Apr. 21—One mundane response locals and new residents express when describing activities in Odessa is "there's nothing to do."
That's the myth the Odessa Chamber of Commerce and Discover Odessa are trying to debunk with the help of a new podcast they plan to release in early May.
Allison Gray and Ashley Flores, who are marketing and communications specialists with the Chamber of Commerce and Discover Odessa respectively, have started the "Discover Odessa Podcast presented by the Odessa Chamber of Commerce" and are quickly two episodes into recording before their May 3 release on Spotify. Each new episode set to come out every other Tuesday.
The two have already interviewed the Chamber of Commerce's President and CEO Reneé Earls, Director of Discover Odessa Monica Tschauner, Chamber Director of Operations Lynn Van Amburgh and Director of Economic Development Tom Manskey to set an introduction for the first episode and inform listeners to what the Chamber of Commerce actually does.
The second episode features Director of Marketing for the West Texas Food Bank Craig Stoker and Director of Odessa Arts Randy Ham. Within the second episode, Gray and Flores delve more into the purpose of the podcast by giving their listeners an inside look at unique stories, fun facts, things to do, business advice and much more from the locals that shape Odessa.
"We really wanted to spearhead the myth that Odessa has nothing to do, while also highlighting the unique pieces that Odessa brings that not many people maybe see or have heard about," Gray said.
Gray said she believes their audience is "anybody who's recently moved here to Odessa, but also people who have been here for a while and are just trying to find things to do."
Gray goes on to say the podcasts won't be closed off to interaction from listeners either: "We hope to make it a thing where listeners can also ask and find out more information through the podcast." Gray and Flores plan to take questions from listeners over social media before each new episode.
The idea for the podcast originally grew from the need to get more information to the chamber's audience with both Gray and Flores brainstorming for avenues before settling on the digital program.
When it came time to pitch the idea, the chamber ate it up.
"They were like yes, greenlight, go and do it. Very supportive," Gray said. "And they were very excited that this is a new piece for the chamber to be able to help get more information out there with."