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Meet William Medrano of Heat Check Podcast

Today we’d like to introduce you to William Medrano.

William, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s funny, so as a kid, I always had different ambitions in life. Wanted to become a baseball player but once I got more un-athletic I kind of gave up and said to myself I can still be part of a team and be like on the medical staff. So I wanted to be a kinesiology major but a class in high school where I got a D- and my teacher pretty much telling me that I wasn’t made for this and that she herself didn’t like teaching kinesiology had me back at phase 1 again, I lost interest once again. It wasn’t until I applied for college and I chose SF State. When they ask what major I wanted to apply for, I saw the options and what caught my eye was “Broadcast and Electronic Communications” I circle that option because I thought it sounded cool and first thing that came to my mind was that wow I get to take classes about being on TV. Taking classes and finding out that my school had a radio class had me interested in being in radio because even though I’d love to be on camera, I was still kind of shy in front of it. And I just love to talk (as you can see how long this response is) and my love for music, pop culture news, having friends making amazing music, made me realize I can create a show and cater to that. Where leads to now where I run my own podcast doing all of those. And my love for music grew even more as I now have an interest in being in the music industry, as I am currently managing two of my good friends who are talented artists.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Has not been a smooth road. Like I said the change of ambitions has really always had me thinking of what my purpose in life is. Even to this day as I do my podcast, I still haven’t reach the goals I wanted to set and have had setbacks in putting out episodes as I get caught up in life. Even after graduating from SF State I had a plan in wanting to work in the radio industry, And I was working in a big radio company but seeing how things were done had me lost in interest. But I think I am starting to find my calling.

Please tell us about Heat Check Podcast.
I run my own podcast called Heat Check Podcast. Where I play music, give my fire takes on pop culture, hip-hop, sports news. And I conduct interviews with local artists around the bay. I’m also managing two artists that I’ve known since high school, Ian Santillano & Ez. I help them with A&R their projects, running their social media accounts, helping them get on Spotify, Apple Music placements and blog sites. What I am most proud of is that I am able to balance the both and just have fun with it. I’m able to connect my works all together, for example as I help promote say Ian, he gifts me with music to play on my podcast so it all comes full circle. That’s what I am most proud of. Keeps me motivated too as I see these artists grind all the time.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Start my love for music and podcasting much earlier. I would have master my skills and who knows? Expand it more than I am trying to right now.

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Image Credit:
Zachary DeCastro, Jenny Hughes

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