After two years, the Oh, Deer podcast is coming to an end.
The 32nd and final episode of the podcast will be released on Dec. 11, which is the two-year anniversary of the first episode.
“We’ve been talking about (ending the show) for quite a while. It’s not a spur-of-the-moment decision – the band’s not breaking up or anything like that,” said Ted Emmett, who hosts the podcast alongside Dustin Moore, Kevin Walsh, Ryan Lund and Erin Zatylny.
“This all started as a project out of COVID boredom. It escalated so quickly and got popular. … It kind of caught up to us when life went back to normal. Everyone’s been busier; one of our members has a young baby now too. Things are just different. It’s a big podcast too, it’s hard to get everyone together in the studio regularly.”
Emmett described the past two years as a “life-changing experience” for the podcast team.
“At the beginning, we thought it was just going to be something fun for us to do and maybe a way to entertain our friends. We didn’t think we’d start getting people who we never met listening to us,” he said.
“We had partners coming on board too. The support was pretty incredible. In the last episode (which has already been recorded) Ryan Lund said he didn’t know this was something he needed until it happened. I think that rings true for all of us.”
The penultimate episode, which was released this past week, featured an interview with Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston.
“That was almost the point we realized the success of the podcast. The mayor of Red Deer was agreeing to come on for an interview. We always joke that we’re just a bunch of nobodies doing a basement podcast, but for him to come on and have full confidence that it will be a good interview … really made it feel like we had done something good here,” said Emmett.
There were many memorable moments over the past two years, Emmett added. One of his favourite moments was when the team did a photoshoot for 2022 Red Deer Firefighter Calendar. The team also hosted the launch party for the calendar’s launch.
“We learned a lot from this whole experience. It wasn’t just sitting around, drinking a beer and talking on a microphone. We were learning public speaking skills and we’re entertainers now,” said Emmett.
While the full podcast is coming to an end, the Oh, Deer team will continue to be active on social media and release occasional interviews, Emmett noted.
“The core of our podcast was about showcasing our community and the people in our community,” said Emmett.
“We want to keep doing that. … On behalf of everyone involved in this podcast, I can’t thank our community enough for their support.”
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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