Podcasts have been a steadily growing facet of entertainment since 2014 and show no signs of slowing down. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that some would pop up locally. One example of a local podcast organization would be The Barn Media Group.
The Barn, founded by Chad Winch, is a media group with a niche for podcasts. Having released eleven podcasts, The Barn has a vast catalog of shows ranging from Dawn Herbert’s Bible Time at The Barn to Chad Winch and Dale Stotler’s Vulgar Display of Podcast.
According to Winch, The Barn started in 2021. He reached out to his friends, Dale and Anthony, to do a podcast and from there, they branched out into other podcasts to form what we know as The Barn Media Group.
Kyle Wright is a host and producer for a number of podcasts on The Barn and says, “I had a YouTube channel I was doing called Low Cash Classics that I had started up doing similar things to what they were doing, but it was funny because we didn’t know each other at all, and it’s cool because The Barn sort of draws people in. So now with all these other shows we’ve just kind of gotten so many people with so many different talents involved.”
One podcast recently founded in cooperation with The Barn would be Jason Loughary and Mark Toti’s Parkland Podcast. Airing for the first time on June 10, 2024, The Parkland Podcast revolves around Loughary and Toti announcing St. Francis County’s news while also interviewing local figureheads and community members. With help from The Barn, The Parkland Podcast quickly amassed an average view count of 200 people per episode as of October 28, 2024.
Loughary says, “Getting involved with The Barn Network and Chad Winch really helped speed up the process because had we started this from scratch on our own, it would have been extremely difficult to get off the ground. He’s been doing it for a while so he had some really good tips and really good expertise he shared with us and that’s helped out a ton.”
Not limited to podcasting, The Barn hosts several live shows, including Loughary’s Parkland Sports Live. Parkland Sports Live, as suggested by the title, is a live show that broadcasts St. Francis County high school-level football games. Premiering on August 30, 2024, Parkland Sports Live has accumulated an average viewer count of 5,300 per stream.
From the variety of shows to the quality of the production, The Barn has quickly established itself as one of the biggest media groups in St. Francis County. For more information, check out their Facebook page and YouTube channel with up to eight different podcasts posting weekly.
