Visit Winona recently launched its newest venture into the internet-sphere: a podcast called “Winona Fun! Fun! Yeah!” featuring Visit Winona’s own marketing team, Cynthya Porter and Todd Hanson, as the hosts. For the podcast, the pair visits different bars every week for happy hour, where they discuss upcoming events in Winona over drinks and casual conversations.
This week, Porter and Hanson sat down at the Broken World Records bar for their third episode. Some of the topics they talked about included performing arts events throughout the week, activities to do around the area, and some Winona trivia.
Opening up to an intro recorded and animated by Hanson, the pair talked about the two upcoming cribbage events at Sanborn Canoe Co. and at the Trempealeau Hotel on Thursday. Hanson joked that he and his siblings were referred to as the “Cribbage Patch Kids” growing up before admitting that wasn’t true and he had never played cribbage. They also talked about the Winona State University Department of Theatre & Dance performance of “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, which runs through March 3.
Porter and Hanson also gave props to the owner of Blooming Grounds and Muddled Thyme, Amy Jo Marks, who won an award from Explore Minnesota on February 28 for her work on the tourism industry in Winona.
One of their segments on the podcast sees Porter and Hanson sharing trivia about Winona that they picked up during the week. This week, one trivia piece they talked about related to Winona during its prohibition days in the 1920s. “There were like three times as many places to drink during prohibition as there were prior to prohibition,” Porter told Hanson on the podcast. She explained that there were 42 licensed saloons in Winona in 1919, but then there were around 200 speakeasies at the height of prohibition. She gave a shout-out to Walt Bennick for his work on curating Winona’s history at the Winona County Historical Society downtown.
Porter and Hanson said starting the podcast developed from wanting to reach out to a broader audience, outside of social media. They added that other tourism boards have started their own podcasts, and they wanted to get ahead of the curve.
“The thing about social media is that social media is very, very siloed,” Porter said. “You could have a Facebook, an Instagram, a TikTok … but the reality is that each one of those platforms … they might cross over each other to get this broad umbrella of reach, but each one reaches into a certain group of people like an arrow, a bullet.”
The pair said they’d like to continue to record the podcast at different locations around town. In the first two episodes, Porter and Hanson sat down at the Hei and Low Tap and the Mankato Bar. They believe that their podcast is off to a good start as other local businesses have offered to host them.
“This is hitting a vein for people who just say, ‘Yeah, this is fun marketing, and I’m going to get behind it,’” Porter said.
Asked about their goals for the podcast, Hanson said just getting it made in the first place was an accomplishment. Now, they hope to take baby steps to inform listeners — visitors and locals alike — of what’s going on around town every week and setting a fun vibe with the podcast.
“It gives people a glimpse of a community that I think is a very approachable community to join,” Porter said.
“Winona Fun! Fun! Yeah!” can be found at winonafunfunyeah.podbean.com, on Apple Podcasts and the Podbean app, and on Visit Winona’s Facebook page, with new episodes coming out every Monday evening.
(original post on Winona Post)