Episode 285: Announcing A New Format Drive On Podcast Expands Reach On WTSMTV.com Transcript

This transcript is from episode 285.

Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to Drive On Podcast. I’m going to be announcing some exciting news to share with all of you today. I’m excited to announce a brand new format for the show that’s gonna help take this show to New heights and allow us to reach even more people who can benefit from the interviews with veterans and their inspiring stories that they have to share.

And. Also the providers of services that can help veterans that we’ve been sharing on this show for the last four years. It’s incredible to me to think about that. It’s been four years since I started this [00:01:00] podcast, but starting next week, this podcast will not only be available. In the usual audio format where you’ve always been listening to it, but it also will be airing on W TSM TV in the Phoenix area and streaming online at WTSMTV.com.

We’re expanding our reach and taking the conversations to the television screen and in the digital world. This means that in addition to tuning into the podcast as you always have, you’ll now have the option to watch us on tv, catch us online opening up even more possibilities for engagement, accessibility to this show.

I think that by expanding the platform, the show can better serve the veteran community and make a positive impact on an even larger scale than it has in the past. I’ve been dedicated to providing valuable content, sharing stories, [00:02:00] discussing important topics that matter to veterans, their families, people like you.

The listeners who, if I’m being honest, without you guys tuning in and listening, none of this would’ve been possible. So first off, thank you for tuning in, but this new format is going to allow this show to connect with a wider audience, extend our reach and. Impact more veterans lives. Another advantage to expanding to TV and online platforms is that the visual aspect of television allows us to enhance this podcast in ways that we couldn’t do in the audio only format.

We can add in graphics, images, other visual elements to help. Compliment the conversations that we’re having makes the content more engaging and hopefully more impactful to the listeners and the viewers. This visual medium will allow [00:03:00] us to bring the stories and experiences of the veterans that we’re interviewing to life.

I previously had the podcast episodes on YouTube. You may be watching this episode right now on YouTube and all of the old episodes, including this one, will continue to be there. But going forward, the new video format episodes will exist only on WTSMTV.com. Now you do need an account to access it, but it’s free to sign up for an account.

They don’t send you spammy emails or anything like that, so you don’t have to worry about any of that kind of stuff. So. Head on over to w tsm tv.com and click the register link at the top of the screen. I’ll talk about more about how to sign up for an account in a little bit here. Now I understand that some of the listeners may prefer to continue enjoying the podcast in the traditional audio format, and I do want.

To assure you, I’ve mentioned this earlier, but I wanna assure you that nothing’s gonna change in that regard. The podcast will [00:04:00] continue to be available on your preferred podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else that you listen to podcasts. So you can still tune in and listen wherever and whenever you choose.

One question that I’ve gotten about this new format from some people that I’ve talked to about it is, What’s the advantage to subscribing to an online, local station? First off, about 90% of Americans nowadays who watch tv they watch TV online on services like Netflix or Hulu and other things like that.

Doesn’t mean that they’ve necessarily a hundred percent ditched other forms of television, but. So many people are using online streaming services these days. And the way that people consume different types of media is changing very rapidly. We saw during the covid pandemic that movies were no longer going to [00:05:00] the theater.

They’re going direct to a streaming service. And yes, well, you maybe had to pay for that access to that movie. They were going straight there to streaming. You know, things have changed back a little bit and their, the theaters are still in play now, but you know, things are changing. The way people consume media is changing.

And traditional cable TV subscriptions have seen a significant decline over the, the last few years. One of the things that people often miss though, when. They cut the cable to their house, is the access to local content, like events, local news, sports, things like that. So by bringing our podcast to the online television platform, we’re gonna help fill that void by providing a valuable resource to the community.

And of course, if you live outside of the Phoenix, Arizona area there’s nothing stopping you from following the show on WTSMTV.com. Either it’s free to sign up, like I said earlier. All you have to do, just [00:06:00] go to their site, sign up for an account, and you can get all the video content there if you’d like.

Well, a lot of the content on WTSMTV.com is. Local content specific to the Phoenix area. There’s a growing number of general interest shows like Drive on that will appeal to people no matter where they live. There are other health related shows. There’s business and other types of shows like that, that are on that platform.

Even sports shows that are relevant to people no matter where you live. And the nice thing about an online platform like this is that you can watch it from anywhere. And that’s the beauty I think of online television. It’s so accessible. You can tune into our show from anywhere at any time using your favorite device, whether you’re at home or on the go even abroad.

You’ll have access to our content with just a few clicks or taps, whichever device you’re using, right? Al also, unlike traditional cable [00:07:00] tv, which relies on scheduled programming, certain shows are on Friday nights at eight o’clock, or you know, other things like that, right? Online platforms allow you to watch what you want when you want.

And you can catch up on missed episodes, rewatch favorite episodes, or just segments of an episode. Or just binge watch an entire series or entire show at your own pace. Whatever works for you, it fits into your schedule, basically. But again, don’t worry if just because it’s on a station that’s local to the Phoenix area doesn’t mean that the content that we provide won’t apply just as much to veterans in Phoenix as it does to veterans in Dallas or Miami, San Francisco, New York, or any other place in the country.

If there are local resources that we talk about where maybe that are specific to the Phoenix area, we’ll try to highlight similar resources that exist in other parts of the country. So sometimes that’s possible. Other times it may not be, but I’ll [00:08:00] do my best to make sure that we have a good balance where we talk about stuff.

And some of the stuff may be local to other parts of the country. We may be talking about an organization that is local to someplace, I don’t know, in North Carolina or in Georgia or in Washington State or someplace else. And we’ll try to find other resources to talk about. And just let people know, Hey, yes, this resource exists in this particular area.

But there’s also something like this in other parts of the country as well. So maybe you have the opportunity to travel to that area and that would be great, but if not, maybe there’s an opportunity nearby in your local area. And that is great too, I think. So again, we’re gonna try to provide a good balance of local and national.

Related topics, and when we do talk about local things, we’ll make sure to include other resources that are accessible to [00:09:00] people in other parts of the country. So if you’ve always listened to the audio only format on your favorite podcast app or on Drive On Podcast dot com, nothing is changing for you.

You’ll be able to tune in every week and listen to the same great content like always. And if you’ve been watching on YouTube, Or you wanna check out the new format, you’re gonna wanna head over to WTSMTV.com. Once a you there, click on the little icon. It looks like a person, like a silhouette of a person in the top right corner, and click on the register link that opens up.

From there on the registration screen, you’re gonna wanna select the plan that you wanna subscribe to. Again, the free plan will get you access to Drive On. No problem. So click on that free plan if you want, and subscribe to that. You know, unless you want some features of one of the paid plans that they have you don’t need to pay at all.

So you’ll fill out the form. To register, fill out with your name, your email [00:10:00] password, all the other details that it asked for. Submit that form and then check your email to verify your account. Once when your account’s verified, you’ll have access to all of the content on WTSMTV.com. Now, as of now, they don’t have an app for, you know, iPhone or Android or anything like that.

There’s no apps for other devices like Roku or other kind of streaming type devices, but. The way the content’s been consumed so far is if you wanna watch it on your device, on your phone, or on a tablet or something like that, you just go to WTSMTV.com, log in, click the content that you wanna watch.

You can open it up on your, your screen there and just watch it. Other people have also used. Things like a Chromecast device where they are able to stream from their phone to their television and they can watch it in their living room, their bedroom, wherever they got a television, they can watch it all from there.

[00:11:00] And that’s another way to do it. So, as of now, the, the. The station does not have an app, but it’s just as easy to watch it on a big device like a television by streaming if you have a Chromecast or some other device that allows you to stream over to your, your television. So, you know, if any of that changes, we’ll definitely talk about that and we’ll talk how you can get access to the apps and everything like that.

But for now you know, it’s all available on their website, WTSMTV.com. Again, After verifying that account, go in, log in, click on that person icon at the top. Select log in. This time when you click there enter the username, password, and you should be able all set you should be able to access drive on.

And any other content that they have to offer there. There’s a lot of great shows that they have to offer. Drive On will be under the local section, I believe, on their website. So click that you should find the the banner or the image or whatever for Drive On. Click that and you should have access to all the [00:12:00] episodes as they become available.

On that platform. So that’s all I got for today’s episode. I know it’s a short one. Just wanted to announce this new format, get that information to you. So starting next week you should be able to access Drive On on WTSMTV.com. I want to thank Chris Weir, a former guest on this podcast early on in this.

Podcast one of the first few episodes included Chris Weir. He’s a friend of mine from the Phoenix area here. He’s also a gold star brother, army veteran. Had him on the podcast to talk about his experience in the army losing his brother in the military as well. And Chris is the CEO, the, the founder of this WTSMTV station here.

And he invited me to come on the show bring the show onto that platform, I should say. And I really want to thank him for giving me this opportunity to [00:13:00] expand the reach of the podcast. There’s. So many people who are going to now have access to it through this platform, WTSMTV. And I’m just really grateful for this opportunity.

I’m looking forward to see how far this podcast goes with this new format. But again, for the listeners, the content’s gonna be the same. We’re gonna have the content exist on WTSMTV.com. It will be there on Saturdays and Sundays, I believe, as of right now, that may change in the future, but for now I believe most of the episodes are gonna be Saturday and Sundays.

But that same content will air the following Tuesday and Thursday. On the podcast. So if you want to catch it early, check out WTSMTV.com. If you wanna check out the podcast the audio only format, you can do the same thing that you’ve always been doing. Just keep, keep subscribing. Nothing is changing for you.

So. You can continue to listen to it the way you always have. The only difference [00:14:00] is it just won’t be the video format that is existing on WTSMTV.com. If you are a subscriber on the YouTube channel the episodes will not be aired in their their full length on YouTube. May put some shorts to just kind of tease the clips and provide a link back to WTSMTV.com for you to check out the full episodes there.

I may have some other content going on to the YouTube channel. I haven’t quite decided that yet. But. Keep subscribing to the YouTube channel. If you, if you prefer the video format, WTSMTV.com is going to be the best place to get that for now. But stay subscribed to the YouTube channel. There may be other content that maybe doesn’t make it to the WTSMTV.com, and maybe it’ll end up on the YouTube channel instead.

So, yeah, stay subscribed there. Subscribe to the podcast on, you know, any other podcast app that you may use. Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcasts, [00:15:00] Amazon Music, any of the platforms that you may subscribe to are, are great. And then, yeah. Check out WTSMTV.com, even if it’s just to check out that first episode or two just to see if you like the new format and give us some feedback.

If you check it out and you like the new format let us know if you think something should change. You don’t like something yeah, let us know that too, because I’m always looking for feedback and ways that I can improve things, make things better for you. I mean, I’m doing this for me because I want to help other people, but I want.

That helpful information to be useful to the listeners and to the viewers. And if I’m not doing that, I may think that I am, but if I’m not doing that well enough, I want to know about it. And so, yeah, gimme that feedback. No matter good, bad, whatever, I, I’ve got thick skin, I can handle it. So let me know what you think.

And. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll [00:16:00] try to make some changes and adjust things if it makes sense. So, so yeah, again, that’s all I got for today’s episode. Again, tune in to Drive On, on Saturdays and Sundays coming up next week on WTSMTV.com or as usual, like I said, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, anywhere that you listen to podcasts.

Thanks again.

Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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