So you want to be a podcaster (Northwestern University Graduate School keynote address)

Charlie Meyerson
MeyersonStrategy.com
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
facebook.com/meyerson
Twitter: @Meyerson
Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com
708-TEQ-NEWS

You’re in the right place at the right time.
• In-home ownership of over-the-air radio receivers
has plummeted: 79% of respondents have a radio at home
(96% in 2008).
• Among 18-34-year-olds: Over-the-air listening has dropped
from 94% to 68%.
But …
• Half of Americans listen to online radio weekly.
• Podcast listening up monthly (17% to 21%)  
and weekly (10% to 13%) — an average of 5/week.
2016 report card on digital audio
and other digital media
edisonresearch.com/the-infinite-dial-2016/

Free and easy tools give you the power to build
your own radio station.*
*No antenna, no federal license necessary.
You’re in the right place at the right time.

Who am I ... and why am I here?
I’ve been
thinking
about
news for a  
long time.
And high-tech
delivery, too.

I worked
here for
13 years:

What can radio teach the Internet?
For radio, the
competition’s
always been
a click away.
fredsuniquefurniture.c
om/Good-Used-
Furniture/Appliances/
i-FmcR7Hb

Rivet:
‘Tinder for
radio news’
Rivet
stress-tests
listenability.

… and we’re learning more and more about
what it takes to keep people listening.
• Example: After a period, 1 space or 2?

So, if you’re creating audio for the digital age …
• You need to fight for your audience’s attention.
—
Your turn.
Listen to these stories. Make note of the time at
which you’d have swiped to the next story. …

How long would you listen before skipping?

What doesn’t work
in this ‘Tinder for audio’ environment?
• Starting your podcast with music.
• Starting your podcast with unidentified sounds or voices.
(Confusing is a tuneout.)
• Starting your podcast with the show number. (A tuneout for
those who haven’t heard earlier shows.)
• Starting your podcast the same way every time. (Waste of time
for those who’ve heard it before.)
• Starting your podcast with advertising or underwriting
messages. (The best way to get those heard is to create audio
people want to hear, and that’s to begin with something
interesting. If you begin with a reason to keep listening, you’ll
get not only that first promo heard, but maybe several more
into the show.)

The smartphone:
Liberating you from
the studio

Script editing then 
(c. 1984)
Cut and paste …
… and paste.
... meant cut …

Audio editing then 
(c. 1984)
Cut and paste ... meant cut and splice.
http://pauleaston.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-cut-is-deepest.html

Radio editing now 
Cut and paste are just menu items.

Recorder (typically, cassette; later MD or SD)
+ VoiceAct (or alligator clips)
+ Hunt for a phone that would unscrew
Radio reporting then 
(c. 1984)

Radio reporting now
iPhone
+ Twisted
Wave
(etc.) app
http://twistedwave.com/mobile
(or search iTunes store)

It’s not the future. It’s now.
• A team of reporters at FM News 101.1 covered
Chicago live for a year, often with just an
iPhone and -- sometimes -- a laptop:
• All sound recorded with just an iPhone: http://
soundcloud.com/meyerson/final-farewell-to-a-
chicago
• Live broadcasts, too, via Periscope, Facebook,
etc. — live from your phone, or from a podium
(plugging the iPhone into a mult box).

You have the tools already.
• A modern smartphone.
• A modern laptop.
• Free audio publishing options: 
SoundCloud, Pop Up Archive.

• You can use it as the
substrate for a
slideshow or other
visual presentation.
• You can upload it (free)
to SoundCloud, and
place the audio file
in your multimedia
presentations, or
share it through social
media (Twitter,
Facebook).
Things you can do with audio

Or you can insert it right in your text, using
Knight Lab’s free SoundCite tool.
(HTML skills required.)
Things you can do with audio
https://soundcite.knightlab.com/examples-music.html

What do you need to be a podcaster?
(Beyond, of course, the essential skills
of knowing how to write, how to
speak, how to tell a story, how to be
fair, and all the rest ... ?)

• One smartphone.
• Really, that’s it.
• But if you insist ...

Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to
plug into mult boxes, mics +
longer XLR cable (so you can
sit down).
Miki cable: amazon.com/Technica-Del-Arte-MIKI-B-Miki/dp/B00JVMUJQ8/

Also helpful:
sit down).
• Laptop

Also helpful:
sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell
card or cell-phone hotspot).

Also helpful:
sit down).
• Bluetooth keyboard (for
typing quickly on a
smartphone).

Also helpful:
sit down).
typing notes into a
smartphone).
• External battery for
smartphone.

Also helpful:
sit down).
typing quickly on a
smartphone).
smartphone.
• Connecting cables (USB) for
faster connection between
phone and laptop.

Also helpful:
sit down).
typing quickly on a
smartphone).
smartphone.
• Connecting cables (USB) for
faster connection between
phone and laptop.
• Case with branding on it.

Recap
 
You probably have everything you need to begin right
on your smartphone or laptop.
And you’ll find more counsel on the Rivet blog 
<blog.rivetnewsradio.com>.

Things you can do with Google Voice
• Record incoming phone calls. (Note: Before recording, you must get
your subject's permission: "May I record this for possible use on the air and
on the Internet?”)
• Press 4 to record, and 4 to stop.
• When done, return to Google.com/voice, where you can download the file
for editing or email a link to the file (instead of the whole file as an
annoying attachment).

Audacity for beginners
Three things:
1. Basic controls
2. Editing
3. Fade-ins, fade-outs

Basic controls
1. Record, play, etc.
2.Cursor
3.Zoom (shift = zoom out).
4.Time shift
5.Multi-tool (changes to whatever
you most likely need)

Fade-in, fade-out
1. Drag cursor to
highlight
beginning.
2. Select “Fade
in” from the
Effects menu.
3. Repeat for
ending, with
“Fade out.”

Seamless editing
Edit from the
middle of one
word in one
take to the
middle of the
same word in
the second take.
(Reason to write down your
questions: You can re-do them
word-for-word in a second
take.)
http://blog.rivetnewsradio.com/blog/audio-production-editing-within-words-video/

A few words on sound
• Learn where your mic is (on your
smartphone or on your computer) and get the
subject as close to it as possible.
• If using a smartphone or external mic, point it
at the corner of a speaker’s mouth.
• Record in a space as echo-free as possible
— away from walls, or with a coat draped over
one’s head.

What should your podcast be?
• Documentary or news report: Challenging,
lots of production required. (Advanced course,
anyone?)
• Lecture or panel discussion: If well-
recorded, sure.
• Interviews: One of the simplest, most
compelling formats. Unique content, easy to
create.

Interviews: ‘Game-changers’
• Outside experts augment your credibility.
• Their audience becomes your audience
(because they share with their followers, who
become your followers).
• You grow a network of meaningful
relationships with influential voices.
Andy Crestodina and Barry Feldman, “Content Matters” podcast
http://feldmancreative.com/2016/03/interviews-content-matters-podcast/

Preparing your script: 
Key steps
• Have a clear intro.
• Have a clear close.
• Have at least three questions. 
(Everything doesn’t have to be 30, 60 or 90 minutes!)
—
• Your intro should lead with the most interesting words in the
whole story.
• You can return later to re-cut your intro and close, but write
them so they’ll work well even without editing.
• Structure your intro so you can later insert a great cut that
would fit.
• Don’t say “Thanks for being here.”

Sample intro format
1. Interesting statement about guest, constructed
so that one of his or her answers might
theoretically be edited in later.
2. Identify guest.
3. Identify the show and yourself.
4. Get to your first question.

Sample intro
“Why would you want to mail a resume, old-
fashioned-style, with a stamp and an envelope?*
(Cut might go here.) Job-hunting expert Janna
Jones says what’s old is new. She’s our guest
today on This Show Is Mine. I’m Charlie
Meyerson and …”
*Presumes you know in advance she recommends that.

Close
“That’s job-hunting expert Janna
Jones, whose website is
jjjobhunt.com. I’m Charlie
Meyerson and This Show Is Mine.”

Questions
• Write them down — word for word. (Makes re-takes
easier.)
• Avoid yes-or-no questions, because you may get just
“Yes” or “No” for an answer.
• Avoid simply making statements. Be a question-asking
machine and get out of the way.
• Listen to what your subject’s saying. If you don’t get it,
odds are your audience won’t, either.
• Save your best — most controversial, engaging —
questions for the middle or late part of the interview.
(These may be the questions you excerpt for your
introduction, so best if they don’t appear at the beginning.)

Preparing your script:
A few words about words
1. Use contractions whenever you can. If it helps, run a find-and-replace
to replace (for instance) will with ’ll, is with ’s, are with ’re, would with
’d, etc.
2. Use pronouns whenever you can. That’s the way we talk.
3. Don’t stress prepositions (of, by, for, in), conjunctions (and, but) or
articles (a, the). In musical terms, they’re the grace notes of speech —
present, but just barely. Save your emphasis for nouns and verbs.
(Exception: “… OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people.”) 
Bonus tips:
• The word “the” is pronounced thuh except when it appears before a
word that begins with a vowel sound. (Thee elephant, thee NFL; but
thuh cat, thuh president.)
• The word “a” is almost always pronounced uh. (Exception: For
emphasis, as in “He’s not just A man, he’s THEE man.”)

What to call a show?
Something no one else is using.

What to call an episode?
Don’t …
Include the show name.
Include the show number.
Do …
Begin with the most interesting words.
Make every episode name different.
… And here’s why:

… And here’s why:
Advanced class, anyone?

An exercise
1. Pick a partner.
2. Pre-interview that partner. What makes him or her interesting?
3. Switch roles (because you’ll be guesting on one another’s shows).
4. Write an interesting intro (most interesting words first),
structuring it so you might later insert a good quote — but so that it
also sounds good even without editing.
5. Write 2 or 3 good questions.
6. Write a solid, clear ending.
7. Record in one live take.
8. Get extra ambient sound before and after. (Good for patching
holes.)
9. Get a picture.

So you want to be a podcaster (Northwestern University Graduate School keynote address)

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