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10 Questions with ... Matty Staudt
April 9, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. People often don't realize that doing a great podcast is a job that involves all the things that go into a great morning or talk show. Good prep, knowing your audience, and delivering a great sounding product are the keys. Great podcasts create empathy with the listener, similar to radio. This has to do with the way they are consumed: one on one, usually on headphones or in the car and as the primary focus of the listener. You have to be passionate about what you are podcasting about or the listener will hear and feel your disinterest. I will never tell anyone they must do a podcast, it has to be something the talent is really committed to doing consistently. Podcasts take time to grow, so be patient
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Started radio at age 16 in Keyser, WV as a DJ at WQZK, jocked at WCLG in college in Morgantown, and WNUS/Parkersburg as DJ/MD/APD in Parkersburg, WV after that. Then took a chance and drove to DC and talked my way into being the producer of the G. Gordon Liddy Show on WJFK. Less than a year later, I went to WNEW to work with Jeremy Coleman and EP’d the Sports Guys as well as being a Programming Assistant to Jeremy.
San Francisco followed at KLLC’s Sarah and No Name Show and a year at KITS doing mornings with No Name. I left radio to join the startup team at Stitcher in 2008, where I was its first Director of Content until 2011. Since then, it’s been podcast consulting with my company Matty Media, hosting several podcasts, and starting the first podcast production program at a university in the U.S., in 2012. I am still a professor and oversee the campus station, Urban Knights Radio, at The Academy of Art University.
After having a couple companies talk to me about coming back to radio, Andrew Jeffries and Don Parker at iHeartRadio brought me back to come and work on podcasting and digital in SF as its DPD. After a year and a lot of success with podcasts in SF, Darren Davis created my present job of VP of Podcast Programming for iHeartRadio. In my current job, I coach our talent and work with our digital and sales teams to build an amazing network of podcasts that span from on demand to amazing originals. I also host Access Podcast, on which I interview podcasters and give suggestions for podcast newbies.
1. The obligatory opening question: How and why did you get into radio? Why radio?
My mom loved radio and loved listening to Howard Stern at DC101. I did my first radio show in my bedroom at the age of 10; I still have the tape somewhere. Radio is all I ever wanted to do. The minute I could drive, I went into my local station (WQZK in Keyser) and said I would do anything, including cleaning. The owner/GM/Morning Show Host, Curtis Durst, needed someone to come in Sundays at 6a to turn on “The Sounds of Sinatra” on our sister AM station and do weather once an hour. My first day, I left a mic on and shouted “S**T” as the needle of the album slid across when I went to start it. Curtis walked in, turned off my mic, fixed the show and asked me what the first thing he had just done was. I said, “turned off the mic,” and he nodded, smiled, then he asked if I was ever going to do that again. I said no, he walked away and that was that. I was Matt McQ, jocking weekend on our FM rock station a few weeks later.
2. You've worked both sides of the audio aisle, in radio and in podcasting. What would you tell radio people are the main differences to watch out for in podcasting? What are the primary things that make producing a podcast different from making a radio show?
Podcasts are an excellent complement to an on air personality or a station brand, as it allows these influencers to dive even deeper on topics and discussions with their audience that couldn’t normally be done on a broadcast radio program. Many of our one-of-a-kind mass-reach influencers continue to host successful podcasts, including Big Boy, Bobby Bones, The Breakfast Club, Elvis Duran, Martha Quinn, Kane, Mojo, and Tanya Rad.
I think people often don’t realize that doing a great podcast is a job that involves all the things that go into a great morning or talk show. Good prep, knowing your audience, and delivering a great sounding product are the keys. Great podcasts create empathy with the listener, similar to radio. This has to do with the way they are consumed: one on one, usually on headphones or in the car and as the primary focus of the listener. You have to be passionate about what you are podcasting about or the listener will hear and feel your disinterest. I will never tell anyone they must do a podcast, it has to be something the talent is really committed to doing consistently. Podcasts take time to grow, so be patient.
3. Podcasting is not limited by geography, but do you see a future for local or even hyperlocal podcasts? Do you see that becoming a viable business?
We are already doing this with our shows and podcasts coming from our local talent. Podcasts are the place people come for very specific topics and interests. Being local and providing that content to your listeners is just another way for our brands to reach our already connected local audiences. Podcasts are brand extensions for our shows, so being local is a key part of the future of the business. Our local markets are creating some amazing shows now, and our app is leading our listeners to them. I love a good local podcast, and, in my opinion, podcasts are our new farm system for finding young talent and future morning shows.
4. We've gone through several stages of "it's finally mainstream" for podcasting, yet while the growth has been steady, we're still, after more than a decade, teaching people how to listen to podcasts and we're still arguing over measurement. Where are we with the development of the business? And if you think that podcasting is not a mainstream medium yet, when do you expect the industry to get there?
I have been fighting folks for 11 years telling me that podcasting would never really be mainstream. I think what we are doing at iHeartRadio is proof that podcasting is here to stay. We are the #1 podcast publisher in the world.
And, with iHeartMedia, and our 91% reach of the U.S. population with just our broadcast radio alone, we can provide the necessary scale to introduce podcasts to the vast majority of Americans.
I have been teaching at The Academy of Art University for 7 years and my students have gone from not knowing what a podcast was, to it being one of their primary forms of audio entertainment and the focus of our audio curriculum.
5. Podcasts used to be fairly low-fi -- two guys, two mics, a digital recorder or computer, that's it. Then, public radio podcasts and true crime podcasts with much more elaborate production values became popular. Has the bar for production been raised based on listener expectations -- is there still room for just-someone-talking when so many of the bigger shows are slickly produced by large staffs?
People expect a product that sounds great on their headphones and is produced well. My students are taught how to use a USB mic and Adobe Audition and they produce some great podcasts, so having a big staff is not a prerequisite. Spending time prepping, editing and mixing your sound well is. I think there will always be ‘low-fi” podcasts that people love, but with the technology we have today, there is no excuse for bad sound. I think as long as the content is relevant to an audience and the audience finds it, there will be many popular shows still being produced by two people, two mics and a digital recorder.
6. iHeart is essentially a free platform with some subscription options. Some other companies -- Luminary, notably -- are coming in with subscription as the primary revenue generator, and some others, like Spotify, are hoping to drive premium paid upgrades with exclusive content. You worked at Stitcher, which was an early entrant in offering a freemium service. How do you see this shaking out? Is the future in subscriptions, Patreon, free-with-advertising, or a combination thereof?
I am not an initial fan of the subscription model for podcasts, as I think it limits people’s ability to discover new shows. As with all things in our world, it’s new and we will see how it shakes out.
7. You've been deeply involved in branded content podcasts; describe what makes a good branded content podcast. How much of the content can be, essentially, promoting the brand before it becomes too blatant? Is there such a thing as too blatant? Is there the danger of pushback from listeners if they perceive too many podcasts becoming too promotional?
A great branded podcast should never sound like blatant promotion or sales. Building a great branded podcast means creating some amazing content that people will want to listen to, and, oh by way…is produced by a company whose core values are represented in the show.
8. Of what are you most proud?
I’ve had the blessing to mentor and teach a lot of folks in our business over the years. Their success makes me proud. Personally, I would have to say my current position at iHeartRadio as radio’s first VP of Podcast Programming has made me the most proud as it represents the culmination of my career path over the years.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _________.
…my phone! I am connected to it and am not ashamed to say that addiction is true for social media as well. BTW..follow me on IG, FB, and Twitter @mattystaudt :D
10. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your career?
Set goals, never give up on them, and when you reach them, set more. Also, be nice to people.
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