Emily Ambery | staff writer
Nov. 18, 2021
The North Shore Station Podcast is upping the ante on all things NFL featuring hot takes, best bets and weekly segments with up-to-date information and commentary.
The podcast is hosted by Duquesne Sports Information and Media majors, seniors Dominic Ferro, Lucas D’Orazio and sophomore Camden Oyler.
Started with a tweet, The North Shore Station Podcast began recording episodes in September 2020. They are now in their second season of recording with both audio and visual podcasts available to fans.
“I listen to a lot of sports podcasts and find them entertaining, and I thought it would be a good skill builder to start a podcast,” Ferro said.
“[Ferro] put up a tweet that said, ‘If I were to start a football podcast, what would you want me to talk about’ and I DM’ed him and said, ‘I would want to hear me as a co-host,’ and then we got Camden as someone who knew about production and got started,” D’Orazio said.
Ferro and D’Orazio also recalled doing an hour-long radio show for a sports writing class which encouraged them to organize the podcast.
The North Shore Station records on Sunday or Monday nights in the Duquesne DSTV Studio. Each episode is released on the Wednesday night following recording.
“[The best part is] getting to grow with this as a whole, if you look back at the beginning to what it is now is pretty amazing,” Oyler said. “The growth we have had, even just from a production standpoint: we have gotten experience with talking on camera, running camera work, setting both visual and audio up and using the Tricaster equipment.
Oyler runs the production for the podcast, referred to as “On the sticks” by the other hosts.
The podcast features four segments, with the exception of special guests and live questions. The four segments are: a recap of the previous NFL week’s biggest wins and biggest losses, preview of the upcoming week and the betting spread and then each shares their “lock of the week.”
D’Orazio supports the Cleveland Browns, Ferro roots for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oyler is a fan of the Washington Football Team. With a diverse range of support, the hosts entertain with light-hearted arguments and fun rivalries.
The hosts each share their biggest wins and biggest losses for the previous NFL week and discuss defensive and offensive performance in addition to individual player performance.
Each host shares the bet they believe is most likely to win and puts it in as their “lock of the week.” At the end of the season, the host with the highest number of winning locks chooses what the host with the least number of winning locks must do as the loser. Oyler is currently in the lead followed by Ferro, leaving D’Orazio in last place.
“The way that we have been able to put this all together from the basic idea of ‘let’s just sit around and talk about football for an hour each week,’ it’s pretty cool what this has grown into,” Oyler said.
The North Shore Station’s most recent guest was Matt McGloin, former Penn State and NFL quarterback. McGloin Zoomed into the podcast and shared his expertise on both college football and the NFL.
“The best part about doing the podcast is talking on your feet, it helps boost your confidence both professionally and socially, it really helps improve broadcasting skills,” Ferro said. “I love to talk, and I get to talk once a week about the stuff I love the most, which is NFL football.”
In the future, the podcast aims to have more guests like McGloin. North Shore Station also hopes to grow its social media presence and get fans more active in the show. Currently, the podcast sends tweets on recording nights alerting fans to send in questions to be answered live on the podcast.
“Having a place every week where we can come and practice our skills in broadcasting and build a portfolio of recordings is helpful when going into the sports talent industry,” D’Orazio said. “It is nice to not only say to people or employers, ‘Here is me talking; but also in my mind knowing that I have the confidence to do this.”
For more information on The North Shore Station podcast or to listen, follow @NorthShorePod on Twitter, @NorthShoreStation on Instagram and North Shore Station Podcast on YouTube.
