A Podcasting Pro Dishes On its Evolution

Co-ordinate to Edison Research, four in 10 Americans now download almost 7 podcasts a week (I'thou a fan of Kermode and Mayo'southward Film Review).

Although the sound file formats for internet-based sound have been around for a while, it was only when iTunes made it easy to eat personal audio on the go that information technology became a thing "regular" people did (equally opposed to esoteric geek-focused feeds).

And so Serial came along in 2022 and racked upwardly 10 million downloads in its starting time seven weeks. Who knew we were all hungry for bedtime story 60 minutes? But in these troubling times, tales are dandy diversions, especially scary ones.

Stories bated, the pop podcast content mix is still the convivial extended word, which allow hosts and guests to go deeper and longer than broadcast radio can back up. I instance of this genre is The Joe Rogan Experience, which has an entire Reddit string devoted to estimating his revenues, after Rogan said he at present has 30 million downloads a month.

For more on the evolution and current state of podcasting, we met up in LA with Ben Adair, founder of Western Sound, a new audio production company. Adair is a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has been in the podcast scene since its early days, circa 2004. He has produced shows like Muddied John, American History Tellers and Young Charlie for Wondery, and A Piece of Work (#2) for WNYC Studios. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our chat.

---

Ben, let'due south kick off with your background. How did yous get started in the audio industry?
I started my career as a journalist for the alternative press, back in the 90s, so got into the alternative radio scene via KPFK which was, dorsum then, a community radio station.

Is that where you learned to interpret your skill set into a journalist-with-a-microphone?
Yes, KPFK is where I learned radio skills because, in those days, you could bear witness up, grab a microphone, and learn on the job.

What gear were you using and then?
Reel-to-reel recorders with quarter-inch record, so editing using razor blades to splice cuts together. I'd sit at the desk-bound with all the big audio reels and a tape dispenser with five different types of tape, which nosotros used as markers for different aspects of the process.

When did digital editing come up in?
I discovered there was a figurer in one of the studios that had a program called SAW - Software Audio Workshop; information technology's still around. Information technology was one of the start digital-editing programs, and so I taught myself how to utilise that. It was pretty basic, just definitely easier than using razor blades and tape dispensers.

When y'all did turn pro?
I started working for The Savvy Traveler, a national radio show, in 2000, then created an arts, culture and documentary bear witness called Pacific Drift for KPCC Southern California Public Radio, earlier becoming Managing Editor for American Public Media'south Weekend America evidence until 2009. I launched Market'due south digital innovation lab, doing rapid digital programming for non-broadcast, which was unheard of at the time. This became highly successful, as part of two multi-million dollar reporting initiatives aimed at sustainability/environmental coverage and decoding the new, global economy.

But wasn't podcasting a competitive medium for public radio stations?
Weirdly, public radio has e'er excelled at doing the sort of programming which is really more than popular for downloading and fourth dimension-shifting listening, than scheduled broadcast slots.

In 2022, alongside the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, y'all won a Peabody Accolade for excellence in broadcasting for your evidence Reveal's VA's Opiate Overload episode. Was that when you lot realized podcasting had grown upwardly?
Right. It did feel similar that. Especially as we won the Peabody for the very first affair that nosotros did there.

Was there a large "do"?
In that location was a very fancy award ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Nice. So why do yous call up podcasting has really taken off?
I think podcasting is the wearisome food of modern media.

That's an interesting observation.
Well, time-shifting is a big part of podcasting success. Being able to download, cull when, and where, you desire to heed in is key. Equally the media environment has got more and more fragmented, and everything is coming faster and faster, people want to be able to wearisome down and engage with anything up to lx minutes or and then of content. Particularly content that's intelligent and focused. The best podcasts help you form an intimate bond with the person that's talking, every bit information technology feels directly personal, to y'all. While listening you're often learning things, maybe having an emotional experience that, frankly, nosotros used to accept with media only don't have anymore.

On that note, I learned a lot listening to the American Mom podcast pilot yous were recording today with host Rebecca Woolf interviewing entrepreneur Jasmine Williams on "raising vehement and fearless girls." It had a narrative thrust and tons of thoughtful data.
This is a new show, a parenting show, under the banner of my new company Western Audio. Nosotros want to talk about how to raise kids in a smart, activated and energized style so that's what the testify is going to be figuring out. I set the company because I wanted to specialize in serialized storytelling, making highly produced quality shows that make a real impact and change people'southward lives.

Is in that location a expert business model behind this?
Yes. Bluntly, podcasting is still a small market for advertisers in general, merely many advertisers who practise want to advertise have brands in the parenting space. So my idea was to create a show which will be popular, fills a need for smart programming, attracts top advertisers, and that we can sell to a network. We already have interest from a few.

Namecheck some of the professional gear you use today.
There'due south still this myth that to make information technology in podcasting, all yous demand is 2 guys, fifty bucks, and a couple of USB mics and y'all'll end up getting millions of downloads. Mayhap that was true a few years ago, but at present you need the proper professional kit.

Mine includes Sennheiser MKH50 P48 and ME66/K6 shotgun mics for location-based work and VP88 Stereo Condenser microphones from Shure. If y'all use these mics in the studio, it sounds as if the person on the podcast is sitting right next to you when you heed back; the audio fidelity is that proficient. Interestingly enough, while some technology has changed a lot within podcasting, microphone technology has non—the ones I use today retail for about $800 upwards. I also use a Sound Devices MixPre-6 audio recorder. When editing, I employ Pro Tools.

So it's not a deck anymore in the glass walled-off sectionalisation?
No, it'southward all on my computer - a MacBook Pro laptop.

Finally, what'southward coming upward for you next?
I'll be giving a talk about storytelling and podcasting at the Los Angeles Volume Fair on Saturday April 21 at 4:thirty p.one thousand.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/news/20724/a-podcasting-pro-dishes-on-its-evolution

Posted by: bakerformar.blogspot.com

Share this post