Recently the crew at Kootenay and Coast Mountain Culture magazines took to the airwaves to record their first-ever radio segments. Should we make this a regular podcast? You decide.

Last year Andrew Zwicker, the talent behind the “You Can Do That Here” podcasts created for the Kootenay Association for Science & Technology Culture, did a podcast with Mountain Culture Group’s online editor Vince Hempsall called “How to tell an engaging story” and with KMC/CMC Publisher Peter Moynes called “How to win with quality.”

It got us thinking, maybe we should do our own podcast? So we headed to the Kootenay Co-op Radio studios, slapped on some ear goggles, cracked some beer (shhh, it’s not allowed in the studio) and got to talking. (Huge thanks to sound engineer Terry Brennan for his technical expertise by the way and of course props to the Kootenay Co-op Radio for letting us use their space. Also, thanks to Nelson Brewing Company for supplying the beer we didn’t drink in the studio.)

Above: Publisher Peter Moynes (left) gets grilled by Darren Davidson (foreground) about the state of the magazine industry while sound engineer Terry Brennan looks on. Top: Mitchell Scott most definitely is not drinking beer in the studio.

Deputy editor Darren Davidson has a background in radio so he did all the interviewing and he began with publisher and editor-in-chief Mitchell Scott . They started by talking about what mountain culture means and Mitch replies, “Well, ‘mountain’ is quite obvious. It’s a large piece of land that thrusts upwards into the sky” whereupon Darren interrupts by saying, “Uh, this is a family show.” Mitch then continues by describing culture and how largely we equate is to arts and society but there’s also the growth aspect of the term, like bacteria culture, and “we really look at mountain culture that way: where is our lifestyle going and how it’s changing.” Listen to the segment with Mitch below.

Editor-in-Chief Mitchell Scott on the culture of the mountains:

 

Next Darren interviewed Vince Hempsall, Kootenay Mountain Culture managing editor and online editor for the Mountain Culture Group. They talked a lot about the online medium and how MCG differentiates itself from all the other websites out there. “We maintain the quality of the magazines on the site but we can do a lot more with it, such as video and sound,” Vince explains. “But I promise you this, you’ll never find a top 10 list on our website.”

Online Editor Vince Hempsall on the state of digital media:

 

After that it was publisher and photo editor Peter Moynes’s turn to step up to the mic. He talked about the magazine industry in general, how Kootenay Mountain Culture got started and how it’s still going after 15 years despite so many other magazines closing up shop. “It’s not an easy business and you can lose out heavily and quickly. It’s not just guys hanging around in studios drinking beer. That’s not how we got to this place. For all the joking around there’s a lot of number crunching too.”

Publisher Peter Moynes on the magazine industry:

 

The final interview had to be done over the phone because Coast Mountain Culture editor Mike Berard lives on Vancouver Island and the microphone cord didn’t extend that far. Darren interviewed him about the art of story telling and the importance of good writing in an increasingly visual world. There are a lot of amazing photographers out there and we feature most of them, Mike states, but “we don’t stop there. We want to be able to tell a story the way people have been doing for millennia…with words.”

Coast Mountain Culture Editor Mike Berard on storytelling:

 

So, what do you think? Should Kootenay and Coast Mountain Culture magazines continue doing shows like this and create a regularly running podcast? If so, leave a comment below and we’ll happily honour the requests by grabbing a six-pack, heading to the studio, and most definitely not drinking it while seated at the microphones.