This is an archived page from 2020. Find out more
(By Dave Jackson) There are things in life that seem similar until you try them. Roller skating and ice skating seem similar, but for anyone who has done both, the wooden floor at my old roller skating rink in Jr. High was very different from the ice skating rink.
Consequently, Radio and Podcasting are not the same. Sure, they both involve someone talking into a microphone, but in some cases that is where it ends. I often hear “group speak” when I turn on the radio where people turn on the microphone and start with “How is everyone doing?!” Podcasters should remember that a HUGE amount of people listen through earbuds or alone in the car. This creates a sense of intimacy. Instead of “Hey everybody, welcome to the show,” it should be “Welcome to the show, I’m so glad you are here.” That is talking to one person.
The other thing that is very different in radio, is you are up against a clock. You have to hit traffic and weather on the 10’s so if you’re in the middle of a conversation you better find a way to wrap it up (and make it sound like you planned it that way). With a podcast, you might have some general guidelines if you are running advertising, but I can see where you get to pick where the ads go instead of the content revolving around the ads. One example of this is Joe Rogan who puts ALL of his ads at the beginning of his show so he doesn’t have to interrupt the flow of the conversation. This works for Joe Rogan because, well, he’s Joe Rogan (and you’re not) so don’t start thinking you can get away with playing five minutes of advertisements.
Another fun difference that doesn’t happen in podcasting is when you get done recording an episode you don’t get pulled into an office to sit with your boss and listen and critique your show (known as an aircheck). Although I do believe that podcasters could benefit from this practice (see my previous article HERE) most podcaster publish and start working on the next episode.
When I do my live “Ask the Podcast Coach” show on Saturday mornings, I am acting as the producer (where I’ve gone out and harvested some potential topics for the day), the engineer (as I fade in and out the music), the video producer (as I turn on and off lower thirds), all the while keeping an eye on the chat room for potential questions. If you watch the Howard Stern show on YouTube or SiriusXM, Howard has a team who has done the research, has a team feeding him jokes, playing sound effects, with a producer letting him know when his time is almost up. This allows Howard to focus on his guests, or whatever bit/rant he is in the middle of creating.
The biggest differences between radio and podcasting in the content. You might have grown up thinking it would be great to be on the radio and play your favorite tunes. Those days are long, long, and by that I mean VERY LONG gone. When I talk to radio people at Podcast Movement and other podcasting events (I’ve only been on the radio as a guest) you find out that the playlist comes from the program director who got it from some executive who bases all of his choices on focus groups and data. In other words, you’re not picking the music. If anything you have your boss saying, “You have 5.8 seconds be funny!”
With podcasting, you are 100% in control of your podcast content. It’s not live, and you can edit it before making it public. If you’re worried about sounding stupid, don’t. There is no need. You can fix any mistakes or outtakes before you publish it to the world. This is why many a radio person’s heads will explode when they hear that podcasters had a chance to fix something and didn’t. If you want to have some fun, get a bunch of on-air personalities together and get them talking about dead air and mistakes that have been made on the air. Those people would love the chance to edit things before they went live.
There is one other big difference. When you’re on the radio, you’re talking to more than 150 people (unless you’re the foot doctor on at 8:30 AM on the AM station). On the other hand, one might say the relationship between a podcaster and their listeners is stronger as they have the opportunity to tailor the content to fit the audience better.
I do miss the early days of podcasting. We weren’t hostile toward radio, but we just had heard enough. There was so much content that had you saying, “WOW this would NEVER be on the radio.” Yeast Radio was hosted by Madge Weinstein a (self-professed) bloated lesbian who swore like a sailor (oh and just an FYI, Madge was a dude doing a character). You had Tim Henson’s Distorted View show with some of the most obscene stories on the Internet (both shows are still going 16 years later). It now seems people are trying to sound like the radio and originally podcasting was doing its best to NOT sound like the radio. Podcasting provides a TON of freedom and creativity that I hope people aren’t taking for granted. You can do anything you want (that’s legal, let’s not get stupid) on your podcast. It can be any length, any format, any pace, and there is nobody stopping you from being 100% you.
No matter where you make your content, podcasting in your spare bedroom or broadcasting live from a soundproofed vocal booth at the station, in either case, the one thing that both have in common is you can’t be boring.
Dave Jackson is a Hall of Fame podcaster and consultant. He started the School of Podcasting in 2005 and potentially has helped more podcasters with their podcast than any other human on the planet. Find him at www.schoolofpodcasting.com