The Sound Off Podcast

Paige Nienaber knows radio promotions and marketing. He's been involved with some really big ones - and one that I definitely remember because I saw it play out on CNN. (Wild's infamous Haircut on the Bridge). In this episode, I ask Paige all about what makes a radio promotion successful, and how they changed over the course of the pandemic. In this episode, you'll hear a conversation about radio...

Christian Zyp is a host on Edmonton's CJSR's Moving Radio. But you're not listening to this episode for that. The story of our friendship begins on the radio in 1995 with the release of Van Halen's Balance CD. Back then radio stations were given advance copies and a "World Album Premiere". The special we ran only featured 9/11 songs on the CD. Where we the other two. Two drunk guys started calling...

Sometime back in 2008, Vinny Barrucco made the call to (then) Mix 96 to see if his skills acquired at community juggernaut K103 Kahnawake would translate into the Montreal mainstream. We know today that that answer is yes. The Montreal morning host has done most of the day parts on Montreal radio at the two of the biggest English FM's in the city, Virgin Radio and 92.5 The Beat. Today, he is a hos...

Steve Goldstein and I had a chat for this special bonus episode about how many podcasts there are. REALLY. Steve is the Founder/CEO of Amplifi Media, an audio innovation firm that offers counsel, production, and marketing of voice-first, podcast, and branded audio. Well-known as a thought leader in audio programming, marketing, and management, Steve often speaks about the...

Valerie Geller has inspired many to be better broadcasters through her work. Many of those lessons can be found in her 2011 book, Beyond Powerful Radio, the follow up to the 1996 work, Creating Powerful Radio. I would consider this podcast to be incomplete without an episode from Valerie. She is one of the most referenced persons in this series; not only from broadcasters, but now podcasters. In t...

Matt goes solo this week with some ideas for the Great Radio Reset. With the pandemic coming to an end and radio stations looking to the future, we've assembled a list of things to think about. Some are some old ideas that should come to fruition, while others where born in the pandemic. As always your feedback is welcome. Here are the links that I promised to list in the episode: Pat Holiday's 20...

Long before I even knew that Skye was friends with my super close cousin Kingman, I wanted to have her on the show. She was a guest with Sound Off Alum Jim Harold shortly after we all convened on Orlando for Podcast Movement int the before times of 2019. Somehow, I failed to meet Skye. I later received an intro through Kingman to connect and that was more than enough of a sign to do this episode....

One of our biggest podcast episodes was back in October of 2017 when we had Sheri Lynch on the show to talk about taking control of the Bob and Sheri Show. By control, that means retaining things like digital rights and having autonomy over your brand. The episode has remained popular over the years because of the number of radio people who have considered taking a similar jump. In fact, it is one...

Tech Survey has been an annual study by Jacobs Media since 2005. But 2021 will be one for the ages. Completed during a pandemic, Tech Survey 2021 tells the radio story of what happened to our radio listeners when Work from home, Zoom, masks, no travel, and a politically charged internet took hold. Originally, this was going to be a discussion about radio one year into the pandemic but how much bet...

Dani Stover has a wonderful studio with a beautiful sounding microphone and produces content for radio, and podcast. She's not the first unemployed creator to grace the podcast. Given the state of Canadian radio which is awaiting new regulations while dealing with the remnants of a pandemic economy, Dani is patiently testing the waters to rekindle her relationship with radio. I particular love thi...

Darryl Spring is passionate about rock radio. Although it started out with an attraction for what was coming out of the club shows of then CFNY-FM 102, Darryl knew radio was his future. From Loyalist College, to Q92 in Timmins, to Corus Radio in Toronto and Hamilton. His next two stops included Kingston and Ottawa, where there was great success, and some unfortunately timed circumstances. In this...

Tracy Johnson is a talent coach I had the pleasure of working with him back in 2013. His ideas and perspectives always resonated with both the Rock and Hot AC talent I was working with. I recall the ideas benefited not a personality's development, but soon after station morale and inevitably the ratings. Tracy also makes himself available to all performers with ongoing seminars. In this episode yo...

This week I spent some time looking out the window and thinking about a lot of the news that has been circulating in the radio business. Most of it worries me. People asking if Clubhouse is going to kill podcasting have it wrong - it stands to take the place of conversational and interactive talk radio. Other things I covered: Geddy Lee from Rush is not happy with Rogers simulcasting Blue Jays gam...

Joel Denver is the owner, publisher and president of All Access.com . If you work in radio, broadcasting and now podcasting, you likely have visited the All Access dot com website for industry news. Way back once computers began to take up room on the desk at and internet speeds hit 56k, you might have gone searching for radio industry news and found mainstays like R&R behind a paywall and Bil...

Humble and Fred are fiercely independent. They are the original "Life After Radio" personalities, having carved out a significant piece of the media pie for themselves. Back in 2011 they started a podcast and committed to it. (That's important component to their success BTW) They have had stints where they worked in radio for periods of time; including Kingston, Sirius XM for a superb 5 year run,...

Shani Scott is the owner of Media Room 360, a streaming and media distribution company out of Texas. Her company has been built largely through what she learned in radio. Inspired by listening to the legendary Tom Joyner on K104 in Dallas, Shani knew she was in it for the long haul. Believe it or not there are likely portions of our audience who don't know that Tom Joyner did mornings on K104 in D...

Howard Kroeger was there in 2002 when a new radio format was launched in Winnipeg. The program director of Hot AC Q94.3 was apart of the programming team that had recently acquired AC Magic 99.9 from Standard Radio. It was obvious that Magic would no longer be an AC station, but what would it become in Winnipeg's competitive radio market? This is when BOB was born. Classic Hits is now in its 20th...

Sarah Burke has a brand new podcast. Here's a bonus episode featuring our conversation about the show and we also catch up a bit since she was last on the podcast. You can catch our conversation on Facebook or YouTube . (And give our Youtube a Subscribe!) Please follow all the podcast social accounts and subscribe to the podcast too! Instagram Twitter Facebook Press release below: For Immediate Re...

Bob Willette got his start in commercial radio working alongside Humble and Fred at 102.1 The Edge back in the late 90's. He started as an intern but later produced the show and followed them over to the Mix 99.9 in the 2000's. After Humble and Fred had this very strange separation, he was "excused" from his position as producer and went on to work at Proud-FM for nearly 9 years, serving as the pr...

Lisa Guerrero has enough stories from her time at Fox and Monday Night Football to write a book. In fact, that is what she is doing right now. The award winning journalist for Inside Edition has a forthcoming book called Consider this interview to be a prelude to her forthcoming book about her life called Warrior: My Path to Being Brave. It will be released on January 24, 2023. In this episode, Li...

For Dahlia, it's more than broadcasting - it is now a mission. She is a social good advocate, talk show host, writer, producer, actress, polyglot, certified personal trainer, and even a professional ping-pong player. She is a woman of many talents. She has recently mainly works as a radio talk show host and has interviewed many famous people such as Oscar winners, Famous Comedians, and Nobel Peace...

It's been over three years since we had Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media on the show. He has an excellent feel for audio and how it is consumed, whether that is podcast, radio, streaming, voice or smart speakers. In particular, I have been fascinated with the advent of the smart speaker. Is it really a device that will save radio? Can it access those 1.8 million podcasts? How much of a game chan...

Brooklyn Driediger is the midday and weekend host at Virgin 94.5 in Vancouver. She first caught my attention on social media... her feeds look so clean and the Reels so real. Her show is the same by the way. We spent a Sunday afternoon talking about her radio journey from the British Columbia Institute of Technology to Kelowna where she worked the cruiser, and then back to Vancouver where she work...

I met Big Kris way back in 2009. We had lunch at Earl's in Winnipeg. He was passing through and it was clear he was a rising talent in radio. A little over ten years later, we reconnected on this podcast to talk about all that has transpired in the 20 years he has been in radio. Most of it has been spent in Ontario with his most recent home at Corus' Big 101.1 in Barrie, just north of Toronto. In...

Evan Degenhardt is the general manager and content director at 106.1 The Goat in Lloydminster. To be honest, we are not sure if it's Alberta, or Saskatchewan or both, but we do know that over the last twenty years the station has seen a lot of high end radio talent pass through its hallways and fill the airwaves with awesome radio. For a list of just the people we know, check out our episode page....