The Sound Off Podcast

Sometimes it's all about the people you have around you. In 2014, Lisa Keys found herself working with people who were passionate about radio imaging and who knew what a great radio imaging voice can do for a radio station. People like Rob Vavrek, Program Director of 100.3 the Bear who was it's production and imaging guru since the station's inception in 1992, and later became PD in 2009. People l...

Matty Staudt is someone I have been trying to get on the podcast for about a year. His busy work schedule at iHeart made scheduling difficult. However, a change in direction for Matty created the necessary time to have him on. Matty is starting a new venture called Jam Street Media. He had straddled both podcast and broadcast successfully for over a decade. From working as a producer for G. Gordon...

In Wrestling, a shoot is when two wrestlers go unscripted into the ring and have it out. Yukon Jack from 100.3 The Bear and I don't wrestle one another any more - but we did this podcast along the same lines as a shoot. Not your usual questions and not your usual answers. The longtime Edmonton morning man talked about some of his former program directors and co-workers and has learned lots from al...

It's been nearly three years since we spoke to John Mielke, aka The Milkman. You might remember we had him on the show for episode 9 . But that was a long time ago and so much has changed since then. He still has his websites including Blast The Radio and Milkman Unlimited . He's also added podcast producing to the mix as well. John tells us a little bit about the Jesse and Jenna podcast he produc...

Genevieve Borne is really talented. I met her in 1992 after a concert and was enamoured with her immediately. She is a bridge to the province I love, and a broadcaster I respect and emulate where applicable. In short, I love this woman's tenacity and ability to say, "I'm going for it." In this episode you'll hear why Quebec is special, has the star system Canada has failed to replicate, and how he...

Terry O'Reilly is a radio guy. He will tell you on the show that he is an ad guy - and that might be partially true. However, it is apparent that when you listen to his take on the world of media, advertising, marketing and radio, that he is grounded in radio. His show, Under the Influence, which grew from its previous incarnation of The Age of Persuasion (2006-2011) and O'Reilly on Advertising (2...

It sounds easy. Produce a compelling 15 to 20 minute piece of audio every day about a Canadian news story. And then you find out it isn't easy. For the last year, Jordan Heath-Rawlings has been doing just that with Frequency Network's flagship podcast, The Big Story. Mildly modelled after the NY Times' podcast, The Daily, the Big Story has shone the spotlight on Canadian stories ranging from the r...

Bob Harris has had an incredible radio journey that has spanned Peterborough, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Hamilton. Along the way it has been about the people. He'll be the first to admit that he made mistakes along the way and learned on the job through the mentorship of General managers like Rob Braide, the late Gary Russell, Tom Peacock and Pat Holiday. Bob also worked with Canada's two bigg...

This week, I want to give everyone something to think about. And that's the power of radio and what it might mean to podcasting. When Tom Webster released the Infinite Dial Canada 2019 study at Canadian Music Week, one slide caught my eye. Actually a number of slides did including weekly podcasting listening rising to 23% and monthly to 36%, but it was when he broke out the monthly podcast listeni...

Big Rick Daniels grew up in Indiana. If you had to name famous people from the state, there's the obvious like John Mellencamp, the Jackson's and the sitting Vice President of the United States. Perhaps you are fan enough to mention David Letterman or David Lee Roth. But in broadcast circles, the state has a long a wonderful broadcast history that started with WOWO and set a standard emulated for...

Kelly Alexander is a team player, and great interviewer and knows her audience. It doesn't matter what radio station she is on, or what platform she is immersed with - she understands her audience and is the conduit between what is happening in the studio, and what is going on in her listeners lives. Not everyone is born with the super power of empathy but it also didn't hurt that she was a produc...

Sammy Kohn is the drummer for Canada's the Watchmen. He will contend that he is a realtor in the Greater Toronto Area, but so long as the Watchmen keep getting played on the radio and the band continues playing a few shows a year, he will be known first as the drummer of the Watchmen. Formed in Winnipeg in the late 80's, the band wrote, recorded, and released their first CD in 1992 called "McLaren...

This week, Matt talks about his time at Canadian Music Week and after years of everyone staying mum on regulatory issues, there is a consensus that it's time to install the latest Radio update. Left unanswered is the who, how and when, but the why answers are transparent. Declining revenue, changing audio consumption habits and new players and platforms have left radio in a weakened position. The...

Yes it happened way back when. Nat & Drew were fired and then were hired as their own replacements. I've been dying to hear the story since the day it happened back in 2008. But there's so much more to the story in the conversation we had recorded from the QM 103.5 studios one Friday after their show. There's the story of how they first met and what Drew really thought of Nat. There's also the...

Brad Karp is the winner of the 2019 Alan Waters Young Broadcaster of the year award in memory of Steve Young. Born and raised on Montreal's West Island, Brad grew up with a steady dose of Terry Dimonte and Ted Bird on CHOM. After Algonquin College, Brad found himself working in Thompson, Manitoba and later Fort McMurray, Alberta where he does the morning show at Country 93.3. Here is the release f...

Steve Anthony retired from active broadcasting about a year ago, moved to Prince Edward County, and took his business ventures with him for the ride. He and a wife Tanya who has been riding shotgun with Steve since 1997, have enough stories for a book he says he will never write. I spoke to Steve about his early days at John Abbott College on Montreal's West Island, to his time at 980 CKGM and the...

Ian Howarth taught in Montreal for many years, and one of his passions was radio. He knew one day he would want to write a book about all those wonderful moments and sounds that emanated from great radio stations like 1490 CFOX, 980 CKGM, and later CHOM 97.7 once AOR became a thing in the early 70's. In this episode you'll hear names like Dave Boxer, Charles P. Rodney Chandler. (Chuck Chandler) Ma...

Alyssa Page grew up in Connecticut, found her way on to the radio by doing everything. Then worked her ass off to get to Atlanta and then a dream position on the legendary 107.7 The End in Seattle. This podcast marks the third member of the radio station to appear on the podcast, and with good reason. The station is oft quoted as one other station's could look to for innovative and brilliant ideas...

In this episode we spend time discussing the challenges involved with selling at a radio station in this digital revolution. His solution is rather simple: Stop Selling Radio. We discuss best practices for implementing new sales strategies, focus on some radio stations doing this right, and get slightly controversial (or innovative?) when it comes to selling podcasts. Radio may be going about it a...

I missed my first chance to meet Irish Dave. I wasn't going to miss my second. In the days after a Saint Patrick's Day that fell on a Sunday, I caught up with the U93 morning show host and learned a lot about the show host I have listened to on and off over the last 6 months. Now I knew that he was marrying his co-host Christine, but learned more about how they met. Originally, I connected with Da...

She answered the very first question I asked her correctly. She was supposed to get it wrong. How Very Meredith Geddes of her. Meredith Geddes arrived in Vancouver at the World Famous CFOX and pretty much everything changed. She'd never been out west before and was about to take a big step in her radio career. From evenings, the shifts began to fall her way; whether it was voice tracking a daypart...

Corey Dylan understands resilience. The longtime Tampa Bay radio personality was let go from Cox owned WFLA in the summer of 2016. In that time since, she continued working her voiceover clients, hosted a few television shows, and tried her hand at podcasting. She also never gave up in her quest to get back into radio. That meant networking at conferences at a moment when funds were at a premium,...

Tom Leykis understands how radio works. He understands people and how they engage with radio. The Long Island kid who spent his first radio show playing Glen Pitney (and loathing it), became one of America's most renowned talk show hosts. He would go to war against other talk show hosts. He spoke in this podcast of the time that he challenged Neil Rodgers to a fight on the streets of Miami, and st...

Dean Blundell was the host of the morning show on 102.1 the Edge in Toronto starting in 2001. As the internet age progressed, and social media took hold, the very things that elevated the Dean Blundell show to great heights became a part of its downfall. Add in some self-admitted flaws and it all came to an end in 2014. In the ensuing years, Dean worked mornings at 590 The Fan, but didn't appear t...

Kolter Bouchard was on the list to be on this podcast last summer. He had an interesting tale to tell about going from Dawson Creek to Dubai, and his program director Blair Bartrem was excited to get this talent on the air a Q107. Fast forward a few months and Corus renovates their airwaves and Kolter is now co-hosting the afternoon drive show on Edge 102 with Meredith Geddes. The story of how tha...