Obscura: A True Crime Podcast Black Label

I have been a listener since the beginning and love your show. Justin, you seem like a really good guy and compassionate person and salute you. The cases you research and offer your listeners are so intriguing to me (I’ll go on a limb and say the vast majority of your audience from the beginning) because not a lot was held back and it actually educated me and opened my eyes to a world where the most vile acts were being exposed. After listening to the first couple episodes ever I would think “wow, I never knew this existed”. It was shocking. And that’s what I loved about it. It took the blinders off and introduced the dark side of society and the vile acts. I think I listened to it so I would not be so naive as to the bad side of humanity. Every other mainstream true crime (I.e. Dateline, 48 hours etc) would say something along the lines of “the crime was too gruesome so we can give exact details”. I was a loyal customer the first time a heard a black label. It was so eye opening that from then on I followed your show. The one thing I’ve seen over the years that I would like to point out that is wrong is this: don’t try to appease a small amount of people and change your show. I noticed a few of the last Black Labels you had a disclaimer saying (paraphrasing here) “some listeners have been voicing their concern about the graphic nature of the past black labels so the next black labels will be softball episodes, episodes that are less gruesome”. Literally everyone in the beginning, when they heard “black label is straight up with no chaser” you gained your loyal audience. Now it’s like “well Karen wrote in saying she was offended by the Facebook live or crush videos episodes so we won’t do that crazy of a case next one “. That’s how you got listeners in the first place. Because you didn’t hold back and gave the audience a glimpse into the F’d up side of us humans and that was a breathe of fresh air. Now it seems like you are trying to please everyone who gets offended. My last point is in this example: it would be equivalent to 5% of Metallica fans writing into the band and saying “you play music too loud please play at a lower volume. Maybe turn your amps down to 50% not 100%”. And Metallica saying “ok our next 2 shows we will not play as loud”. Literally ALL of Metallica fans who have been with them from the start became fans because they played loud and sang at the top of their lungs with aggression and that’s what the fans loved. Now they aren’t the same band because they are trying to appease the small amount of people who want them to do things different. I paid A YEAR subscription not knowing it was going to turn into some weeks there’s kids gloves on then I get an episode that takes the gloves off. Maybe I need to go back to monthly and just play it by ear. With that said, you do seem like the most down to earth, decent guy with good intentions in this industry and has a good heart. Just want to thank you for that.

Used to be very good. Now he just replays 911 calls or recordings the whole episode. Very lazy work

Love you guys and everything I do! You make my drive into and from work the BEST!