VGN Radio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VGN Radio alternate logo

Video Game News Radio (shortened to VGN Radio) is also known as Medispective and is a gaming podcast that now covers a range of topics on media in general. The show is hosted by Kevin Baird, Brian Baird, Don Anderson and occasionally a guest host. VGN is incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio and has been online for 10 years with the podcast running for 1.5 years consecutively. They have done NPR interviews and have appeared on television as point-counter point on national news shows. Kevin Baird is also the maintainer and manager of the ipodder.org games directory listing.

VGN airs live each Sunday between 8:05pm EST to 9:30pm EST at: www.live365.com/stations/vgn_radio.

As of July 2006, VGN airs biweekly.

The show is now a part of the All Games Radio network, and airs Tuesdays at 10:00pm EST at: www.allgames.com

1 Synopsis
2 The Hosts
3 Segments
4 Running Gags
5 Medispective
6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

"Perspective from the working class, where the purchase of a video game is judged not on its quality, but how you can justify its price to your wife/girlfriend. And how manly you look to others while waving around a pink controller to make an ape do flips on the screen. " -Allgames site

The show consists of Kevin Baird listing off the week's gaming news to Don and Brian. Usually the trio fail to actually engage in a real video game-related conversation, with Don and Brian going off on elaborate tangents. When there is one, it's usually about their personal experiences with certain games. However, this could be the thing that may end the show in December, as Kevin seems put off with Don and Brian's lack of gaming conversation. If the show does indeed end in December, there are only a handful of episodes left.

[edit] The Hosts

Kevin Baird

Corporate Executive / Gun Owner. Kevin has had many blue-collar jobs, including working as a barback at Christie's Cabaret, Grocery Store Bagger, Dishwasher, and spent 6 years cooking food for various restaurants. No was a self-taught computer programmer, Kevin founded Video Game News in 1995 and has hosted VGNRadio since July of 2004. He owns a console collection (160+ systems in total, including the Gizmondo) and is comfortable talking about any platform, any genre, with anyone. KBaird is seen as the glue of the show that makes it interesing. The actual gaming content is all facilitated, as Don and Brian sometimes don't have a game to review. Not having any kids (unlike Don and Brian) he gets free hardware from companies like Microsoft and has more income to spend.

Brian Baird

Brian is Kevin's older brother. Formerly in the Navy, he drives a freight truck for a hardware store across State lines. Father of three daughters, he is covered in tattoos, piercings, and bad haircuts. Brian provides commentary and movie/music/game reviews for a devoted crowd. Brian is an avid lover of zombie movies (hence the drinking rule) and creepy horror flicks. He and Kevin grew up in a catholic home. Because of that, Brian began to like the ominous things he wasn't supposed to like as a kid. If there's an insult or comment to be made on VGN, he's the first to say it.

Don Anderson

Brick Layer and Steel Worker, Don spends more time repairing his house than he does on entertainment. A former guitarist for heavy metal bands, comedian, bartender, pizza deliveryman. He has stories about everything and everyone. Now married with two daughters, Don lives in Amish country in the middle of nowhere and has the perspective of gaming where there is hardly any electricity. Don is easily the quietest of the three, but manages to make the Bairds laugh when he has the chance. In earlier episodes his phone connection would constantly cut out. He's admitted that he's a major KISS fan. Some callers address the show trio as "Don and Crew".

[edit] Segments

Top 25 titles of the Week- Occasionally Top 10 and Top 20, Kevin lists off the top selling games, hardware and expansion packs of the week from amazon.com. Most of the time Nintendo dominates the chart with the DS regularly beating the PSP. Other regular performers are Madden, the Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion, extravagant XBOX 360 bundles and inexplicably Nancy Drew games.
State Watch- An insight when states decide or propose to make a law pertaining to video games. An example would be Michigan's proposal to make selling mature games to minors unconstitutional. A related topic is how Australia makes more and more restrictions to gaming.
Game Reviews- Don, Brian and Kevin review current or next-gen titles. There's no consistency with the games chosen. Once in a while they'll both wind up doing a separate review for a game (example: Evil Dead Regeneration). When it comes to Don's review, the segment is recoined "The Game Don Didn't Play This Week" because he often neglects to pick up a game to review. When he does review games, he rarely recommends them unless its price dropped significantly.
Don & Brian's Five Minute Movie Review- Like the game-reviews portion, Don often doesn't watch a movie. A lot of the time, he either doesn't finish the game or sleeps through part of it or a similar occurrence. Brian's movie choice is mostly horror or sci-fi, and zombie movies make a consistent appearance.
In Brief- Basically it's Kevin cutting to the heart of regular news, where he'll start the dialogue between them. When the news is business-related, it's renamed "Business Brief". An example would be Kevin trying to justify the XBOX 360 bundles.
Contests- Console and handheld games are given to the website's chatters who write in to enter. For the sites members (called Wasteland Warriors) there are two contests in which the better games are given out. None of the hosts particularly like the name "Wasteland Warriors".
Games Coming Soon- As the title suggests, Kevin lists off the upcoming titles of the week for all the platforms. At the end of 2005, it was discontinued simply because the upcoming games weren't highly anticipated or particularly great (Example: Prison Tycoon, Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock, 187 Ride or Die).
Schizo Letter Bag- Each week one of the hosts would come up with a question to ask the chatters, and Kevin would read their responses at the end of next week's show. At times it doesn't even have to be about the question, and listeners will just respond to whatever’s on their mind. As of May 2006, the Letter Bag is discontinued, as Kevin thought that it wasn't contributing to the show. However, In October 2006 The letter bag was brought back, in place of Five Minutes of Fame.
Schizo Callers- Same thing as above, where they call in to talk about generic topics and ask the hosts various questions.
Don's Corner- Don's newest segment where he gets a chance to talk about whatever is on his mind. Usually any topic-starter with Don has to do with his life in the Amish area.
Five Minutes of Fame- Brian's newest segment, which is basically the same as Don's.

[edit] Running Gags

Opening/Ending- The show begins with Kevin saying, "Undead from Cleveland, this is Video Game News Radio" and then gives the rundown of what will be on the show. When it ends, he states the locations where the live feeds can be heard and then says that "you have been listening to three guys who are not paid off by the gaming industry, but we'd like to be." And right before the feed cuts off, Don ends each episode with "Peace!".
Chatters- Some of the regular chatters who call or write in to the show are Bigdog21, lukedog, BryceU, Brunorod, Character0, Danddman, Dantex777, DCJoeDog, Jedihillis, JoeBob, Karate Dog, Micromarty, MR_COW, 666, xbxpwn2714, Nimbus, Niyon, Nut_Man, Pieman, Red, RichCG, rollerxpig (aka EJSOCOM), Sheep, Soiled, Bribo5, TheCrow13 and Thunderino. Jedihillis and Karate Dog are the only ones who guesthosted the show multiple times.
VGN Drinking Game- this is what Kevin Baird posted on the site as the official rules.

You must drink if...

1. Someone writes in and complains about our "Undead From Cleveland" opening phrase.

2. Someone mentions that we should use Skype, or some other computer centric voice conferencing system (Like GoogleTalk) that assumes all three of us own computers. (Don does not.)

3. Someone complains about the music.

4. Someone complains about the language.

5. You must drink the whole bottle if someone writes in and complains about us stereotyping them or their culture. (Such as people in other countries, or gay men.)

6. Those who intend to get really trashed should drink whenever Brian mentions anything that has to do with Zombies.

[edit] Medispective

Around June, Kevin came to the conclusion to change the name and tweak the format of the show. With it the Schizo Letter Bag went away and in came Don's Corner and Five Minutes of Fame. Kevin stated that the show would air every two weeks instead of one and that the show's name would be changed officially to Medispective. However, since he owns the name of the site "Video Game News" or "Gaming News".com the domain remains VGN. On all the sites links the show remains VGN, and for the most part it's known as VGN everywhere.

On the forums, Kevin Baird explained the name:

"I feel, ultimately, that the name of our show betrays us. Because we're not 100% gaming, and those that might be interested in what we talk about skip the show in the listings because, well, they don't care that much about video games (And have no idea we cover other topics), and those that do like video games skip us, because we don't cover ONLY gaming. So I've decided to change the name of the show. VGNR will now be known as Medispective. And yes, I've already registered Medispective.com Medi is short for Media, and Spective is short for Perspective. So basically, our perspective on various media. Nothing about the show will change really. Officially, the show is still VGNR, because it is Video Game News's radio show. (Since that is the owning company.) But a slow transition will be made to start calling it Medispective. But, if you want to keep calling it VGNR, you are more than welcome to. Medispective is just more indicative of what we're talking about, so that's why the name change."