The Sound Off Podcast

Every year, Terry Dimonte and I get together for some Christmas cheer. This year we wound up talking a little more about podcasting as he and Ted Bird have recently launched their new show. Terry has recently moved to British Columbia with his wife Jessica and Terry recounts his first few weeks in the area battling torrential rains. As tradition has it, if there is a weather event, Terry will find...

Last April. Gillian Foote returned to her home province of Nova Scotia after spending the better part of two decades in Edmonton at 100.3 The Bear. Along with her co-hosts Paul Brown an Yukon Jack, they were authors of some pretty amazing radio over the course of 13 years. Gillian has now relocated to Q104 in Halifax where she is writing the next stanza with BJ Wilson and Bobby Mac. In this episod...

Tom Bedell is the afternoon drive host at Q104 in Halifax. His career started in the late 80's in Saint John, N.B at the legendary CFBC, and has been driving Metro Halifax home since 1998. In this episode, Tom recalls those early days in New Brunswick and his early stints in Woodstock, NB, Halifax and later on up in Kentville, Nova Scotia working at Annapolis Valley Radio. We recall fondly how the...

We loved having James Crildland on our show back in 2018 when we fussed about podcast discovery when there were a half million podcasts in the universe. There are now 2.5 million and we have so many more questions to ask. In this episode, I get a little help from my Podcast SuperFriends Jag in Detroit and Catherine O’Brien who are heavy consumers of James’ Podnews and Podland, the latter now into...

We had Matty Staudt back on the show in July of 2019, when he was heading up Jam Street Media after leaving iHeart as the head of podcasting. In that episode, we talked about his early podcast career, which dates back to Stitcher in 2008, how he produced the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and played the hits on great radio stations across America. Since then, he has been building some of the best branded p...

Around Montreal, mention the words "Queen of Rock" and that title goes to Sharon Hyland, longtime on air host at CHOM-FM. Last month she eclipsed 25 years of broadcasting at the legendary radio station. And while her name might not get lumped in with the CHOM Alumni who came before her, (just yet) her knowledge of rock and the station's more recent history is second to none. In this episode, you'l...

The copy just screams off the page: She was a blogger and social media maven. He, a former morning radio host. Together they struck out on their own and created The Upside. Callie and Jeff Dauler started their podcast when Jeff's radio career abruptly changed in 2019 from Star 94.1 in Atlanta. Their success could be considering "overnight" by podcast standards. In this episode, you'll hear how Cal...

Ryan Jespersen is one of the great broadcast to podcast success stories. After being relieved from the coveted 9 to noon position at the venerable 630 CHED in Edmonton last year, Ryan hatched a plan to move his audience from terrestrial to digital, and at the same time fill a need for real talk in the digital space. In this episode, you will hear how Ryan got into radio i(and later TV) n Red Deer,...

Mike Goral is someone I have only met once, haven't seen in 7 years but we have a long track record of working together. Long before the pandemic taught us to work apart, Mike and I, along with Jamie Watson and Evan Surminski would all collaborate to make audio magic in radio. Since then, all four of us have continued on creative paths that involve voiceover. Albeit, Evan produces still, and Matt...

Montana Getty has multiple passions for sports, media and politics flowing through her blood. Her grandfather is the late Don Getty, premiere of Alberta from 1985 to 1992, and quarterback of the Edmonton (then) Eskimos starting in 1955. Rarely does your family play into the context of a podcast episode, but given that the Getty name has so much to do with sport, politics, Alberta, oil, and now med...

There's about a dozen people I know where if I sit down for a long conversation with them, I am going to come away infinitely smarter and with lots to think about. Rob Braide has always been on that hit list. Whether we were having a drink or eating some of his wonderful cooking, or listening to his latest musical find, I was going to come away with more. In this episode you are going to hear a lo...

Rob Walch is the VP of Podcast Relations at Libsyn. He made an appearance on our show back in 2018, and we were long overdue to have him back given the changing nature of the podcast world. During Rob's session at Podcast Movement in August, he manoeuvred his way through his presentation to debunk many of the marketing myths that are propelled across the internet. Myths like Rating and Reviewing t...

Tara Sands was an imaging voice for a radio station I was programming in my radio days. It always exciting to hire new voice talent to put a fresh sound to your station. Her work extends well beyond FM, into some of the things you might hear like cartoons and commercials, but also in Anime, Audiobooks and now Podcast. If there's audio to be recorded, she is likely recording it. In this episode, yo...

Susan Knight and I haven't seen each other since Labour Day 1995. We had just come back from the Molson Polar Ice Party in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. She was working at 92 Rock in Sudbury and from there went to Chatham, Ontario and then Mountain-FM in Squamish, B.C. The rest is a blur but there were stints in Kelowna, Calgary and Victoria, B.C. whee she is now covering a maternity leave at 91.3 The Zone. Y...

September is an exciting month that comes complete with the hopes and promise of a new year. I took some time to hang with family recently and take what is normally a slow time of the podcast year to unwind a bit. I took some radio notes and read a few things and am sharing what came bubbling up. Think of it as some sort of lame meditation. In this episode, you'll hear why the word retirement pops...

Morgan McCarthy is the host of the 715 Newsroom, a local Wisconsin online radio news source that provides news in the Chippewa Valley area in a way that is never boring. They also have a podcast called News Makers that is currently on its 22nd episode. You'll hear Morgan's voice on radio shows owned by Midwest Family Broadcasting all over Wisconsin. Morgan's original break in radio (WDRK 999 The C...

Chris Byrne is the afternoon drive host at Pure Country 89 in Windsor. He believes a relative unknown in the radio business but we have memories and remember him changing the sign in Fort McMurray when its residents returned after 2016 fires caused a mass evacuation. Chris was let go in 2020 from his morning show position in 92.7 Rock in Sudbury, but has happily resurfaced at Pure Country. In this...

Catherine O'Brien is the owner of Branch Out Programs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The California transplant turned in her career as a tax preparer for one in podcast. We met back in 2016 in Chicago and have made it point now to meet on a regular basis to help one another with branded podcasts. Sadly, this being another year of COVID, I won't get to see Catherine again - but instead decided to get t...

We spoke with Skywalker, aka Jarrett Galeno from K104 in the Hudson Valley. Skywalker is a personality you might hear on other stations across America in Cookville, Tennesee, Rutland, Vermont or Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He lives and breathes radio and has stories from New York, Boston and Connecticut to share from his radio path which started back in the late 90's. In this episode, you'll hear how Sk...

JJ Kincaid does mornings at New Country 101.5 in Atlanta. He's been in radio since the 90's, making his mark at CHR stations across America, including KDWB in Minneapolis and Z100 in New York. I've been fortunate to meet JJ and get to know him over cocktails, but I also made sure his show was a stop back when I would wake up and listen to morning radio. (The pandemic has meant I do a little less n...

Terry DiMonte takes a break from taking a break from social media and joined me to talk about his summer live from my dining.room. Since his "retirement" from CHOM last May, he's enjoyed sleeping in and visiting with friends. I am very honoured to be his friends and a stop on the Winnipeg tour. Terry has long roots in Winnipeg that extend back to his days at 92 CITI-FM and working in the same buil...

Researching for podcast episodes is different in the pandemic. I often have met the person long before I interview them. Perhaps we shared a coffee or drink, maybe we worked together or I saw them speak at a conference. Perhaps I grew up listening to them, worked in the same market or interviewed them for a job. The pandemic has turned some of episodes into radio Lava-Life dates. That's what happe...

Yes it has been five years since we had Jessica Rhodes from Interview connections on the podcast. Since then Jessica has grown the business to a six and now 7 figure business. How did she do it? Small steps and "grind and grit". In this episode I reconnect with Jessica , 5 years in between episodes and ask her about some of the business moves she has made like getting a physical office space, part...

John Mamola is the program director of WDAE, the sports station in Tampa Bay. We had him on the show back in December of 2019 and his life sounded busy. With the arrival of COVID, the sports world got turned upside down. For many stations, the arrival of COVID meant a decrease in workload - but not in Tampa Bay. The city really started to stir with arrival of Tom Brady in March of 2002. From that...

There are a lot of things that come to mind when you hear the name Stu Schwartz. The Ottawa morning host has been a radio staple in the market since the mid-90's, first making a name for himself as Stuntman Stu, then as a sports fixture on Team 1200 AND in-house announcer at the Ottawa Senators hockey games, and now overall radio powerhouse at Move 100. He's not ready to put himself in the categor...