{"id":267,"date":"2024-10-22T21:43:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/?page_id=267"},"modified":"2024-10-22T21:43:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:43:52","slug":"rumble-room-vodcast-hosts-tackling-tough-issues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/rumble-room-vodcast-hosts-tackling-tough-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumble Room Vodcast Hosts Tackling Tough Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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September 2nd\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0Robin Adair<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0John Juricic<\/strong>\u00a0looked at each other one day in 2001 and decided: \u201cLet\u2019s Get Ready To Rumble!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just like that, Victoria\u2019s top online vodcast \u2013 video podcast \u2013 was born. Tuning in to their Rumble Room<\/strong><\/a> has become must-watch viewing, as it tackles important issues with their gloves off that affect the Capital Region, Vancouver Island, British Columbia and Ottawa, with respected local, provincial and national guests joining the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juricic and Adair are not exactly the odd couple, and both have been well known in the Victoria business community for many years. Juricic has been involved in the technology sector and social media and manages the company he founded, Harbour Digital Media<\/strong><\/a>. Both men are former Chairs of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce<\/strong>. Adair attended the University of Victoria <\/strong>on a theatre scholarship and switched his major to history and political science, studied broadcast journalism at BCIT<\/strong>, and is a former radio and television broadcaster and newspaper columnist who once ran for the provincial BC Liberals<\/strong>. Neither are afraid to speak their mind, and they enjoy lively banter with personalities from all political stripes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome folks play golf, some become alcoholics and we became vodcasters,\u201d laughs Juricic. \u201cIt\u2019s the end of the beginning, and there are some fascinating places where this can go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adair agrees, declaring \u201cWe go all over the map. We don\u2019t want to get known as just a political show. We\u2019ve had political scientists looking into the U.S. election and campaigning in Canada. We\u2019ve had David Schneider<\/strong> on, talking about the economy, and we\u2019ve discussed the impact of short-term rentals on the marketplace, and a host of other topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the learning that we do and the interaction with people from all different walks of life,\u201d he adds. \u201cSince we\u2019ve been doing this show I\u2019ve been able to tap into that. We\u2019ve been exposed to all kinds of ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rumble Room has had over 2.25 million hits, and Adair and Juricic are constantly working on driving up the number of likes and views. The strength of their following has surprised them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the last two and a half years, it\u2019s been a legitimate show,\u201d says Adair. \u201cWe\u2019re now averaging 80,000 to 100,000 views per month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adair has a very long trap-line of colourful characters from which to draw from as guests from his broadcasting career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s trial and error to a degree, as we need to get people on who are animated and interesting,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe can have a so-so topic with a great personality that will carry the show. If you can\u2019t sell it, nobody is going to watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Juricic: \u201cWe love to get people on with big personalities who are really interesting and passionate, and yet aren\u2019t objectionable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After they were on the Rumble Room format for about six months the creators were approached by the local cable outlet to do a 30 minute version of their show on community television. But when they met, it became immediately apparent that partnership would never take flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe realized that when you work with a big player like that, there will likely be concerns about some of our editorial content,\u201d notes Juricic. \u201cWe were told that cable had a policy not to carry any stories about Covid 19 as they didn\u2019t want any misinformation being spread via their broadcast. We recognized that people were tuning into our show because we provided different points of view although we never criticized the vaccination program or the other health mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adair adds: \u201cthe pandemic was one of the biggest stories I\u2019d ever covered and I was pretty frosty about cable\u2019s stance. So, we said thanks and goodbye. We learned an important lesson of what could happen if a sponsor took exception to our tone or content, and we were determined to stay away from that type of interference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juricic believes Rumble Room is a prototype of what successful media can be in the digital age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther vodcasts have started within the last 6-9 months,\u201d he adds. \u201cPeople are recognizing that if they want to distribute a message, they have to use this template. There\u2019s some consistent amount of work and technical expertise that is required to do this properly, and Robin and I have just fallen into a place in life where we have the time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of monetizing their format is answered through the huge number of online views, and advertisements \u2013 not generated by them personally \u2013 tag along because of the viewership, and royalty payments follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe this is a sustainable model, but I\u2019ve never been worried about making money on it,\u201d says Adair. \u201cBut it wouldn\u2019t be terrible thing to get some local advertising for the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adair exited the broadcasting sphere in the early 2000s and got involved in government relations work where he bumped into Juricic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasically, we\u2019d entertain each other at Chamber retreats,\u201d Adair chuckles. \u201cIt\u2019s great to find people you really enjoy and like, and we really got on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a few years to reconnect, however. Adair and his wife, television personality Marisa Antinucci<\/strong>, moved to Vancouver then moved back to Victoria again, she continuing her position as Vice President of Communications for the Doctors of BC<\/strong>, and he as a consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlmost immediately after we came back, the pandemic everything slowed down. Marissa was working from our dining room for three years, and I was kicking around, wondering what I going to do with my time. There had to be something I could do that was fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came across some video podcasts that John was doing and we reconnected and wondered if we should try do to one together. I said we\u2019d figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timing, they say, is everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were witnessing, collectively, the gradual demise of traditional media, so we thought we better get a handle on what a podcast is all about,\u201d Juricic recalls. \u201cTogether with a local Social Media celebrity and prior to the launch of the VRR, I had already produced close to 300 podcasts and thought that was really fun. As broadband and the internet became stronger and technically more robust, video quickly started to replace the audio piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a tandem, Juricic is the technical producer, while Adair creates the content and editorial direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fascinating to see how this format and template and personality set has resonated with such a large audience,\u201d Juricic observes. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to go with it. We have no expectations of quitting any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Examiner Staff<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2nd\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Robin Adair\u00a0and\u00a0John Juricic\u00a0looked at each other one day in 2001 and decided: \u201cLet\u2019s Get Ready To Rumble!\u201d And just like that, Victoria\u2019s top online vodcast \u2013 video podcast \u2013 was born. Tuning in to their Rumble Room has become must-watch viewing, as it tackles important issues with their gloves off that affect the Capital Region, Vancouver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-267","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/267\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriarumbleroom.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}