I have some questions if anyone wants to contribute in an honest way.

In your opinion, does sponsorship take away from your listening experience or from the value of our show? I.E. did you like us better before we were sponsored and started doing a lot of gear reviews and had commercials? Do the commercials bother you? Do you believe that we give biased reviews because the products are donated or do you think we give fair reviews?

Just something interesting that I've been tossing around in my head. There's a new podcast that talks about about being "self-funded" and sponsor-free and that's kind of a bit of a dig to us since we're the only other airsoft show on right now and we have sponsors. Our show is 100% self funded though as far as the actual equipment, bandwidth, etc. We don't brag about it because we didn't think that mattered to anyone. We don't take any money from sponsors at all just so that's on the record.

Hey, I think it adds to the experience, the commercials are Hillarious, and your always fair and honest in your reviews. All I can say is that even though your an expert and can compare this gun to one hundred others, try to stay simple. I don't like when you start comparing this gun to a one of five hundred special eddition gun, because most people don't have that, so it can get confusing.
Airsoftboy

I think that although the audio quality has increased to me personally the show quality has decreased. I believe that it is just a little to formal. I think that you guys should lighten up alittle. honestly i beleive that the show was a little more entertaining in the first few episodes. I a sorry but these are my opinions.

See now I like that they are more formal in there shows since a certain socal based radio show would annoy me because they would go on tangents for 15-20 mins at a time, to each his own I guess.

Now im not saying going on speals or being off topic im just saying to not be so i guess a better word would be stern.

Fair enough and I don't want it to come off like I think they are like sitting through a 3 hour lecture either when I say they are formal. I just like that they are organized and stick to a guideline of topics to cover.

I think that the show has really developed well. I have no problem with the sponsors, though I think you might put in a disclaimer somewhere pertaining to what you stated above about not receiving any actual money from the sponsors, just the guns to review. Far as I can tell, you guys are very honest and impartial in your reviews. Knowing you guys personally reinforces that feeling. I like the show being tight and well planned. As an adult, I have a lot of other things to do and listening to a two hour show on airsoft is sometimes hard to fit in. The improvement in sound quality is immensely appreciated.

Keep up the great work!

(I received no compensation for this post. No, really... I didn't!)

I too think that the show is great with sponsors and reviews. Although when reviewing a product, based on the type (say if it's a Chinese clone) keep it simple too the main points, but if it's something that is off beat and not bought as often, go a little more into detail so that we can know exactly what makes it tick. It would be nice to get a review of some of the non-main stream guns once in a while so that way we won't waist our mony on something that could be a potential pile of shiznet.

Also I think the professionalism has made it a bit bland. Some parts I think to myself "insert OPSEC humor here" but professional is good, but sometimes you just have to let a little bit of swill run the show at certain times if ya know what I mean.

Really good show!!! Takes forever to down load but its worth it...

I just thought that I would weigh in on this discussion.........

Back when Blugin and I first created Deadrag we wondered if anyone would even listen, much less that any retailer would want to put their name in the show as a sponsor in anyway.
After a few episodes, and some great feedback we saw that (much to our suprise) the show was much more of a success than either of us could have hoped for. The idea of going out and getting sponsors was born out the necessity to have gear to review on the show. We had run out of our own gear to review at that point, and since neither of us are millionares we couldn't finance the gear review segment of the show on our own. I started contacting different retailers and simply set up an agreement that if they would send us gear to review on a regular basis. We would create an on air ad for them and run it on the podcast. We were clear with all of them however, that if they sent us something that we thought sucked we would say so on the show.

That's it very simple, plus we felt that the ads made the show seem more like a real talk show that you would hear on the radio.

This new show is going to have a difficult time if they........

1. Don't do any gear reviews, becuase listeners of Deadrag have said that that is one of thier favorite segments.

2. Try to review gear that they have or plan to purchase.

3. Continue to take digs at Deadrag. When Jeff and I started Deadrag we were the new piss ants and OPSEC was HUGE. We damn sure didn't start off by taking shots and them and never did. We showed them the upmost respect and courtesy and they did the same. Even after Deadrag started challenging and eventually surpassing them in popularity.

Anyway that's my two cents. In my opinion the show is better and stronger than ever, and Jeff and Micah are doing a fantastic job.

Thanks Warriormessiah!! I really appreciate that!

Yah, he's definitely right on for sure.

Thanks to everyone who posted on here. While my original intent was to get some insight into the sponsorship thing, I've learned a few things too. I will say that we are not going to change our style or structure of the show. We will continue to be "serious" in that we actually have content that we want to bring and keep it organized and on schedule. We are not a "roundtable discussion" type show and we never will be. If that makes us boring, then that's just us then. There are other shows offering that type of content if that's your thing. That's like asking the news to be more like a sitcom. It ain't gonna happen because that's not what it is. We want to be the ultimate information source for airsoft and give great tips and talk about what people want to hear about. I personally don't enjoy the times when other shows get off topic to the extent that it gets annoying. That can be any show too, not necessarily airsoft, but I think things can be light but need to stay on topic and professional. While some banter can be ok, that's just not our thing.

But again, thanks and let's keep this thread open and going. I encourage any listener to post up anything at all, positive or negative. Thanks everyone!

One thing I just thought of while reading your post, Jeff, is a segment where listeners send in tips and such, kinda like a Hints from Heloise for airsoft. Maybe call it Tip of the week or some such.

That's a great idea! Maybe we'll do that!

Blugin, Swell, and anybody else that may be on the super secret DeadRag support team,

You guys are definitely doing an extremely 100% good-to-go job at the radio show. Since the improvement of the audio, and the growing inclusion of the sponsorship, I have found the show to continue to grow by leaps and bounds in how awesome it truly is. My favorite parts of the show have always been things I found myself quickly relating too, and keeps me consistently coming back for more.

Judging by the polls that were being taken on your site a while back, it measured basically what content your listeners really would like to hear from. The polls mostly reflected the listeners really wanted to hear about the new weapons, however there was also strong followers of tactical equipment and tactics. While I dont feel the sponsorship and improved audio takes away from the show at all, I do find myself a little disappointed sometimes because I have found some of the shows are beginning to become a bit lopsided on what is being reviewed. A few episodes only reviewed weapons, and no mention of tactics. Or perhaps what about new high-quality tactical vests coming out? Gear fashion trends (that we all secretly know exist)?

While true there isn't as high a following to the above mentioned as the people wishing to hear weapon reviews, I do feel sometimes left out on what I find as my favorite part of the show.

In other news,
I'm very much a fan of a lot of the original episodes. This was back when much of the content was generated by local events, and I commonly heard guests that I personally knew. It was extremely thrilling, and very educational. I still will listen to those episodes on a regular basis. When the show decided to move a bit more into the national realm, I felt it lost a connection with me on that previous personal level. In recent episodes, I'm finding more subtile elements reconnecting me to the show. Those small things make EVERYTHING completely off the wall 1337.

Kickass!

I've only gotten through one episode but so far so good. I wish it would show vids as well. I clicked on the button needed in iTunes and it just shows the emblem but that's ok. Keep up the good work and I hope you will start to come out with more episodes more rapidly. Do you guys plan on making site inspections/interviews as well to fields, retailers and such? Might be a cool idea. Also, send me some link info and such as my buddy and I run an airsoft site at http://www.norcalairsoft.ning.com. Check it and maybe we can through up your site info on there.