The Yankees are coming in hot this season, and 3 young men from Smithtown are Spreadin’ The News.
Chase Carucci, Danny Donato, and Bryan Valenti started their Yankees-based podcast, Spreadin’ The News, in March of 2022. This podcast first came to be during a late-night text conversation discussing the Josh Donaldson trade.
“We were just ranting to each other, so I was like, why don’t we make a podcast about this?” said Donato. “I honestly thought it was just an idea that was never going to happen, but we actually jumped on it and had a lot of fun doing it ever since.”
Once the podcast was up and running, titles were thrown into the mix, logos were designed, and social media handles were created. This was the real deal.
“There’s no better feeling than leaving a Yankees game and hearing ‘Start Spreadin’ The News,’” Donato said of their decision to title their podcast after the introductory lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”
Valenti was that kid on the baseball travel team in elementary school. Everyone knew him, knew of him, and pretty much everyone was friends with him. Carucci and Valenti naturally became better friends at the beginning of high school, as their love for sports drew them closer.
“Danny was kind of introduced to our friend group and I remember me and Danny hit it off really quickly,” said Carucci. “And Danny became one of my best friends as well.” This trio really did hit it right off the bat and in more ways than one.
The most important part of podcasting these days is creating a brand and marketing– the “STN” boys have it all under control. “Chase usually posts all the Twitter stuff, we kind of rotate through the Instagram,” said Donato.
“I definitely like to live-tweet most of the games that I get a chance to watch,” said Carucci. “For Instagram, we’ll all put in our own input for what clip we want to use from that week and then I’ll take the clip from YouTube and then I’ll edit that into a little clip with our logo.”
While podcasting may look like it’s all glitz and glam, there is a lot of hard work put into the editing and the uploading. Carucci seems to be on top of that, given his expertise with his personal Instagram fan page, yankeespinstripes.
“When we are done recording, I’ll take the file that we recorded and I will put it into this program called ‘DaVinci Resolve.’ I’ll edit up the whole thing, put in the music, and do all that,” said Carucci. “Once that’s all done, I’ll upload it to this program called ‘Anchor’ which helps us get that onto Spotify and Apple Podcasts. ”
Baseball season goes from early April to late September. Don’t worry, future STN listeners, for one thing is certain: these guys aren’t going away.
“[We will] never stay off social media,” said Donato. “We’ll maybe post flashback clips or maybe at the end we could cut clips of our favorite podcast moments throughout our season and then start posting those on Twitter.”
Podcasting requires dedication. Carucci, Donato and Valenti are entering their third year of university. With hopes of entering the world of sports journalism, Carucci, soon to be a junior at Stony Brook University, views this podcast as an opportunity to build his resume, get his name out there and simply enjoy discussing a sport he is very passionate about. “We could sit here and talk for 5 hours about the Yankees,” said Donato. “I am just going to keep having fun talking about baseball with my two pals!”
In short order, the STN boys have learned so much and want to inspire others to take up podcasting in the future. “In terms of the technical aspect of it, definitely don’t just jump in if you don’t know what you’re doing,” said Carucci.
But all technical work aside, the STN boys enjoy podcasting with each other. “I have a lot of fun with them,” said Valenti. “Our episodes always go long, and they could go twice as long, but obviously, they have to be cut at some point.”
“Make sure you’re definitely doing it with the right people, because if you’re not, you’re not going to have fun,” said Carucci. “And obviously, we don’t have that problem.”
The STN boys share an inexplicable dynamic. Their humor, banter and overall enthusiasm shine through each episode.
New episodes are released every Monday at 12 p.m. EST. Listeners can tune in via Spotify or Apple Music, and visual viewers can search them on YouTube by simply searching “Spreadin’ The News.” Their social media handles are listed below:
Instagram @spreadinthenews
Twitter: @OfficialSTNPod
To all of The Messenger Yankees fans, as you enjoy the rest of their historically hot start, don’t forget to keep Spreadin’ The News!
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/66jyjtfE20JT4ONK9WS0Nm?si=-vb-gmzJSaeuWeE0b_N2ig
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgwM9Tc07xDtrXY3NH2LOTA?app=desktop
