MuggleCast-ing: Freshman produces popular Harry Potter podcast

Andrew Sims has taken road tours, been on movie sets, and gone to film premieres from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas to Los Angeles to England. He has fans, has signed autographs, and hosts an audio podcast that draws 50,000 listeners each week.

Not bad for a freshman with broadcast aspirations who is just now completing his first semester of study as a radio/television/film major at Rowan University.

Sims openly admits that he owes his success to Harry--as in Harry Potter, the wildly popular, bespectacled boy wizard created by best-selling author J.K. Rowling.

Sims is the founder, executive producer and host of MuggleCast, the audio podcast that is part of MuggleNet, an unofficial Harry Potter fan site (www.mugglenet.com), which bills itself as the ultimate Harry Potter site. The site attracts 120,000-150,000 visitors daily.

Since his junior year at Shawnee High School, Sims, a Medford resident, has posted over 120 one-hour weekly shows on the site. MuggleCast boasts over 50,000 weekly listeners, according to Sims.

"The fandom is huge. We have listeners as young as 11 and as old as their 50s and 60s," says Sims, who read his first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in fourth grade. By age 12, he had created his own Harry Potter web site, which existed until 2004, when he joined MuggleNet.

"I started as a staff member doing little jobs and, two years ago, in my junior year of high school, I started the podcast," says Sims. "I just sort of took it under my wing. At the time, we had the only Harry Potter podcast."

As Harry Potter's popularity grew through books and movies, so, too, has MuggleNet's. The site works closely with Warner Brothers, distributor of the Potter movies, which means that MuggleNet staffers have attended book releases, movie premieres and Harry Potter conventions.

Last summer, Sims represented MuggleNet at the movie premieres for "Order of the Phoenix" in England and Los Angeles. He attended the Harry Potter convention in Philadelphia and flew back to England for the book release of Deathly Hallows.

After visiting LA, Sims and five other MuggleCast-ers rented a 2007 Lincoln Navigator for the road tour from Las Vegas to Pittsburgh. Sims did eight podcasts on the road tour and the group met up with MuggleCast fans along the way.

"It was easily one of the best experiences of my life," Sims says of the road tour. "We've done several live shows. Before we did the first show, I didn't imagine how many people we'd reach. We hear all the time from people who say they really enjoy the show."

Sims got interested in broadcasting in high school and honed his skills under Shawnee TV technology teacher Steve Cappello. Choosing to study in Rowan's College of Communication was a good fit, he says.

"I heard a lot of good things about Rowan's broadcast program and I wanted to stay in the area," says Sims. "When I graduate, I would love to get involved with broadcasting, particularly television. I'm just fascinated by it."

Luckily for Sims, Potter-mania continues to grow. J.K. Rowling was named Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year and Barbara Walters named the author the most fascinating person of 2007. A Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando is set to open in 2011 and more books and movies are in the works.

Rowling, whom Sims met for the first time this fall, keeps fans enticed by releasing snippets of information about her book characters, such as her revelation earlier this year that Dumbledore, the headmaster in the series, is gay. That was great fodder for MuggleCast, says Sims.

"People are telling us that our first show after that announcement was the best show we've ever done," he says.

Even though he's often immersed in Potter-dom--Sims estimates he spends 15-20 hours each week on MuggleCast--his enthusiasm for Potter never wanes.

"I still love the books, but I find the movies just as exciting," says Sims. "The plots are very in-depth and the themes are fascinating. I'm having a ton of fun. I love it."

With all of the thrills MuggleCast has provided Sims, one of his biggest happened this fall when he met Rowling-known as Jo to fans-at a book signing at New York City's Carnegie Hall. The two exchanged quick high-fives. And though it wasn't quite what Sims had hoped for in a greeting-his ultimate goal would be to have Rowling on MuggleCast-it was still magical, Sims says.

"It was glorious. It's a fun story to tell," says Sims, who produces the shows through his home computer. "Jo meets and greets everyone at her book-signings and there were 2,000 people in line at Carnegie Hall."

Sims, who uses his MuggleCast experiences as points of reference as he studies radio/television/film at Rowan, has plans for the podcast as it grows.

"My dream is to have a real studio one day for MuggleCast," he says. "I never really expected it to be this popular. It's a great experience."