Stogie Fresh exclusive
The Dogwatch Social Club (DWSC) is a cigar podcast par excellence and, quite probably, the best cigar podcast on the web right now. The show has been described as “an oasis where good friends enjoy fine cigars, thoughtful conversation, and considered opinions, flavored with the occasional touch of insanity.”
When I first heard the name of the program, I was intrigued: “Dogwatch” is a nautical term that refers to the two, 2-hour shipboard watches that occur between 4 pm and 8 pm that allow crew members to enjoy their dinner. For Bob and Dale, the show’s two hosts, it represents a transition period between work and home. It is also a time of reflection and relaxation. Thus, the DWSC is like sitting in your own home after work, herfing with friends and enjoying a discussion about all things cigar.
Bob McDuffee and Dale Roush navigate the DWSC ship. Bob, who is the show’s resident “radio voice,” is a crusty journeyman with an acerbic wit and subtle sense of humor, which he wields like a surgeon’s scalpel. Dale, also an experienced seaman, has an easy-going manner and smooth delivery, and cuts a perfect counterpoint to Bob, keeping the show on an even keel. Like many talented teams—Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Cheech and Chong—Bob and Dale are two very different personalities and yet their chemistry together is what drives the entertainment quotient and generates its appeal to the every day cigar smoker.
Above: Dale (left) and Bob (center) visit with the Fuente’s at RTDA
I have been a listener of the DWSC for over a year. In fact, Dale and Bob were responsible for getting me started in broadcasting my own podcast: Stogie Fresh 5. Dale originally approached me to record some short segments for the DWSC. I had been flirting with the idea of doing a Stogie Fresh podcast, but never got around to it. (Okay, I was just too darn lazy.) I recorded five short segments for the DWSC that became the pilots for Stogie Fresh 5 podcasts. So, thanks Bob and Dale for getting me started in podcasting!
Though we are in the midst of the Christmas season, Bob and Dale have both generously agreed to make time for this Stogie Fresh interview. I hope all of our Stogie Fresh readers will find this interview a candid insight into the inner-workings of the two guys responsible for the fine DWSC weekly podcast.
DOC: How and where did you two guys meet and when did you become cigar enthusiasts?
BOB: Dale and I met way back in Junior High School. Dale was the new kid, you know the type, morally upright, socially awkward and a little out of place having come from a small rural school into the big city. I took pity on him and me and my boys took care of him while we taught him the ropes. Dale and I also attended college together and shared a house with two other friends. During this time I was able to help Dale grow up a little bit, you know, taught him about the ladies, we smoked pipes mostly back then.
DALE: Bob and I first met in Jr. High School. My family had moved to the Arvada area (suburb of Denver, CO) around 1970-71. I started in 8th grade there & met Bob in our band class. We attended High School and a couple years of College together. We both had a couple of jobs in various Pipe & Tobacco stores during those years, which provided our introductions to the world of premium cigars.
BOB: It was after we had both gotten married, raised kids and become middle aged that we discovered we shared a passion for cigars. Dale came out to visit me in Florida and we spent the trip filling up the house and my car with rich billowing smoke from some really good sticks. In January of 2005 I discovered podcasting and since I remembered that Dale had always dreamed of being a FM radio DJ, I called him up and pitched an idea for a show.
DALE: After we went our own ways to raise families, etc, we kind of lost touch for a few years. I smoked mainly pipes for a while, but became impatient with all the accoutrements one had to carry, so I gravitated more towards cigars. I really became a serious “enthusiast” (my wife would call me a nut job) about 10 years ago. I began a diary of all the cigars I smoked, keeping track of what I tasted, what I liked and rating the cigars. When Bob & I hooked back up 2 or 3 years ago, we discovered we both had become serious cigar smokers.
DOC: You have been doing this show for what, a year and a half? When did you feel like you actually turned the corner and the show really took off? And, what do you think is responsible for the show’s overwhelming popularity? (Besides your magnetic charm, that is.)
BOB: Our first milestone was getting listed on iTunes and breaking one hundred downloads for an episode. Seriously, we were surprised anybody listened to the show and we still remember the days of having 5 or 6 people download the show. It was never a humbling experience, because we didn’t expect anything more.
In the beginning we talked about sports, the outdoors, sailing and cigars. At some point we found our show being discussed on one of the cigar boards (Club Stogie) and we decided that focusing on cigars would be our best shot at making this work. Besides, we enjoyed smoking cigars and at that time there were no other podcasts dedicated to cigars. In fact there were darn few podcasts dedicated to anything but technology topics and the number one bestseller on the Internet: Sex. We didn’t know much about sex and the tech shows were prolific, so we picked cigars. It was no one big thing; it has been a series of small steps that got us to this point. Two steps forward, one step back, that sort of thing.
DALE: Bob has always been the techie, the geek, and the gear-head type. When he first learned about this new phenomenon called Podcasting in early 2005, he started trying to get me interested. He’d always wanted to be a radio DJ. In April of that year, I finally screwed up my courage to try it and the show began, so yeah, we’ve been at this now for over a year and a half. I wish now we’d have started sooner!
For me, the show really took off when we decided to focus 100% on cigars. Before that, we discussed other interests along with cigars. Through email & other feedback, including Club Stogie, we found we had an audience that was craving what I call “regular guy” cigar talk, and began tailoring the show towards that audience. I believe that was the key that allowed us to begin growing.
Above: Bob McDuffee recording a show
The next milestone for us, in my opinion, was attending the 2006 RTDA in Las Vegas. Looking back, I now realize how little I understood about the cigar industry in general at that point, but I believe that being there and producing the 3-4 shows we did during the trade show gave us some additional measure of credibility with our listener base.
It’s hard for me to imagine what makes the show as popular as it seems to be. I do believe though that our underlying belief that there is no one “right way” to do things, no one “best” cigar, and that the snobbery that sometimes goes along with cigars has no place on our show, is the main reason folks will spend valuable time out of their week to listen to our opinions. What we recommend may not be to other people’s tastes, but we provide a point of reference so others can follow along and make up their own minds.
DOC: Can you describe an incident during one of your shows that sticks in your mind as being really funny, or really frustrating? Or both?
DALE: I don’t know about our listeners, but what I find so funny, in almost every show, is how serious Bob can sound when he is trying to make a joke. Sometimes it backfires on him, but he has such a great radio voice and comes across so authoritative, that he can totally make something up and it sounds like gospel. (Matter of fact, I’m a bit edgy how he will answer some of your questions!) He cracks me up all the time with his “pronouncements,” which are really just his way of poking fun at all the snobs in the industry.
It’s easy to remember the frustrations we had early on. Poor sound quality, dropped connections and missing entire segments on the recordings were all part of the learning curve. When we started, there was no “podcast instruction manual” that told us how to record a show 1,600 miles apart. Bob did a super job of figuring out how to blend all the technologies together to the point we’re at right now. So for me, the frustrations really have most to do with the logistics and technologies of getting the show “on tape”. I don’t remember which episode it was, but somehow we “recorded” almost the entire show only to find it didn’t really record.
BOB: Frustrating is when you can’t get SKYPE to work or I forget to turn on the recorder. We once had to redo a show three times because either SKYPE would not work or I forgot to turn on the recorder or the volume was so low we couldn’t make anything listenable. That does not happen very often anymore. SKYPE has gotten more reliable and we have developed a little check and balance system to make sure we are recording.
DOC: Can you describe some of the technical wizardry that you employ to make the DWSC happen and what are some of the technical “hurdles” that you have faced?
DALE: I’ll leave most of that to Bob, since he’s the guy on the business end of all the wires and electronics. My real interest is in the cigars and how they are made. However, my son’s room in the basement will soon be vacant, so I will likely upgrade some of my equipment in the near future and build a real studio.
Above: Dale Roush sits at his computer with a fine stogie
and a glass of scotch.
BOB: The biggest hurdle is having one of us being low-tech and the other thinking he is high-tech, you can decide which is which…
If you look around on the Internet you will see half a dozen solutions to recording a show as we do, with the hosts 1,600 miles apart. Problem is, none of them worked for us. They either required too much expertise on both ends or resulted in lousy sound.
Fortunately, tools like SKYPE have been improving rapidly enough to push our lack of audio knowledge to the brink of disaster. Just this past episode the light suddenly went off and we found a new way to process the audio that will result in a better show.
Since we started we have added a mixer (Behringer 820), new software, new microphones (XLS 920 with shock mount) and even a new PC to the mix. Up next are a compressor and maybe a new digital recorder. We still use the original iRiver 720 we started with; it does a fantastic job.
How we do it is no secret and we share it with anyone that asks. I do the entire recording by piping my microphone into one channel on the mixer and the output from my computer (Dale via SKYPE) in another. Then I pipe the whole mess back in to the microphone port on the PC from the mixer using the FX return channels to remove Dales voice so he does not hear an echo. Simple really.
DOC: It seems I remember that, at one time, you two were worried about having enough material to make the show last an hour on a weekly basis. Now, it seems like you have enough material to easily stretch each show for three hours if you wanted. What happened that was responsible for this change?
BOB: The first show we scripted lasted almost 20 minutes! I think what has happened is that we have both gotten so much more comfortable that we talk more. I tend to ramble (not always on topic) and that eats up a lot of airtime. We started doing the show in manageable segments, originally 12 minutes each and now we do four 20-plus-minute segments without breaking a sweat. It just seems easier if you think about talking for 22 minutes and not 90. Plus our pre-show research has gotten much better and we try to give more details about the cigars.
DALE: Well, for one thing, we’ve learned more about cigars and the industry. I remember the first few shows; I would spend hours trying to find out enough about the cigar I was smoking so I wouldn’t sound as ignorant as I felt I was. As I read more about the history of cigars, talk with more of the leaders in the business and learn all I can about the blends and manufacturing techniques, it is so much easier to just converse. However, there is so much to know about this industry, I doubt I will ever feel as though I know everything I should.
DOC: You guys have a great chemistry together on the air. Who is the “good cop” and who is the “bad cop”? Who is the straight man? What makes your chemistry work?
DALE: I don’t know – you tell me! When it comes to facts about cigars, I like to make sure we are accurate, so I guess I try to be the good cop. We had a couple experiences where we didn’t do enough homework and it made us look silly. I try not to state things in absolutes when we are talking about subjective attributes. Bob has no problem making a definitive statement in those regards. I also tend to be the straight man as my style of humor is more finding the “funny” in everyday stuff. Bob likes to push people’s buttons and cause a reaction. I think that’s why we hit it off so well. Another reason is that Bob always has seen the world more in black and white than I do. I always am looking for a plausible reason for things and I tend to see shades of grey. Neither one is right nor wrong, we’re just different in those ways.
BOB: To me, the number one reason is probably because we have been friends for over 30 years. Dale is more the [cigar] expert and has a much more refined palate than I do. He can taste many of the subtle flavors of a cigar that I can only dream of. But we are both committed to smoking only good cigars; life is too short to waste smoking bad cigars. I think I borrowed that somewhere. I have always been rather opinionated and used to enjoy taking the opposite side just to argue. SO I am always looking for controversy and Dale is left to pick up the pieces. And that is why he is more likely to be the straight man.
DOC: What changes and features do you envision for the near future, say, over the next year or so?
BOB: We want to get cigar manufacturers more involved. Specifically we want to provide a forum for all the manufacturers to get the word out about their products. There are many very good cigars coming from the smaller boutique manufacturers these days and it is a real battle for them to get shelf space. Altadis, General and a few others tend to dominate the retail space. Not that they have a bad product, this is indeed a golden age of cigars. However, we believe in choice and that the smaller manufacturers are what’s really driving the business. Cigars from companies like Bucanero, CSB, Padilla, La Perla and Roxor have a tough time getting on the shelves and yet they all make very good cigars that are different than the mass produced cigars out of Altadis and General. We celebrate the differences and variations in cigars and people, that is what makes life interesting and worth the trouble.
DALE: One of the issues I worry about is how to keep the show fresh without losing the formula that seems to have struck a chord with most of our listeners. I think if we stay true to who we are, meaning just a couple of knuckleheads that really love cigars, the format of the show may change a little, but the basic recipe will stay the same. I hope we can solve one or two last technology hurdles so we can have good quality live listener call-ins during the recording sessions. I think that would make for some great discussions. I’d also like to see us get in more interviews with the industry giants over the next year or so. My big hope is that Bob and I can do the show together from some remote locations two or three times a year. Our real goal is to keep growing our listener base about 15% a month and keep having fun!
[Doc Notes: Check out Bob and Dale’s Dogwatch Social Club web site at: http://www.dogwatchsocialclub.com/]
Bob & Dale of the Dogwatch Social Club
Monday, December 18, 2006
