the reason for life.
Times get tough. I’m sure under our new Chinese and Portuguese overlords it will get rough at one point.
“Only £21 million for a player?! Spend more! Fosun out!”
If you can’t see the fun in the dark, then supporting Wolves just becomes depressing.
We see the light in the night, and we will still enjoy it after a weekly 5-0 thumping.
It’s real to me, dammit!
Hey! Guess what you guys really like about Wolves Fancast?
That’s right! Wrestling!
For some of us on the pod, we haven’t grown up and it’s probably where the ‘virgins’ tag line came from.
‘How can you like something about greased up men?’ is one of the usual line of questioning.
‘You know it’s fake and all pre-determined, right?’
Yep, that’s right. But so is Game of Thrones. So…
Our use of wrestling goes back to this idea of pop culture. Everyone knows what WWE is. Most of us have watched it once in our lives. So we just tap into it.
‘HIT HIM WITH A CHAIR!’, ‘STOP THE DAMN MATCH!’ ‘STUNNER FROM AUSTIN!’.
All phrases most of us, even non-wrestling fans will know. We just tap into this circus and relate it to Wolves.
Fancast Worldwide
It is from wrestling where one of our biggest achievements comes into play.
One of our loyal listeners, Ash Dolan, last year went to see ‘Wrestlemania’.
The super-bowl, FA CUP final of WWE events as it were.
Without prompting or being requested, he kindly made a Wolves Fancast banner and took it to Texas.
What followed the next day was a ‘set you face to stun’ moment.
In the opening match, in a crowd of over 100,000 people, with millions and millions of people watching worldwide, there, on my TV, was a Wolves Fancast logo in the crowd.
This summer Ash topped this feat by going to WWE’s PPV ‘SummerSlam’ and not only was front and centre of the TV camera with the banner for the entire event, but the following TV shows that week.
Now, Wolves Fancast is a brand, and our goal has been to nurture and grow this into a recognisable brand among our fans.
You might see this as a Fancast logo at a silly fake event.
We see it as a brand advertising to millions of people throughout the world, thanks to a customer advocate.
Any brand would kill for that kind of customer loyalty and free promotion.
A bunch of virgins did that from their mom and dads dining room.
The Real Cast
This podcast would not have been possible without the time and effort of all those who have taken part.
The travelling, the rants and the high pitched squeals have all made it possible.
I’ve pressed the record button and these guys have done the talking and hopefully helped you to decide to keep listening.
My gratitude goes out to them and I’ll get this bit of dirt from out of my eye…
Fellow Fancastian Richard Hobbs gets a big thanks from me. Rich now runs the empire with me and his tireless work has helped to grow our podcast immensely.
A big thanks the Media team at Wolves, especially Head of Media, Paul Berry.
He and the club took a punt on us one day in 2013 when we asked to do a video interview with our Icelandic Prince Bjorn Sigurdarson.
They have since continued their faith in us when we have asked for a chance to interview someone, and we hope we have repaid their faith in the quality of work we have produced.
Romeo – Done
That’s my incoherent ramblings.
There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes at Fancast HQ.
It’s all done though two reasons. The love of our club – Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, and you.
If you have listened to our pod, read a blog, liked an instagram post or chuckled at one of our tweets. Thank you.
Thank you for listening, downloading, tweeting, ranting and trolling us for the last few years.
If it wasn’t for you doing this, we wouldn’t be anywhere. So thank you for making Wolves Fancast what it is today.
We want to entertain, inform and hope through what we do, we connect you with your fellow Wolves fans.
Whether you’re listening by the Man on the Horse or the under the sunny skies of California, I hope you have enjoyed.
Two of our podcast clan, one current and one alumni, have cited Fancast as one of the main reasons why they got into University. Not bad, eh?
So, here’s to 300 more.
Right. I’m off to see which other Hollywood celebrity we can ‘convert’ into a Wolves fan.
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