From street team to Spotify exclusive, Caden MacDonald Goes Alright

AFL fanatic Caden MacDonald recently scored his own Spotify exclusive podcast called ‘Goes Alright‘ which his loaded with anecdotes, footy and guests.

Speaking with Radio Today this week, Caden described the journey towards his dream job of talking footy and spinning a yarn. Going from radio street team to Spotify exclusive creator.

After studying radio in 2015, Caden annoyed radio stations across the country trying to get a start before eventually getting his hands dirty with the KIIS street team in Melbourne.

“Before I did [Radio Training Institute] in 2015, I was doing community radio in 2014, and then after RTI I applied for so many radio stations in Australia that they were probably annoyed with my email popping up, and my average one minute demo saying ‘please give me a gig,'” said Caden.

“I got onto the KIIS FM street team, and I was running around giving away cans of coke and show bags. It was really fun at the time, but I was like, all I want to do is get on-air or do something creative.” 

“So then I started YouTube and it was like, all I need is 10,000 subscribers and it’s funny how your goal posts change…”

Caden put his ambitious energy towards creating content on YouTube while waiting for a call back, which ended up being what scored him his latest gig as a Spotify exclusive podcaster. 

So just like Justin Bieber, Caden got his gig through YouTube, with the exception being that he was not found by Usher, but Dylan Buckley.

“A couple of years after RTI I started doing YouTube to sort of, stay creative and since then it’s all sort of turned into this,” said Caden.

“My Usher was Dyl Buckley, who has one of the more successful podcasts in Australia.” 

“So he started a company where he’s going to bring talent through and sign them up and fire their podcast journeys up.” 

Former AFL player Dylan Buckley created successful podcasts, Dyl and Friends, List Cloggers and then later the production brand Producey which has begun bringing through media talent like Caden. 

“I’ve had a couple of podcasts before, just made out of my own house, but this was the first real show that I’d been offered,” said Caden.

“We worked with Spotify to go through it all and they’ve been unreal. A couple of episodes in and so far so good!”

Though the show has its roots in AFL, it has a diverse structure made up of pop culture and interesting guests to open the market up to a wide audience.

“I’m an absolute football and sports nuffy, but I’m also pop culture and social media nuffy as well, and I just want to talk to anyone and everyone about football,” said Caden.

“Straight away when I got the poddy, I was really excited to get like-minded creators and people in who enjoy sport, enjoy footy to talk a little bit about them and talk a little bit about footy.”

“I want to keep mixing it up like that. I want to get an athlete in every couple of weeks from the AFL, but then I want to get other people in that I’m inspired by that are dominating and talk footy with them as well.” 

When asked about his love for Melbourne Football Club, or ‘The Dees,’ he said, “I probably love them I should. It’s twenty-two blokes in short shorts running around every weekend, and they affect my mood way more than they should.” 

“It’s the highlight of my week going to support them – I’ve supported them for a long long time – and it’s sort of crazy that my job is to do with footy. I couldn’t be any more happy.”

“I am so grateful and I’m pumped to be where I am, but I’m also scared like, don’t stuff it up, you’ve got to do it right.”

“Happy days so far and we’ll see how it goes.” 

Listen to Radio Today’s full interview with Caden below:

Listen to Goes Alright exclusively on Spotify