Radio Ink Magazine – August 12, 2019

AUGUST 12, 2019 RADIOINK•COM 37

Tom Webster: I mostly spend my time
talking people out of starting a podcast,
because it’s hard to do a good one. And
I don’t think a radio background auto-
matically qualifies someone to start one.
Most of the radio stations in America
play music 24 hours per day — I don’t
assume that this guarantees those sta-
tions have the muscle memory or narra-
tive chops to tell great audio stories.
A podcast gives a radio station a way
to serve their audience very differently
to how they serve them in broadcast.
Broadcast media is required to make
most people happy most of the time. A
podcast is an opportunity to make some
people really happy almost all the time.
It’s a different proposition. If that has
value for a station, and they have the
chops to do it, that’s a pretty good start.

Radio Ink: What podcasting advice
do you have for the 40 Most Powerful
People in Radio?
Shannon Hernandez: Consider the long
term for podcasting, and strip yourself
of preconceived notions that everything
that works in radio will automatically
work for podcasting. We are all meant
to evolve personally and professionally
to see ourselves succeed. But if we con-
tinue to maintain that concepts work-
ing in one area are meant to work in
another, then you might as well consider
it your next strike at bat.

Elsie Escobar: Hire podcasters. Hire
people that have built audiences with a
podcast.
Hire people that have been around
the medium for longer than four years.
You could hire them as talent, but I
suggest you hire them as strategic con-
sultants and truth tellers. They may not
know the ins and outs of radio, ad rev-
enue, segments, etc. But they do know
what it takes to connect with an audi-
ence, what to expect in building an audi-
ence, and what it really takes to keep
podcasting.

Mark Asquith: Be humble. Let the
voice of the network, the station, and
the person shine through and cre-
ate content that is imaginative. We
wouldn’t treat YouTube like TV, so don’t
treat podcasting like radio. Respect the

differences and focus on the listener

experience.

Tom Webster: Don’t view podcasting as

another vehicle to stick the same con-

tent and (even worse) the same ads. It

isn’t radio. Start from scratch. Build a

podcast. Build a show.

Rob Greenlee: It is not too late to jump

into podcasting with both feet; it is still

early and you still have a lot of ears you

can reach to help you make the shift

successful for some of the radio indus-

try. Realize that there will not be room

for every station that exists today in the

future — on the spoken word side, espe-

cially.

Dave Beasing: Reinvent the medium

from scratch. If radio didn’t already

exist, how would you build a business

filling the need for audio entertainment

in 2019?

If you want to increase revenue,

incentivize revenue, not ratings. Simply

adding podcasting, social media, online

video and the rest to talent contracts

won’t get them done. You have to come

up with a plan to make money with

these efforts, measure financial success,

and reward it.

Study the good and bad of how other

media have coped with disruption. For

example, The New York Times’ stock

price is up almost 40 percent in the past

year, and — among other new projects

— they’re producing the number one

daily podcast in America. A newspaper

is beating radio at its own game, audio.

Why? Necessity. They had no other

choice than to update how a strong

brand delivers content. That’s radio’s

future, too.

Matt Cundill: Listen to podcasts.

(Especially on an airplane where you

are less likely to be bothered.) Go on

podcasts when invited. Do a podcast if

inclined. Attend a podcast conference.

By doing any of these, you will be better

prepared to create a podcast strategy

for your business.

Tom Webster, Sr. VP, Edison Research