At long last, an announcement…

Welcome to the first episode of Dwight & Sirk Talk Black & Gold, a new Crew podcast I am co-hosting with the longtime Voice of the Crew, Dwight Burgess.

A few weeks ago, Dwight called me about a new project idea. We had a good discussion about it, plus we talked about an old project idea I had been batting around, and we agreed to pursue those ideas now that Dwight has stepped down from his broadcasting role. Although he stepped down for health and family reasons, the additional free time would allow him to pursue other projects at a less-demanding pace than required of his television role.

After we hung up, my wife asked what we were talking about. I told her and she said, “You and Dwight should also start a podcast.” She probably just wanted me to have something else to occupy my time instead of bugging her, but it actually seemed like a good idea. I always enjoy talking with Dwight and it would be a way to keep him actively connected with the Crew even though he won’t be broadcasting games this year.

Our goal is to make a podcast that is just two longtime Crew guys talking about the club. We’ve had a lot of history and experience over the last quarter century and when we get together we inevitably talk about the Crew anyway because the club has been so central to each of our lives. So we’ll talk about that history and our experiences, as well as the current season, and we eventually hope to bring on guests from all the wonderful people we’ve met and befriended over our years as part of the Crew family.

There are already many prominent Crew podcasts out there. Ours doesn’t even uniquely boast of being hosted by professional broadcast talent, as that is also true of “The Massive Report Podcast” (with CD 102.5’s Brian Phillips) and “Bone & Beam United” (with 97.1 The Fan’s Jonathan “T-Bone” Smith and Brandon Beam.) And that’s not mention the actual radio show “Inside The Crew” hosted by our dear friend / my Slovenian brother Neil Sika and astute newcomer Jordan Angeli, which is also available in podcast form on the club’s official site. So we don’t have the market cornered there. And in terms of real-deal journalism, it’s impossible to top “The Soccer Speakeasy” with Columbus Dispatch beat writer Jacob Myers, columnist Michael Arace, and photographer Kyle Robertson. And in terms of irreverent fun and supporter culture, we will never catch up to “Aces Radio.” (Although we are constantly assured that each episode could be its last.) And in terms of podcasting about the Crew in Spanish, we are at 0% proficiency compared to “Al Angulo.”

In fact, all of those other podcasts feature people who are good at talking, which is only half-true of Dwight & Sirk Talk Black & Gold. Nonetheless, our hope is that we complement all those other fine Columbus Crew podcast options.

In the debut episode, we look back at a Crewsmas victory, where my in-game attention span is exposed by Dwight’s analysis. (At least I came with locker room audio clips!) I then get Dwight to open up about his experiences during his emotional pregame retirement honors. We then discuss the earliest days of Dwight’s job as Voice of the Crew, including radio clips from 4/20/96, one of which delights me as it is definitive proof of a statistical error I have tried to get corrected for years. There’s new hope!

So that’s episode one. We will surely evolve as time goes on. The idea is that it’s just two guys talking Crew, whether that’s Crew history, the current season, personal stories, and/or conversations with guests. We’ll see what happens as we grow into it!

I am totally new at podcasting, so if you have any suggestions or comments about the show, whether it’s about things you’d love to see or things we (namely I) can improve upon, please email me at sirk65@yahoo.com. My twitter DMs are also open @stevesirk.

With that, here is Episode One: Crewsmas 2020

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Email: sirk65@yahoo.com

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