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There's a new type of discussion going on about Everton.

These conversations are taking place between three mates, in empty rooms upstairs in pubs, yet thousands are listening.

But it's also happening in the privacy of front rooms, bedrooms and spare rooms, and yet everyone is invited. In offices, high-tech recording studios and in the stands, straight after the full-time whistle.

And, often, people are having these debates and arguments about the Blues, thousands of miles apart, in different time zones on a whole manner of topics to do with their club.

There's talk of everything from players to profit and loss, from managers to the mechanics of new stadium designs, nostalgia and the new, and each and every week, a significant portion of the fan-base tune in.

Podcasts are now part of a major part of many football fans' pre-match and post-match routine and never more so than in the world of Everton.

Blues fans are well-served for them too, and as well as being able to listen to those attached to established organisations, like the ECHO's Royal Blue, the number of excellent, fan-led and independent podcasts is on the rise.

“The Blue Room launched on Radio City in 2012,” explains co-owner Matt Jones.

“Dave Downie was a producer at Radio City and they had got the Anfield Wrap on for a weekly show and, in the interests of balance, they needed an Everton show and Dave came up with The Blue Room.”

Jones joined the team in 2014 and has been hosting shows for the past three years as the podcast has gone from strength to strength.

And in a show of the format's popularity, in 2017 they moved some of their content for subscribers only with the monthly fee for the Blue Room's extra content costing $5.50.

“We are still free-to-air on Radio City Talk at 6:30pm every Wednesday but Dave and I sat down and looked at the numbers and decided to take this on a little bit further and we launched Blue Room Extra at the start of the 2017-18 season," Jones said.

The Blue Room average 60,000 unique downloads of their podcasts every week, with around five hours of content for subscribers only, with the last 12 months drawing in a total of around 2.5m unique downloads.

“A lot of the people who listen to us are from overseas and they want that vicarious experience of being at Goodison Park or being in the pub after the game,” he added.

“There are a lot of really good Everton podcasts and we have tried straddling the journalist and fan angle and people come to us because of that balance.

“When people watch Match of the Day, or Sky, they become frustrated because Everton just get brushed over. You may have a situation where a pundit has never played for the club or hardly watched a minute of the game but are given a sheet of paper with the numbers from the game on and are asked to talk about Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Richarlison. Fans want more in-depth and rounded analysis.”

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Former players and famous fans are regular guests on the independent podcasts with one, launched in the summer of 2018, securing Mayor Joe Anderson as an early guest to talk about the Blues and the view they have from their recording spot – Bramley-Moore Dock.

“I started podcasting when I worked for the Echo covering Everton,” said Greg O'Keeffe, about the All Together Now podcast.

“Me and Phil Kirkbride launched the paper's first club-specific podcast,Royal Blue, and it became pretty popular, inspiring our Liverpool FC colleagues to follow suit.

“The podcasts are an important part of the company's business now.

“It was a new thing for me and I found I really enjoyed it. Once I'd left the Echo I still enjoyed listening to Royal Blue, even going on now and then, and wanted to keep my hand in.

“Me and Tony Scott, who had been a regular on Royal Blue, decided to launch All Together Now in summer 2018, basing ourselves upstairs in the Bramley Moore pub, which has long sponsored our Sunday football team.

“The view over the road at the site of our future stadium made for a nice setting, especially as progress around the new ground began to speed-up.

“It felt like a nice fit for us and a good tie-in to a location which offers such huge hope and optimism for Evertonians.”

ATN, like other fan-led podcasts such as the Toffee TV podcast, County Road Bobblers, The Blue Half Pod, Talking The Blues, The Street End and Falcon Blues, are still able to produce shows despite the lockdown brought on by the coronavirus crisis.

“Like most people in lockdown we've had to teach ourselves how to use Zoom,Skype and WhatsApp multi-call to keep producing episodes,” O'Keeffe added.

"It's been challenging but our audience figures have held-up. I think people still want a distraction from the grim headlines and doom and gloom of Covid.”

With Premier League games suspended indefinitely, much of the news agenda in football has been dominated by player wage cuts, furloughing and the future of the game's finances.

These are topics that the duo, at the heart of the Everton Business Matters podcast, are knowledgeable in discussing and analysing, with the off-field issues relating to the Blues their unique selling point since 2017.

“I was invited by Paul(The Esk on Twitter) and Rodger Armstrong to join them on a new podcast back in April 2017,” John Blain explains.

“The idea being there was a unique opportunity to talk about the non-playing side of football and the first episode was published in May of that year.

“We could never have imagined that almost three years later the podcast would still be going strong, still the only one dedicated to Everton business matters, with a loyal audience that peaks at more than 10,000 downloads an episode.

“The podcast has mainly been done remotely with Paul, myself and now Tom Martin rarely being in the same place.

"At various times we’ve recorded with at least one of the guys being overseas in such places as North America, Mainland Europe and the Far East.

“Consequently other than pressure of work the C-19 Lockdown hasn’t materially impacted on our production. We generally use Skype these days having settled on that as the most convenient technology for us.”

Everton podcasts continue to be launched with one of the more recent ones being The Unholy Trinity Podcast.

Mike Richards, along with co-founders Lee Parry and Pete, released their first show in February, 2019.

And their reasons for doing so, will resonate with many of those who create, or listen, to the range of Blues pods out there.

“As a collective, we have been exposed to national football media and the conscious bias around certain teams,” Mike told the ECHO.

“The coverage of our club is fairly dismissive at times and we wanted to offer more coverage for the Blues as well as remaining balanced and not theatrical,especially during the more frustrating periods since we started.

“The second reason centres around being able to move into a position to give back, offering exposure and highlighting key issues and the great work of so many in football. As we have built and increased our exposure, we have been able to work closely with EiTC (Everton in the Community) and in particular The Veterans' Hub.

How you can listen to our Royal Blue Everton FC podcasts On Apple Podcasts, click HERE. On Acast, click HERE. On Spotify, click HERE. On Castbox, click HERE. On Overcast, click HERE. On Player FM, click HERE. On Google Podcasts, click HERE. On Beyond Pod, click HERE. On Stitcher, click HERE. Don't forgot to subscribe to Royal Blue: The Everton FC Podcast channel as that will help us reach more Blues. And if you'd like to join our Royal Blue podcast Facebook group, click HERE.

“Our spin off podcast, The Trinity B Side, has allowed us to highlight EiTC, as well as other issues within football, such as homophobia and racism.”

Richards says the trio“rotate recording from house to house in the south of the city”using a laptop and “decent microphone” but Skype has been used during the lockdown to ensure they have kept recording.

“Listens fluctuate depending on the outcome of a match normally, however we have our hardcore listeners, who tune in every week," he adds.

“We have received some really decent feedback on the whole, with listeners enjoying the content, guests and laid back manner of the podcast.

“There are always a few who disagree with our opinions, but that's all healthy and expected when you put yourself in the public domain.”

Everton podcasts are not just hosted on Merseyside, either, with the club's global fan-base also part of the Blues' audio community.

“I started the American Toffee Podcast because I didn't know anybody that was an Everton fan and I needed a way to share my passion and interact with other fans,” Alex Johnson explains, who launched the pod in January 2018, with James Boyman joining him that September.

“James lives in Maine while I live in Virginia. We always record remotely without video. It has taken a long time for us to develop a good chemistry without being able to see each other and read body language.

“The geographic breakdown of our listeners is 64% American, 26% British,10% rest of the world.”

And so what used to be preserved for post-match pints, or over radiophone-ins, is now reaching people all over the world and podcasts are helping spread the word.

The conversation about Everton has never been so lively.