GREAT FALLS — On the fourth floor of the Columbus Center in Great Falls, you’ll find a distinctive door painted with rivers and mountains. Behind this door you’ll find four friends with distinctive personalities who share one goal.
To showcase a Montana mindset for the rest of the world.
The Weekly Bust LLC comprises hosts Tylin Bates, Levi DeCelles and Jake Fenner as well as cameraman Christian Lacasse.
“We have a complete team - and we started something great here,” Bates said. “I like to call us the Avengers.”
What is the Weekly Bust?
According to the group’s Facebook Page: "The mission of The Weekly Bust Studios LLC is to redefine Montana's cultural landscape by blending tradition with modernity through innovative and diverse multimedia content.”
They started their journey four years ago with a podcast.
“After we finished our first episode we felt like this heavenly moment,” Bates said. “We all looked around and agreed we haven’t had a conversation like that in years. We always had a phone in our face or something, and this gave us face-to-face interaction for almost four hours. We knew we were on to something.”
Eventually, The Weekly Bust started interviewing guests and found a niche within the combat sports community, speaking candidly with big names in mixed martial arts and bare knuckle boxing. TWB has since grown to include a YouTube channel, social media channels, several sponsors and a merchandise line.
Their shows are broadcast live nationwide on Fight World Live and Amazon Prime.
“I left my full time position for this, Levi left his full time position for this,” Bates said. “This became our career because we felt we had something here.”
And what they have is a platform for combat sports stars like BKFC featherweight champion Kai Stewart and others to be themselves and tell their stories.
“These big name fighters just see the type of people we are and we’re not fake about how we’re carrying and go about our business,” Fenner said. “They want to engage with us, because we bring who and what we are to the table.”
While TWB has gained a national reputation as a fight podcast, that’s not all they do. It’s also a vehicle to export Montana cultue to whoever will listen, while giving back to their community.
“So when people think of Montana, they think of the Weekly Bust. We’ve traveled the whole country. We’ve repped Montana harder than anyone else because we love this state,” Bates said. “We’re having fun with our boys, and we rep Montana the hardest.”
The team has recently started a fund raising campaign to raise money to purchase Christmas gifts for kids in the Great Falls community.
“We need to give back to the community and have that local support behind us to propel us to the top,” DeCelles said.
Just like the fighters they interview on their show, the boys of the Weekly Bust are hungry, they’re underdogs, and they don’t plan to stop anytime soon.
“It just feels natural,” DeCelles said. “And we’re more driven to get stuff done than other people that we know.”
“This isn’t a job to us. We love this,” added Bates. “We love this with all of our hearts.”
For more information on The Weekly Bust, click here.
