Meet Jeramy Kahle of The Canned Air Podcast

Jack Dougherty, Randy Hardenbrook, and Jeramy Kahle of The Canned Air Podcast

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeramy Kahle.

Hi Jeramy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Since the 90’s, I had been playing music with my friends regularly. From 2000-2010, we were playing in bars and at partys, as well as writing a lot of our own music. We wanted to record as much of it as we could and would occasionally pay for sessions at a local recording studio, but we wanted the freedom to record on our own whenever we wanted. So, I started piecing together a home studio, gathering multiple microphones, a mixer, software, etc. But by the time I had a functioning home studio, we were all at a place where we weren’t playing music regularly anymore and I found myself left with all of this equipment.

I was debating, “Should I just turn around and sell it all, or is there a way I can repurpose it?” Then in early 2013 I learned about podcasting. The idea that anyone could record their own show and put it out to the world without the aid of a radio station blew my mind. I knew this is how I would repurpose my gear. The next question I faced was, “What will the show be about?” I thought I would do a music show, perhaps featuring local bands that were looking for exposure, but being new to podcasting I wasn’t sure how to execute this idea. So the idea of doing a podcast was pushed to the back burner for a few months.

Then in September of 2013, I attended my first comic con. The experience was mind-blowing for me. I didn’t know this kind of hard core fandom existed. There were toy and comic vendors as far as the eye could see, every other person dressed from head to toe in elaborate cosplay, stars from my favorite tv shows and movies making themselves available to their fanbase, and so much more. I even got to meet Stan Lee.

I left the convention knowing I wanted to be a part of this world somehow. When I got home, I sat my bag of goodies from the con down on the desk next to my mixer, and it clicked. “That’s what the podcast will be about!’ I was working with co-host Jack Dougherty at the time, and everyday we’d talk about comic books, television, and movies to get through the 9 to 5. I asked Jack the following Monday after the con if he’d be interested in making our daily conversations into a podcast and he quickly said yes. Two weeks after that, we recorded our first episode and have been recording weekly ever since. Then in 2019, long-time fan of the show Randy Hardenbrook joined the podcast as our third co-host and has been with us since.

Over time, our show went from talking only amongst ourselves to welcoming guests to join in the conversations, as well as promote their own work. We’ve been lucky to have a variety of different guests, ranging from comic book artists/writers, producers, musicians, voice and screen actors, and more.

We are now in our eighth year of producing Canned Air: A Tribute to Pop Culture and are still having a blast!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When we first started researching the world of podcasting, we had read online that most podcasts only last approximately ten episodes, and we now understand why.

The biggest challenge producing this show was realizing how much time we’d have to dedicate to it as we grew. It’s more than just sitting behind a microphone and talking for an hour. It’s a full-time job that requires hours of editing audio, designing original cover art for each episode, managing multiple social media platforms, sending multiple emails every week, researching each guest before we speak with them, etc.

There are things we do that aren’t necessarily required to make a podcast, like having a new guest every week or making original cover art for every episode, but we do it to keep the show as interesting as we possibly can.

All of the time we dedicate to this show can, and defiantly has, gotten under our skins in the past. There are times we get irritated with each other, times that we can’t get the guests we’d like to get, times our numbers aren’t as good as we’d like them to be, times we just don’t feel like working on it, and the list goes on. There have been several occasions we had even thought about quitting. But what we’ve come to realize is that persistence is the key to doing this. You have to power through the bad times and make sure to stop and appreciate the good ones when they happen.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are very proud of the catalog we’ve put together over the past eight years. We’ve had the opportunity to speak with many people that we, and many other people, admire.

We’re very proud and honored to have welcomed guests like Gates McFadden (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Billy West (Ren & Stimpy, Futurama), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Michael Winslow (Police Academy, Spaceballs), Emily Swallow (The Mandalorian), Tara Strong (Loki, Voice of Harley Quinn, Powerpuff Girls), Phil LaMarr (Pulp Fiction, Mad TV), Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hocus Pocus, Star Trek Discovery), Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Co-Creator), Rob Paulsen (Animaniacs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Susan Bennett (Voice of Siri), and many others.

I think what sets us apart from other podcasts is how we present our show. We obviously aren’t the first pop culture podcast, far from it. So I believe extra work is required to set yourself apart in an already saturated genre.

For example, we make sure our cover art is the best it can look without giving too much away. I’ve seen shows in the past who’s cover art is a picture of the cast sitting around a card table with microphones in someone’s basement. I’m not saying there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, it might work just fine for what they’re doing. But I know my immediate perception of that podcast is just that, some guys in a dark basement and I probably won’t try to listen.

So again, we try to make our cover art the best it can look. We make sure we get the best guests on our show that we possibly can. We try to make our website and social media handles look as professional as we can. Whether or not we are successful isn’t for me to say, that’s up to the listener to determine. But absolutely everything we do in making this show is based around three words, perception is reality. Every episode could be someone’s first, so we do our best to make each one look and sound the best it can.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I like best about Columbus is that there’s a large presence of creativity here. There are so many artists that are very open to helping other artists get their work seen and/or heard. We’ve received a tremendous amount of support from our community and do our best to pay it forward when we can.

I can’t say there’s anything I really dislike about Columbus. The only disadvantage of being in Columbus I can think of, producing the kind of show we do, is not being closer to the big cities that most of our special guests call home. We talk to all of our guests via Zoom, Skype, or the telephone, and though it’s a great way to talk with these people, I’d much rather be able to sit down with them in person. Very much like Marc Maron does on his show WTF. I believe it makes for a better conversation.

Contact Info:

• Email: CannedAirPodcast@gmail.com
• Website: CannedAirPodcast.com
• Instagram: @Canned_Air
• Facebook: facebook.com/cannedairpod
• Twitter: @CannedAirPod
• Youtube: Canned Air
• Other: evergreenpodcasts.com/canned-air