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= Word Balloon Podcast = The Word Balloon Podcast is a free pop-culture audio podcast hosted by Chicago radio and television host John Siuntres. Word Balloon features interviews and discussions with creative minds in nerd-culture and genre fiction including superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. The podcast currently features over 1,100 episodes and can be listened to on Spotify, iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Podbean, LastFM, Amazon Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

History
The Word Balloon podcast premiered on May 10, 2005, on the Word Balloon website and initially featured four mp3 episodes. Word Balloon host John Siuntres first recorded the podcast to use as audition material for a possible broadcast hosting job. He chose to focus on comics, as he did not want any conflict of interest with his career in sports radio.

Siuntres has been an avid comic book fan since he was a child and learned to read using comic books. With his combined passion for comics and 20 years of experience in radio and interviewing, Siuntres was well equipped with the skills to launch Word Balloon. The name of the podcast is a play on words, derived from the dialogue bubbles used in comic books.

By 2006 the podcast had grown exponentially, following interviews with prominent Marvel and DC comic book artists and writers. Most episodes feature in-depth, one on one interviews with creative minds in the comic, television, and film industries. Word Balloon also features panel discussions from live events such as various Comic-Conventions. The podcast has recently expanded beyond the traditional audio episodes. Siuntres hosts live interviews on the Word Balloon social media pages including Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, Twitch and Twitter Live via Periscope. The live interviews allow members of the Word Balloon community to ask questions of their own. In March of 2020 Word Balloon began posting video podcast episodes to YouTube.

Host
John Siuntres has worked in Chicago radio for over 35 years. He was first introduced to the radio industry in 1979 at WNTH, New Trier High School’s student radio station. He continued his career in radio ever since. Siuntres attended Illinois State University, majoring in Mass Communication and Radio. Throughout his time at Illinois State University, he held positions as the Music Director, Program Director, and Production Director at the university radio station, WZND. Siuntres received his Bachelors of Science degree in 1988. During his college years, Siuntres began his professional career at WIHN-FM Bloomington as both Music Director and on-air personality from 1985 to 1988.

Upon moving to Chicago in 1989, Siuntres began to appear as the Boxing Analyst for radio station WLUP 1000’s “Coppock on Sports.” During this time, Siuntres was also reporting for Boxing Illustrated Magazine. This was the start of a long-standing career in sports radio. Siuntres went on to work at Chicago's WSCR 670 AM/ WXRT-FM for nearly a decade. Here he held many positions including Producer from 1992 to 1994, WSCR Production Director from 1994 to 1997, and On-Air Host from 1997 to 2001.

Throughout his career in sports radio, Siuntres had the opportunity to cover many boxing Pay-Per-View events and interviewed world-renowned boxers such as Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis,Oscar De La Hoya, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Ken Norton, Roy Jones Jr., and promoters Rock Newman, Murad Muhammad, Bob Arum, Dan Duva and Don King.

In 2001, Siuntres became the Boxing Analyst and Production Coordinator for the Sporting News Radio Network. It was during this time that he started the Word Balloon podcast as a side project. The pop-culture podcast went on to become a career of its own. While continuing Word Balloon, Siuntres took a job as Co-Production Director for Chicago FM music radio stations WTMX, WSHE, and WDRV between the years of 2007 and 2016. From 2017-2020 Siuntres worked as an On-Air Traffic Reporter for WBBM AM 780, an Entercom-CBS Radio affiliate.

Guests
The Word Balloon podcast has featured interviews with many significant names in the comic, television, and film industries. Siuntres frequently interviews comic book writers and artists including Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) Mark Millar (comic book/film creator of Kick-Ass, Wanted, and Kingsman: The Secret Service)  , Robert Kirkman (creator of The Walking Dead), Ed Brubaker (comic book writer of Captain America: The Winter Soldier) , Gail Simone (Birds Of Prey-Secret Six) Brian Michael Bendis (Comic Book/TV creator of Jessica Jones and Miles Morales/Spider-Man)       ,Tom King (comic book writer of Batman, Mister Miracle, and the New Gods Screenplay) and Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel, Bitch Planet, and Pretty Deadly).

Word Balloon goes beyond comics to interview creative minds in film and television as well. Siuntres has interviewed television producers such as Geoff Johns (Stargirl, The CW), Patrick Schumacker (Harley Quinn, Syfy-HBO-MAX), Greg Rucka (Stumptown, ABC and The Old Guard, Netflix), and Joe Henderson (Lucifer, Netflix).

Some other notable Word Balloon guests include Jeph Loeb, former President of Marvel Television, and Zack Snyder, film director of Justice League, Watchmen, Man of Steel, and Batman V Superman.

Reception
Siuntres was a pioneer in the world of pop-culture podcasting. Siuntres jokingly remarks, "there were only 8 podcasts to start, so all of us were in the top 10." Word Balloon was named the #1 Comic Podcast by USA Today in 2011. Siuntres’ Word Balloon interviews are also frequently quoted by top comic and nerd-culture blogs and news websites including bleedingcool.com, cbr.com, and comicsbeat.com. Following the quick success of Word Balloon, Siuntres was invited to many pop culture conventions as a panelist or a moderator. Some conventions he has spoken at include Chicago’s C2E2, New York Comic-Con, The San Diego Comic-Con   , and Connecticut’s Terrificon. Siuntres also appeared on three episodes of the Science Channel’s 2012 Prophets of Science Fiction TV Series as a featured expert. As of 2020, Siuntres has been moderating online panels for Mainframe Comic-Con, an online convention raising money for The Hero Initiative, a charity raising money for comic creators in need.