Introducing Hi Barr

Hear We Are Now, Entertain Us.

Hi everyone, 

I’m Web Barr, Founder and CEO of Hi Barr and I’m excited to introduce Hi Barr, a premium nonfiction entertainment studio that’s bringing the past forward with a focus on the history of pop culture from 1960 to 2010—starting with podcasts. 

Hi Barr isn’t just a podcast company. We’re an entertainment studio born from years of passion, curiosity, and experience in media and we’re doing things differently. We’re making shows on a number of subjects, events, and individuals from the history of popular culture, including (but not limited to): music, movies, TV, sports; as well as, business, media, and more. These are subjects that academics like to eschew and the media tends to ignore, but have changed the world in countless ways and we believe need to be told. 

Ultimately, our aim is to make timeless podcasts that entertain, inform, and make listeners FEEL. 

Why Hi Barr
I’ve always been obsessed with music, TV, movies, sports; as well as, media and Hollywood. Not just the actual music, movies, or sports themselves, but the stories behind the music, movies, games and moments; as well as, how media works. Yet when you ask scholars to define “history,” we doubt you’ll get many responses mentioning music, movies, arts, sports or culture. Imagine taking a history class on The Sixties and not learning about the Beatles. It makes no sense…but it matters. These things matter! 

In today’s world where liner notes no longer exist, DVD bonus features are an afterthought and information on music, movies, TV, and culture from the 1960s through 2000s is getting stuck in books (tbf, there’s more great books on these subjects than ever), creating Hi Barr was necessary. Shows like Behind The Music, Biography, and even I Love the ‘80s, '90s, '2000s (don’t laugh) that once flourished on cable aren’t being produced by streamers (the reasoning is a completely different essay). For Gen Xers and Millennials, shows like these provided an entertaining, roundabout way of learning about important moments and acts in pop culture, as well as influential people, including both moguls and auteurs, most of whom were never discussed in any classroom.

While this type of programming has vanished from TV, we believe there’s a large appetite for high quality shows covering these topics and that the opportunity to build a new generation media company featuring this type of nonfiction storytelling is huge. Today, podcasts are the best place for these stories to thrive, the best place for subject matter experts to flourish, and most importantly, the best way for audiences to consume these stories. We believe that our shows will resonate with listeners and more than that, they’ll want to share and discuss them with their friends! We’re very excited to share them with you soon…as in…tomorrow when we drop the trailer for our first show!

Our Approach
Similar to record labels like Sub Pop, our approach to making new shows involves curating stories based on our tastes and interests, crafting shows we believe audiences will love, and deeply immersing ourselves in the material. You can expect high-quality storytelling from experts who bring their passion and excitement to the material; as well as, new and innovative types of podcasts that bring listeners along on a ride through history (more on that tomorrow). Our curated approach means if we’re producing something, then we really love it and think you will too. Otherwise, what’s the point!? Additionally, everything we produce comes with the vision and hope that it could be adapted into a different medium—whether it’s television, documentary, adapted into fiction for TV/film, books, maybe even games? It’s really about pairing great stories with the right format and not jamming a square peg into a round hole. If you’re interested in learning more about partnering with Hi Barr, please let us know!

We’re attracted to quality, consistency, longevity; as well as, amazing stories that we can’t wait to tell others about. Call me crazy but we think podcasts should be even more exciting and too often these days, they’re just not fun. We’re making shows that we love and think listeners will love too and we hope listeners are able to feel how much fun we had making these shows.  

The last six months of building Hi Barr have been incredible and we’re just getting started. Tomorrow we’re dropping the trailer for our first show which comes out in mid-January and we’re not stopping there. We have a number of awesome projects coming up including: new shows with amazing partners, collaborations with great artists; as well as, more epic interviews in our Up To Eleven weekly newsletter. This isn’t a solo-creator venture, it’s very much a team effort and I want to thank everyone who has worked on our first two shows. They’ve poured their hearts into the material and I can’t thank them enough. To my partners who’ve provided guidance, advice, and support, I truly appreciate it. Last, to my friends and family who've been helpful, supportive, and patient over the years, I sincerely appreciate it. It’s just the beginning.

Happy Holidays!
Web

Get in Touch! 

If you’d like to learn more about Hi Barr, we’d love to hear from you! Send us a note!  

If you’re interested in being the presenting sponsor for Hi Barr’s debut show, let us know. More to come tomorrow when the trailer drops!