OK, I'll post my review:
I liked it. Like Andy A, I found the show very refreshing - it's nice to hear voices discussing FIRST after all these years of just reading these kinds of discussions on CD. You guys had a good idea with a lot of potential, and kudos for making something of it.
All that being said, there's always room for improvement, so I'm gonna offer you my suggestions.
A few tips on what I think would make the show sound more professional:
- In general, I'd like to hear more evidence of scripting and organization - presenting a scripted and detailed outline at the beginning of the show would be great, as well announcing it when you get to the beginning of each part.
- It would be a good idea to have and use a set script for the things that won't change between shows - the host introductions, the explanation of what FIRSTcast is about, the thank-yous and goodbyes, etc.
- I'd personally appreciate it if you guys would always reference each other by name when passing off the discussion to each other - that way I won't forget which voice belongs to who.
- Having a longer lead in/out song(s) would be cool.
- Lastly, I know you can't do much about it since you're not all speaking from the same location, but an increase in sound quality would be nice - I noticed a bit of a lag between one person and another (maybe this could be edited out?).
Now a couple of content suggestions:
I liked your idea of having a tip of the week, and I think it would be cool to expand this concept to having a team of the week, and a mentor of the week - so that FIRSTcast isn't just limited to discussion. These would probably work best in interview format - someone would volunteer and answer general-type questions about their team and how it works. As for the mentor, you could probably get anyone who's well-known around these parts and ask them UFH-interview-type questions.
Nice job on the first episode, and good luck in the future!