The ForceCast

"The ForceCast is for fans of all types - from the casual film watcher to the die-hard conventioneer."

- The official iTunes listing for the ForceCast

The Weekly ForceCast is the official podcast of TheForce.net and Rebelscum.com. Season One began on April 6, 2005, and the current season began on September 1, 2006. Regular episodes, which run anywhere from fifty minutes to two hours long, are released every Friday. The ForceCast features the latest news, interviews, events and opinions from the Star Wars fan community. The show is hosted by Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac, with occasional guest spots from collecting guru Dan Curto, Rebelscum's Jovial Jay Shepard, and Former Fan Club President Dustin Roberts.

TheForce.net Podcast
The first incarnation of an official podcast for TheForce.net was produced by Erik Blythe, but he had to stop production of the episodes due to external conflicts. After a contest done by TheForce.Net's Dustin Roberts, Jason and Pete were selected to continue the show. As Jason explains it, "TheForce.Net was looking for a host to re-launch the podcast, so I quickly shot him an e-mail." Jason, who had been on the air at a radio station as its promotions manager, received a reply from Dustin. He and Pete made the audition tape, which Jason calls "really bad". After hearing the tape, Dustin gave the two Star Wars fans the go-ahead, and the ForceCast struck back.

The ForceCast with Jason Swank and Pete Nadel
After a few months of doing the show, as Jason and Pete got more comfortable with their new roles, the ForceCast hosts started getting emails from Jimmy Mac, a Chicago-based sound wizard whom Jason described as a "cocky radio guy". "“At first I thought he was just busting our chops. Turns out the guy just really wanted to help." “I liked what I was hearing and I thought Jason and Pete had fabulous chemistry,” Jimmy said.

As revealed in the audition tape, the two co-hosts originally called each other by nicknames, with Jason as "Jedi Swank" and Pete as "Master Nadel."

In May 2007, The ForceCast traveled to LA to cover the 30th anniversary of Star Wars at Celebration IV.

On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, the ForceCast switched from USTREAM to Stickam, as part of the hosts' overall goal of getting their live feeds hosted on TheForce.Net itself. Additionally, Jason and Pete added a live blog -- courtesy of CovertItLive -- where they posted links to stories discussed during the taping, so live listeners could see what they were talking about.

On Wednesday, July 9, 2008, fans who entered the Stickam live stream were greeted by a picture of a Lando Mighty Mugg holding a sign that said, "Maybe your clowns got a webcam." The statement referenced Billy Dee's famous Clown comment from an early Quote of the Week. With this statement, Jason and Pete unveiled their newest endeavor: live streaming video to accompany the show audio.

In July 2008, The ForceCast provided exclusive podcast coverage from Star Wars Celebration Japan with special guests Mark Hamill, Ray Park, Temeura Morrison, and more.

On Friday, July 25, 2008, The ForceCast's entry into the Atom Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge, The George Lucas Hip Hop, won two awards at the San Diego Comic-Con ceremony. An animated segment from the weekly show, the video was directed by the FCTV Jawas Kay and Mark, written & produced by Jimmy Mac, with voice work by Jason Swank. The video won the awards for Best Animated Feature and the Audience Choice Award.

On Wednesday, September 3, 2008, Pete Nadel announced that he would be leaving the show. Nadel taped his last show with Swank on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. On one of the longest shows to date, he thanked the fans, his fellow crew members, and everyone at TheForce.Net and Rebelscum for their support.

The ForceCast with Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac
Jimmy Mac has since stepped up to take the role of the co-host. He has become a fan favorite for his impressions of saga luminaries such as Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford. He also made the news in the sci-fi community when he ranted against film critic Roger Ebert following Ebert's scathing review of Fanboys. Jimmy is also known for his Investigative Reports on such topics as "Who is BJ Hughes?", a question that to this day remains unanswered.

On June 13, 2009, Jason announced that the ForceCast was moving its live broadcasts back to Ustream following technical issues on former live host Stickam.

On the July 24, 2009 episode of the show, Jason and Jimmy played a promo for "8-5-09: The ForceCast Saga Continues." When the show went up on TheForce.Net, a link to a new ForceCast site was included on the show notes. The website went live shortly before the show was recorded on August 5.

Segments
The main sections of the show consist of:


 * Intro: The hosts open the show, and sometimes correct themselves as pointed out by listeners. In this segment, they also follow up on stories from past shows that have developed further.  Sometimes, they offer information about projects or events related to Star Wars or their show (including convention appearances or charity auctions).
 * Birthdays: The ForceCast wishes Star Wars celebrities and ForceCast fans a happy birthday. The birthday segment has been canceled as of July 8th 2009.
 * Billy Dee Quote of the Week: The ForceCast plays a humorous clip of actor Billy Dee Williams in one of his various roles from multimedia history. This segment is introduced by Mr. Williams himself.
 * Headlines: A run-through of the past week in Star Wars news.
 * Celebration Update: In the lead-up to a Star Wars Celebration, the hosts provide convention news and conventioneering tips.
 * Jimmy Mac Investigative Report: Jimmy Mac explores the cracks and crevices of Star Wars lore, contacting primary sources in the Star Wars production community and answering burning questions for listeners.
 * Star Wars in Pop Culture: The hosts present and discuss the various TV show references to Star Wars.
 * Collecting: the ForceCast gang, which sometimes includes Rebelscum toy reporter Dan Curto, goes over collecting and merchandise announcements.
 * The Outrageous Unthinkable Story of the Week: Inspired by Sio Bibble's quotes "It's outrageous!" and "It's unthinkable!" and accompanied by a musical introduction of its own, this section features a story that is deemed too hilarious or unfathomable to put in the general news section.
 * Listener Feedback: The ForceCast plays voicemails and reads emails and snail mail. Occasionally, the hosts also take live calls.

Opening music
The ForceCast's opening music is considered by show fans to be as distinctive as the Star Wars theme music itself. The music has evolved over time, eventually adding more clips from the film and utilizing the voice of Jimmy Mac.

Live broadcasts
The ForceCast records most of their shows live through Ustream. Fans can listen in on the recordings by going to the Ustream live page on Wednesday nights at 8:00pm Eastern Standard Time. (The ForceCast records on Tuesdays when The Clone Wars is airing new episodes.) The hosts occasionally take live calls, either through Skype or from their phone number. There is also a moderated chat room where listeners can discuss topics being presented at that moment on the show.

Listener interaction
At the end of every regular Friday episode, The ForceCast crew plays voicemails and reads emails from Star Wars fans. Their voicemail number is (330) 754-0532, their live studio line is (330) 871-4836, and their email address is forcecast@forcecast.net. Fans who want to call into the show live can also use Skype by calling the username forcecast.

Micro-casts
The ForceCast frequently releases Micro-Casts spanning a plethora of topics.


 * Jimmy Mac's A Galaxy of Music, featuring music made by Star Wars fans
 * In The Cantina interviews with members of the Star Wars community
 * Convention coverage direct from Star Wars Celebrations, San Diego Comic-Cons, etc.
 * Ed Dolista's Indy-Cast, detailing the news surrounding the Indiana Jones franchise. A spin-off podcast has been created for the Indy-Cast and is avalible to download on ForceCast.net and iTunes.
 * The Clone Wars Roundtable features a rotating panel of guests talking about The Clone Wars.

ForceCast TV
Though not produced by The ForceCast, the weekly video episodes available on the Youtube Channel were parodies of, and supplements to, each regular audio show. Produced by ForceCast listeners Kay and Mark ("The Jawas"), each video segment included special video content on top of audio from the latest episode of the show, with the ForceCast crew making appearances as still images whose features are manipulated in sync with their dialog. Each video also ended with the ForceCast's disclaimer being read by Jason, but with different video content accompanying it each time. FCTV ceased regular production in March 2010.

RebelScum forums
The official forums of Rebelscum.com have a section for the ForceCast, where listeners post threads about topics from the show, general Star Wars news, and all things related to the podcast. Fans of the show also post in-jokes from previous episodes, questions for the hosts, messages for fellow listeners, and any input they have for the show. In the past, there have been several trivia contests, some of them with prizes and some of them just for fun.

In May 2009, the ForceCast forum left its former home in the Miscellaneous section of the Rebelscum message boards. It then became its own category with the following sub-forums:


 * Weekly ForceCast - Discussion related to the regular episodes of the show.
 * Clone Wars Roundtables - Conversation about the roundtable episodes focusing on individual TCW episodes.
 * Microcasts & Specials - Threads concerning occasional episodes, such as Jimmy's Galaxy of Music or In The Cantina interviews.
 * Indy-Cast - Where listeners can post about Ed Dolista's Indy-Cast.
 * FCTV - Each week, "The Jawas" post on this board with the link to a new episode of ForceCast TV.
 * Listener Lounge - All general conversation among ForceCast fans goes here.

There are also several stickied threads that remain at the top of the page in their respective sub-forum due to their constant relevance and importance:
 * What do you want to hear on the ForceCast? - Suggestions for who and what listeners would like to hear on the show.
 * ForceCast: LIVE! - The dedicated thread for the ForceCast's live broadcasts on Ustream.
 * Fans of the ForceCast PARTY at CV! - A thread with information about the ForceCast fan party at Celebration V.
 * General Feedback - Comments, questions, and concerns related to episodes of the ForceCast.
 * Worldwide ForceCast Fan Map - A thread dedicated to the ForceCast's Frappr map, which displays pins placed by ForceCast listeners in their cities.
 * Where Have You Seen Star Wars Today? - Listeners chime in with sightings from their daily lives.
 * The ForceCast Episode Index - A complete index of every episode of the ForceCast, maintained by Eric.
 * Share Your FC Fan Online Gamer Tag IDs - A thread for ForceCast listeners to post their online video game user IDs, so that fellow listeners can connect in gaming environments.
 * The Clone Wars Episode Discussion Index - An index of all the threads that have been created for Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode discussions.
 * The ForceCast iPhone App - Questions, comments, and announcements related to the ForceCast's app in the iTunes App Store.

CafePress store
Around the time of Celebration IV, the ForceCast introduced an online store where fans could buy t-shirts, mugs, aprons, mousepads, clocks, hats, stickers, magnets, and calendars printed with the ForceCast logo. Fans sporting the logo at Celebration IV were rewarded with exclusive ForceCast swag. Sometime in late 2009 or early 2010, the store was effectively deactivated; no products currently appear on the homepage and the hosts have mentioned that they were not completely impressed with the quality of the Cafepress material.