I know, right? Are we that pretentious that we would actually drone on about the origins of a podcast that serves a niche audience of junior hockey fans in Northeast Ohio? The short answer is no, but we need to fill space on this site. If you have made it this far without closing your browser, I promise to make this as entertaining and "Behind the Scenes-y" as I can. 

Let's start by getting the early history out of the way in a couple sentences. I signed up for season tickets in March 2016. On the last day of the '15-'16 season, I got to sit in my future seat which was behind this bald, nerdy guy who was obsessively filming the game on his phone. I had learned beforehand that his name was Justin, and he was the brains behind the HockeyPhan franchise. I introduced myself to him and told him I would be sitting behind him starting next season. His response was, "I hope you're better than the last assholes that sat there." It would be another year or so before we would talk to each other beyond exchanging pleasantries.

In December of 2018, after a few months of pitching in to proofread Justin's articles on his HockeyPhan blog, we started to have conversations about doing a project together. After a weekend of games was over, we would have these long Messenger chats about the games and the team. And I swear, our first (and worst) idea was to publish these conversations in a blog every week. That idea was promptly shown the door and asked not to return. Then Justin brought up the idea of a podcast. Since I had gone to school years ago for radio broadcasting, this caught my attention. 

We immediately went to work plotting out a show. How would we record it, what equipment would we use, what the name would be? That last one took the most time. My first choice was "Behind the Net", since that was our seat location. As you now know, that was voted down. We settled on the Dump & Chase Podcast, in honor of the Phantoms' power play for most of that season. But that was only half true. "Dump & Chase" sounded better than the "Dump & Just Stand There Podcast". 

We both purchased $30 'Podcast Starter Sets'. We learned how to record an episode by talking over the phone and recording our own audio files, then syncing the files in post-production to sound like a conversation again. But the one and only benefit to the pandemic coming along was that we had already mastered the art of recording remotely, long before 99% of other podcasters did. Upgrades in equipment and Zoom meetings becoming a thing did help, though. 

On March 29th, 2019, Episode 001 was released into the wild. We were perfectly fine, we were not nervous, and didn't think at all that we wasted our time and made a terrible mistake. We also lied to ourselves, like, a lot. But people seemed to like it. We figured Episode 002 would be our swan song and we would ride off into the sunset. We still think that after every episode. But coming into Episode 004, something amazing happened...

Early on, we knew the only way to have any bit of legitimacy was to be able to work with the Phantoms, and show them that we were there to help the team and not hinder. That started with Phantoms Team President Andrew Goldman. He was our first interview, and he asked for the questions in advance. Rightly so. We had only released three episodes, no one knew what our agenda was. And the interview was...okay. Very business-like, very get down to brass tacks-ish. But once that trust was built, we found out that the candid, blindsided Andrew was the best Andrew. But he had rubber stamped what we were doing. We owed (and still owe) him more than he'll ever know or admit.

Next on our hit list was the Voice of the Phantoms, Matt Lipcsak. The guy you heard every home game screaming goal calls and following them up with his favorite movie and TV quotes. Kind of a pop-culture Mike Lange (one of his heroes). Andrew set up a meeting between me and Matt in the press booth to talk him into coming on the show. And I was very serious in trying to sell him on doing an episode with us. As it turned out, that was the first and last serious conversation we ever had. Matt has become a friend and a fan favorite on the podcast. Seriously, we come up with every idea under the sun to get him on. He was the one who put the bug into the ear of Western Reserve Radio that there was a dedicated Phantoms podcast, at a time when they were looking for more local content and shows. And again, we owe him more than he'll ever know or admit.

From players to coaches, office staff to General Managers, we've been blessed that whenever we ask for an interview, we've rarely, if ever, been told no. But this last bit, I want to mention our 222 Crew. When you have been a season ticket holder long enough, those that sit around you become part of your family. Bob & Sherri Shaffer have been our biggest supporters since day one. Same with Kevin & Barb Carney. And the Glenn family. Mike, Carrie, and Kyri were always game to help out with whatever goofy ideas we came up with. That goes for Raylen as well, who's incredible artistic talent gave us the artwork that became our branding. 

And yes, we owe them all more than they'll ever know or admit.

Last, but certainly not least, is all of you, the fans. The history of this show can't be told without you. We have been able to do some incredible things and meet some incredible people. Without your support over the years, none of it would have happened. Your comments, suggestions, and opinions have pushed us to make this show bigger and better each week. Without all of you, what's the point? As we said a lot in the early episodes, this show is by the fans, for the fans. Thank you for taking this journey with us, and we can't wait to see where that journey takes us next!