NAB Show Wednesday: Podcasting Primers And More....

Wednesday

BY PERRY MICHAEL SIMON in LAS VEGAS: With the Radio Luncheon history, the FCC representatives' appearances done, and the Digital Strategies and financial sessions over, what's left for radio at the NAB SHOW for WEDNESDAY is a string of panels and presentations on podcasting and the occasional connected car panel, plus, of course, the exhibit hall action.

Getting Started With Podcasting, Radio Edition

The podcasting sessions began with LIBSYN's ROB WALCH, RAWVOICE/BLUBRRY's TODD COCHRANE, SPREAKER's ROB GREENLEE, and SCRIPPS' ROB MCCRACKEN talking about how radio stations are using podcasts for monetization.  

WALCH talked about the information his company has amassed as a leading podcast host since 2004, including how mobile downloads of podcasts have reached 86.5% of the total, and how iOS leads Android for downloads by a 4.4:1 ratio.  81% of the consumption of podcasts is via a handful of apps, 78% of which goes to iTunes ("you're not a podcast if you're not in iTunes," he asserted); 10% come through social media, and listening through music-first apps like SPOTIFY and iHEARTRADIO is small but just getting started.  

WALCH called "bullcrap" on the idea that shows' ideal length is around 22 minutes, pointing out how 84% of shows with over 100,000 downloads are over 51 minutes in length, with some, like DAN CARLIN's "HARDCORE HISTORY," running for several hours per episode, although he warned that podcasters shouldn't stretch limited content to long lengths ("that's 'Star Wars Episode I,'" he joked).  He also noted that some of the podcasts that consist of repurposed radio content, like DAVE RAMSEY's show, work well, and others don't; MCCRACKEN added that an edited-down version of a broadcast show is attractive to fans who don't have time to listen live.

COCHRANE gave a presentation with some metrics and takeaways about RAWVOICE's work with radio groups on podcasts, including some information about the dominance of talent-read endorsement spots (93%).  He said that the radio groups using RAWVOICE found that the biggest challenges were development of an appropriate rate card and training sales staff, but they also found success in upselling existing advertisers and creating new revenue that wasn't available before launching the podcasts, and the podcasts also generated over ten times the social response and helped develop new talent.

GREENLEE's presentation for SPREAKER stressed the importance of thinking about content, whether generating original material or repurposing podcast material for broadcast use.  He outlined some commonalities for successful local podcasts, including the value of topics with both local and national focus, the need to produce the shows as podcasts first, to be edited for adaptation to radio, and developing deep local community connections while marketing and offering the program on multiple platforms.  An example GREENLEE offered as a show that's been successful as a local podcast is "PLANTED IN MIAMI," a Vegan podcast.

And MCCRACKEN gave an overview of SCRIPPS' involvement in podcasting, including the acquisition of MIDROLL MEDIA and STITCHER and offering some of the statistics from EDISON RESEARCH and TRITON DIGITAL's Infinite Dial study and the additional statistic that podcast users listen to significantly less radio, comparing the audio listening changes to the move of television viewing to an on-demand model.

What Radio Can Do With Podcasts

JACOBS MEDIA Digital Dot Connecter and ALL ACCESS columnist SETH RESLER offered his insight on original-content podcasts broadcasters can launch, running through an overview of podcast networks and examples of talents and shows that made a transition from traditional radio to podcasting, transferring pre-existing audiences to the new medium.

RESLER compared radio to podcasts to show the way that they are "related, but not the same," including radio's mass appeal and local audience vs. podcasting's niche audiences and international reach. He suggested several formats, like Skype interviews, live one-on-one interviews, and a three-person roundtable ("the Morning Zoo format, with which we're all familiar," RESLER noted).  On how frequently shows should post and how long the shows should be, RESLER said that the questions are related, with more frequent shows better off with shorter episodes.  And he suggested that a new podcast "launch a pilot season," with a finite number of episodes.

On possible topics, RESLER advised to "do a passion topic" that a talent can't talk about too much on his or her regular show, a podcast about an event, a show with multiple hosts who normally don't work together on the air, branded content for clients, and a series for potential clients interviewing managers at the station.

Content That Works, Podcast Edition

Consultant VALERIE GELLER focused her panel on content for podcasts, examining what is currently working in the medium with CBS RADIO Top 40 KAMP (97.1 AMP RADIO)/LOS ANGELES host and "THE PHP: PEREZ HILTON PODCAST" co-host CHRIS BOOKER, FINANCIAL SURVIVAL NETWORK CEO KERRY LUTZ, and GIMLET MEDIA VP, Head of Sales ANNA SULLIVAN.

BOOKER discussed the unique elements of working with a celebrity host, especially being a polar-opposite personality to HILTON, and the surprise that HILTON's fans would take to him, expanding his own listener base as well.  SULLIVAN described GIMLET's growth (more than doubling its staff within a year), the issue of metrics (and the difficulty of getting the kind of metrics advertisers want), and the value of having potential clients hear the shows first ("they become fans... they're more willing to buy").  LUTZ discussed his podcast's rocky start and finding his groove after 20-30 episodes, and added that the hard part of podcasting was learning to run it like a business and monetizing it.  "Very few people have been able to monetize it successfully," he noted.

And Yet More On Monetizing Podcasts, Because You Can't Get Enough Of That

Closing out the podcast panels, another panel addressing the monetization question featured a rundown of ways to make money on (or adjacent to) the medium from CUMULUS/MINNEAPOLIS OM SCOTT JAMESON and CUMULUS Classic Rock KQRS/MINNEAPOLIS morning host and podcast network proprietor TOM BARNARD.  JAMESON listed pre-roll and post-roll ads voiced by the host, mid-roll ads, and giving podcast sponsors mentions on the broadcast show as ways to make money on podcasts, as well as offering a short-form podcast highlight package, podcast banner displays, dynamic ad insertion into evergreen archived episodes, "added value" for clients, and the use of apps (because "most people don't know how ti download a podcast," JAMESON asserted) with banner ads rotating within the app screen.

BARNARD explained how his podcast, which began in 2012, became a $500,000 per year ad revenue business now distributed by WESTWOOD ONE.  "I love the combination of digital and terrestrial," BARNARD, who said he uses the podcast for brand building, enthused.  'I'd hate to see the day that terrestrial radio is gone completely... (but) podcasting has a wonderful, wonderful future."

Let's Review, Shall We?

Check this item for continuing coverage of what's happening in VEGAS all day, and for coverage of MONDAY, click here, and for YESTERDAY's activities, click here (and for CRYSTAL AWARDS winners, click here).  And see today's PERRYVISION video with some thoughts on the NAB SHOW and more here.

Next up for the NAB is the RADIO SHOW, co-produced with the RADIO ADVERTISING BUREAU, in AUSTIN SEPTEMBER 5-8, 2017.  ALL ACCESS will, of course, be there.

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