Across the Pond, a Premier League podcast
Across the Pond is a Premier League podcast hosted by Americans and it all simply started by putting microphones in front of Premier League fans. After hundreds of episodes and a little luck we've been featured on ESPN, NPR, BBC, The Guardian and more with guests from all over our football-shaped globe.
With the growing American interest in the England-based Premier League, in part due to NBC’s excellent coverage of the league since 2013, we set sail to create a weekly podcast to cover England’s top, professional soccer league and its peculiar and scintillating stories, controversies, and culture.
Over the years, even after my departure in 2022, the show has grown into a community of listeners, content-contributors, friends and more and our team keeps contributing to the promotion and growth of the Premier League helping attract partnerships with professional players, news organizations, media networks and even the Premier League itself.
Podcasts
Each week Across the Pond releases an episode covering the Premier League. Subscribe and listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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The Swagometer
We have fun with it each week with The Swagometer where we’re making the league more fun to follow and applicable to those who are interested but can’t find that entry-point. This is just one example of how we differ from traditional media outlets and Premier League coverage. None of us are experts in the game, but we find ways to make it accessible and relatable.
Prediction League
One thing every Premier League fan loves is predicting the future so we leaned in and asked our community of listeners and followers to predict matches with us each week for chances to win fun prizes like kits, gear, gift cards and more. Each season we have thousands of fans digging deep in the quest for bragging rights.
I spent a lot of time thinking of an interactive Premier League Prediction League tool that makes picking matches from bed at 7:29am each Saturday morning as easy as possible with automated emails to help keep track of your picks. This experience comes with large iconography, advancement animation, and allows you to review your picks before officially submitting. All of this data populates a database where we can aggregate scores, look at trends and report back to our audience each week.
Once you make your picks, you’ve got to be able to easily pull them up as results come in so I wrote script to automatically email your picks to the email inbox of your choice. Expand the below accordion to read through my messy code.
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var EMAIL_SENT = 'EMAIL_SENT';
function sendEmails() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet(); // Use data from the active sheet
var startRow = 2; // First row of data to process
var numRows = sheet.getLastRow() - 1; // Number of rows to process
var lastColumn = sheet.getLastColumn(); // Last column
var dataRange = sheet.getRange(startRow, 1, numRows, lastColumn) // Fetch the data range of the active sheet
var data = dataRange.getValues(); // Fetch values for each row in the range
// Work through each row in the spreadsheet
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; ++i) {
var row = data[i];
// Assign each row a variable
var timestamp = row[0]; // Col A: Timestamp
var matchOne = row[1]; // Col B: Match one
var matchTwo = row[2]; // Col C: Match two
var matchThree = row[3]; // Col D: Match three
var matchFour = row[4]; // Col E: Match four
var matchFive = row[5]; // Col F: Match five
var matchSix = row[6]; // Col G: Match six
var matchSeven = row[7]; // Col H: Match seven
var matchEight = row[8]; // Col I: Match eight
var matchNine = row[9]; // Col J: Match nine
var matchTen = row[10]; // Col K: Match ten
var matchweek = row[11]; // Col L: Matchweek number
var userName = row[12]; // Col M: Username
var emailAddress = row[13]; // Col N: Email
var emailStatus = row[lastColumn - 1]; // Col : Email Status
var subject = 'Across the Pond Prediction League - Matchweek ' + matchweek;
// Build the email message
var emailBody = 'Across the Pond Prediction League Matchweek ' + matchweek + ' predictions \nby ' + userName + ' on ' + timestamp + ': \n \v'
emailBody += '\nAcross the Pond will be giving away monthly prizes this season. Predict the future and you could be a lucky monthly winner.\n' ;
emailBody += '\nUsername ' + userName +'\n' ;
emailBody += '\nMatch 1 Crystal Palace vs. Manchester United: ' + matchOne +'\n' ;
emailBody += '\nMatch 2 Arsenal vs. Everton: ' + matchTwo +'\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 3 Chelsea vs. Watford: ' + matchThree + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 4 Leicester City vs. Southampton: ' + matchFour + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 5 Brentford vs. Leeds United: ' + matchFive + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 6 Burnley vs. Newcastle: ' + matchSix + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 7 Manchester City vs. Aston Villa: ' + matchSeven + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 8 Norwich vs. Tottenham: ' + matchEight + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 9 Brighton vs. West Ham: ' + matchNine + '\n';
emailBody += '\nMatch 10 Liverpool vs. Wolves: ' + matchTen + '\n';
// Create the email draft
var message = emailBody
if (emailStatus !== EMAIL_SENT && emailAddress) {
GmailApp.sendEmail(emailAddress, subject, message)
sheet.getRange(startRow + i, lastColumn).setValue(EMAIL_SENT); // Update the last column with "EMAIL_DRAFTED"
SpreadsheetApp.flush(); // Make sure the last cell is updated right away
}
}
}
Sound Design
I had fun creating the signature intro sound that kicked off every episode of Across the Pond, combining the epic and chaotic nature of Premier League with the electric commentary from some of its best historical moments.
Hosts: Chris Bowerbank, Sheyi Davies, Miles Johnson and Jacob Cohen
Production and Sound Engineering: Chris Bowerbank
Content Strategy and Contributors: Chris Bowerbank, Sheyi Davies, Miles Johnson, Jacob Cohen, Peter Pieh, Jessica Malone, Eric Italiano and Jessica Charman
Social Media: Eric Italiano
Website Development: Chris Bowerbank with Prediction League support from Ed Cupaioli
Prediction League: Chris Bowerbank, Sheyi Davies and Ed Cupaioli
Partnerships: Chris Bowerbank
