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Happy Tuesday, folks!

This is going to be a long one…

So, I know a lot of you think that we just crack the mics – goof – and that’s about it but there really are tons of tiny and microscopic projects that Tom and I have to deal with almost on the daily. When we’re not overpricing “limited edition” studio rugs, you can find me attempting to edit something and Tom busy massaging clients and making sure that their experience with the company is as good as humanly possible. It’s a lot of plates to keep spinning.

One of, if not the most asked about project that we’ve been working on is the new “A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan” app. We were extremely lucky to have our good friend and listener MediJocre produce the very first version of the app that we currently have and he did all of it – ALL OF IT – for free. He did an amazing job and we will forever be in his debt for all of the hard work that he put into our app for absolutely nothing. Nothing. He did it just because he believed in us and he believed in the show. It really does mean more than we can ever express to him.

As with most things in life, jobs shift – families grow – time dwindles – and Joe doesn’t have the same amount of time to dedicate to the app that he once did. Totally understandable. Per his suggestion, we started looking for app developers that would be able to take on the process of giving our app updated functionality. Because we’re friends and massive fans, we hit up Shawn Wasson (The News Junkie on Real Radio 104.1 – Middays) to see if the company that has been working on his app might want to take a swing at it. Shawn seems to be piloting one of the only terrestrial radio shows that knows the importance of having your own free standing smart phone app. He’s been on the cutting edge of this type of technology and if I remember correctly, he produced his app at the same time or shortly after we released ours a few years ago. With that said, we reached out to his friends over at Mako Media and started kicking around a few ideas that we had. Needless to say, the rest is history and the new “AMT” app is currently being tested by me and a few other select people.

Here’s a sneak peek:

You might notice that the look of the home screen logo has changed. We decided to go with more of a round and clean look thanks to the fellas over at The Danger Brain. One of the best things about the DB’s is the fact that are always wanting our brand to evolve. Everything stays basically the same but with new and succinct logos that either harken back to iconography already used or a totally different and cool variation. The “splash page” logo is one that you might have seen at the “7 Year Anniversary” on a few of the newer shirts. Nothing is ever wasted – only saved and rolled in again for continuity. (Yep. We actually like to try and think about this sort of shit. I know, I know – but the The Danger Brains have us trained now to respect our brand. It’s more important than you think.) Then there’s the “home page” which is hyper linked for non-BDM members who might want to sign up, one-touch dialing for people that want to call the show, and a side slide menu in the upper left corner that will allow for the rest of the app’s navigation.

From the slide menu you’ll be able to select between Friday Free Show podcasts, BDM member podcasts, the live stream, and “Mediocre Messages” – something that has always been in the works but we’ve never had the ability or capital to pull it off. Think of it as an easier way to leave us a voice message, a picture, or a video of something that you’d like for us to see and maybe even use on the program. One of the best parts about this version of the app is the fact that we’re working out the details of allowing you to download shows for use when you don’t have a cellular or wi-fi connection. (You can see at the top that the “Tom Green Interview” arrow button looks different than the others below it. It’s sort of “ghosted.” That’s because I downloaded the show and  I don’t have to worry about a connection for streaming this particular show. This is the single most asked for feature that we’ve been emailed about and we’re really proud that we’re moving in that direction.) There are still a few details to work out, but this is what we’re shooting for.

The “live stream” option is pretty similar than before but this time you have a count down from the last show and it will tell you when something is streaming. We will also have push notifications when new shows, interviews, the live stream, or anything else pops up on our radar. (A fun fact is that we used to have this – but the company that Joe was using for our notifications went from a free service to charging an amazing amount of cash for each “push” that we sent out. In an effort to not bankrupt the show, we had to abandon that feature.) Mako Media was testing notifications this morning and it brought a big, fat, smile to my face to see those coming through again. We’re close kids! Very, very, very close!

Well, that’s about it from T&D HQ. Things are moving right along and it looks like all of you are going to have a nice, big, fat “A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan” app very, very soon! Some people have asked us if we want to ever charge for the app and the answer to that will be and always will be no. That’s not what we do. You guys do enough paying for your BDM memberships to help the show. This is Tom and my little gift to all of you who stick with us – listen – and that we consider our friends! We have the single best listeners in the world and we’re happy to do this for the show – for us – and most importantly – all of you!

Until next time,

d