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A Podcast Evolution: What's Changed After 100 Episodes
February 5, 2019
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The first episode of The D Brief, our podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene, was published on October 24th, 2017. As I write this, we've released just over 100 episodes. And a lot has changed over those 100 episodes.
Everything gets better with practice. I am a much better radio DJ with decades of experience under my belt than I was when I was just starting. Fortunately, those early shows were broadcast over the airwaves, then disappeared into the ether, never to be heard again. No doubt, I would cringe if I had to go back and listen to my early radio shows.
But our early podcast episodes are still here for anybody to listen to. So I thought I would go back and listen to our first episode to see what we've changed about the show since those early days:
1. Different Co-Hosts.
I originally launched the podcast with Detroit comedian Mike Geeter. Becky Scarcello, a tour guide with a deep knowledge of the city, joined the show in episode 18. Mike and I knew from the outset that we wanted to add a female perspective into the mix, and she was a fantastic addition to the show. After a few months, it became clear that this podcast involved a significant time investment. With a budding stand-up comedy career that required him to be out performing every night, it simply wasn't a sustainable schedule, so Mike had to bow out. For a while, Jag, a former radio DJ, co-hosted with us before departing to pursue other ventures.
Since last fall, the lineup has consisted of Becky and I along with a different guest co-host for each episode. The guest slot has allowed us to bring in a wide range of artisans, including local chefs, musicians, comedians, filmmakers, and more.
2. Music Beds.
When we launched the show, we talked over music beds for the entirety of every episode. As a radio programmer, I have always preferred it when DJs talk over music beds; I think it provides a sense of forward momentum. However, when we used Amazon's Mechanical Turk to get feedback on our episodes, the music beds were universally panned. We tried a series of tweaks, including decreasing the volume of the beds and only using them for certain segments, before ultimately having them quickly trail off after the production elements that separate the different segments of the podcast.
3. More Episodes, Shorter Episodes.
Originally, the podcast was designed to be a weekly episode with multiple guest interviews, including two pre-recorded interviews edited down to highlights and one in-studio guest. We soon realized that the in-studio interviews were turning out to be longer than we expected, so we broke the podcast into two episodes each week: one with multiple segments covering events happening around town, the other an in-depth interview. These episodes could clock in at an hour each, which we still felt was asking our listeners to invest a lot of time.
Eventually, we broke the segmented episode in two and reigned in the in-depth interview, so we now publish three episodes per week, aiming for a length of 40 minutes each. We record all three on Monday evenings, and publish one episode on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. The Wednesday episode is routinely our least-downloaded episode, so we are going to experiment with pushing the third episode back to Friday to see if giving the Wednesday episode more "breathing room" has an impact.
4. Less Calendar, More Conversation.
Originally, the concept of the podcast borrowed heavily from the idea of "concert calendars" that you often hear on radio stations. Instead of having one list of upcoming music-related events, we would have several lists, including one for food, one for comedy, one for movies, etc. In practice, this made the show sound way too "listy."
Over time, we shifted the focus away from a comprehensive list of events and towards discussion of news stories related to each topic. In doing so, we changed our show prep process. While it is still important to check dozens of websites every week to find out what is going on around town, we now spend a significant amount of time after we've compiled our stories going through a show "rundown." In the rundown, we go through each segment to look for tangents that can lead into discussions. This has made our show sound much more conversational than it did in the early days.
5. Recapturing the Central Plot.
Talent coach Steve Reynolds once gave me a brilliant insight into successful radio morning shows: "Every show I work with has a working plot." We knew from the launch what the central narrative of our podcast would be: The new guy to the city and the lifelong Detroiter. Mike grew up in metro Detroit and was familiar with the city's intricacies, while my unfamiliarity with the city gave me license to ask questions. This plot got lost during our co-host shuffling, but we've made a conscious effort to bring it back into the foreground in recent months. In fact, we frequently open our episodes by explaining that I am new to the city while Becky is from the area.
As I listen back, I can hear numerous other adjustments that we've made along the way, but these are the biggest. There's no doubt in my mind that this podcast is stronger now than when we started, and that's simply because we've gotten more practice. Through trial and error, we've figured out what works and what doesn't and adjusted accordingly. I expect that after another 100 episodes, it will be even better.
LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.
More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:
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