By Pete Vack
Carsyeah gave the editor a chance to chat about Mary, whose photos enabled him to get his articles published. Photo by Jesse Alexander
But it isn’t just another website cum blog opinion and BS or a place to buy and sell classic cars. In fact Mark stays behind the scenes, hardly noticed or heard from. His splendid idea is to go out (from the comfort of his home via Skype phone) and interview hundreds of car enthusiasts. Mark is particularly interested in guys who have turned their hobby into a business, like Bill Warner and his great Amelia Island event, Barry Maguiar of Car Crazy and Maguiar Wax, Jesse Alexander, Keith Martin, and even lesser known worthies such as myself (aha, a disclaimer!!!) who are not in the public eye but are usually lifelong car enthusiasts who have started a business based on their hobby. In other words, you needn’t have won at Le Mans three times in a row to be interviewed, and that’s another thing that makes Carsyeah special.
Burt Levy did his bit for Carsyeah. But he has so many great stories his interview went for two parts!
Mark does this in the form of a podcast…and each interview lasts about 30 minutes. He carefully edits the material and does his best to “make his subjects sound great” (thank you Mark) but eliminated the uh word and other such words that sound stupid or obscene. Another nice feature is that in most cases, Mark uses the same format for everyone…so that each reflects upon another for comparison if desired. Says Burt Levy, the irrepressible author of The Last Open Road, “Mark has a very well worked-out format where he e-mails you the basic framework of the interview and the questions he plans to ask, asks for your input and then remains flexible enough to ‘let the narrative take you where it wants to go.”
Henry Reisner of Intermeccanica was a great subject for the podcast.
But thirty minutes? With an Internet attention span usually counted in seconds, it seems a bit long, even if your subject is say, Sir Stirling Moss. Well, it seems that newer cars…at least cars newer than our vintage cars…have the means via iTunes and download capabilities that make longer podcasts quite effective. Mark did a lot of research when I began podcasting and discovered the perfect length of time is about 30 minutes…“This is because most people who listen to podcasts do it on their mobile device or in their car. The average commute in the United States is 28 minute along and most people spend 30 minutes when walking, exercising, etc. So, you’ll see most of my interviews are 30 minutes plus in length.”
Michael Furman, studio photographer and a genius behind the lens, can be heard if you clic the pic.
But what about making the interviews a video then? Would the not be more interesting? Mark replied that “Podcasts are audio only. I do have a YouTube page I am posting interviews on but I don’t add visual elements other than the page I create with my guest’s photos. The work involved for such a video presentation would be enormous and beyond my band with today. Perhaps someday I can create a Petrolicious style video however my focus is audio only right now.” And for all that work, a video would not be viewed while walking, exercising or commuting (at least not yet anyway).
Peter Brock, automotive designer, noted for the Cobra Daytona Coupe. Clic pic to listen.
So the interviews should be entertaining and informative. This is not easy to do. Mark says that “The best way to make the show interesting for listeners is to tell stories. People love stories about you, your life, and most importantly what you are doing with your hobby or business.”
If readers go to Cars Yeah and Subscribe, they get a free Fill ‘R Up e-book. A 20 page, full color book filled with over 60 images of fuel filler fun and inspirational quotes by automotive enthusiasts.
Others who should be well known to VeloceToday readers, and who have done interviews on Carsyeah:
Michael T. Lynch
D. Randy Riggs
Frank Mandarano
Tony Singer
Donald Osborne
Marshal Buck
Cliff Reuter
To find out more about Mark Greene, clic on the pic.
Mark is always looking for the perfect guest. If you are that person, or you know that person, check out his Guest Search page and apply. Then you too can be a star on Cars Yeah and inspire others.
Some years back, Dave McLellan created some nice podcasts for his website, it’s a great way to preserve history in an easy to digest format–
http://corvettechief.com/
While they are Corvette-themed, he interviewed a wide variety of interesting people.
(disclaimer–my father, Bill Milliken, was interviewed for one of them, about pioneering chassis engineer Maurice Olley)