The Sound Off Podcast

Randi Chase epitomizes the lyric in the WKRP theme song, "Town to Town; Up and Down the Dial." The lyric conjures up images of jocks, successful or fired, who shuffle on to the next gig with a new town and call letters. Randi worked in 6 of Canada's top 10 markets before turning 30. After taking a year off to find out what happens when you take the radio out of Randi, she is back on air and having...

The Humboldt bus accident that claimed the lives' of 16 people on April 6, 2018 led to a worldwide outpouring of grief and support. In the hours after the crash, the lives of players, coaches, team support staff like a statistician and therapist were also lost; as well as Tyler Bieber who was the play-by-play host and worked at 107.5 Bolt-FM in Humboldt. Brian Munz grew up in Humboldt. I spent som...

When Gerry Forbes announced his retirement, you can forgive CJAY 92's competitors for letting out a silent cheer. For over 25 years in Calgary, Gerry's morning show has been in the top three in a market that is sharply country. In preparing this episode, I reached out to some of the people who had worked with and against Gerry. People like Bob Harris who was his program director throughout the 90'...

When Scott Howard made the change from on air to sales, he will be the first to tell you that he didn't get it right away. His first opportunity came at WMUZ in Detroit where he freely admitted that he made a lot of mistakes. Over time, he became more engrained in the sales world and started sharing his wisdom on a blog http://sclohonet.blogspot.ca/ and then in time on a podcast. Most episodes clo...

Lauryn Schaffner is a writer, blogger, YouTuber, and overall lover of Rock music. On this week's show we ask how her passion for rock music took her down this path, and find out what role radio played in getting her there. Not surprisingly, radio did play a role. But not surprisingly, it was her parents who listened to the radio - not her. She is living her rock and roll dreams by writing for alte...

A few more thoughts about Podcasting and its relationship with radio. Recorded in Spain as I tour the country side eating tapas and watching football. As well, I call up Bob Willette at Rock 94.9 in Oshawa and we nerd out of the branding history of Edge 102. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Gary Begin is the owner of Sound Advantage Media. His company works with radio stations across America is get their branding strategy in order. One of the things I like about Gary is how is business is always working the social media space to promote the latest. At one time that was a book called Radio Programming and Branding: The Ultimate Podcasting and Radio Branding Guide. Gary is going to be...

Lori Lewis knows how to deal with change, which makes her ideal to lead the way when it comes to navigating the murky waters of Facebook. From its changing algorithm to the overextension of selling your data to third party sources, Lori offers up her tips and expertise to great posting and audience engagement. We also touched on some best practices for Facebook Live which still remains a challenge...

We are off to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and catching up with Mark Burley. (SUN-FM, AM 1150 & 101.5 EZ Rock) During the 12 years as Group PD and PD of the local cluster, he enjoyed enjoying 8 years with Sun at #1 A25-54 in Kelowna and garnered industry recognition with 6 consecutive Program Director of the Year Awards and Station of the Year for Sun FM on 5 occasions. Ma...

Gregr is the morning show host at 107.7 The End in Seattle. Last summer at the Podcast Movement, Gregr shared the stage at Jacob’s Media’s Broadcaster meet Podcaster series. At dinner he had the deer in the headlights look. Turns out he had just became a dad for the first time days earlier. Throughout dinner we shared radio and podcast stories. I couldn’t believe he had 4 podcasts on top of a morn...

Raina Douris has spent her entire career working in Toronto, and it has served her well. When you love music, Toronto is a great place to live work and breathe your passion. From her radio beginnings at 102.1 the Edge, to upstart Indie 88 and now working mornings at CBC Radio 2 nationally, Raina shares her music and radio experiences with us. She also talks about her love of Twitter, her favourite...

Steve Jones is the VP of Branding & Content at Newcap Radio. (Now Stingray) He knows a thing about branding having penned two books including "Brand Like a Rock Star" and "Start You Up". His career has taken him in an east-west direction as much as has north-south to places like Boston and the Cayman Islands; and two of the most competitive markets in the country in Halifax and Edmonton where...

Chantal Desjardins is a television and radio personality, stand-up comedian, voiceover actor and event host. Those are actually the words used in her bio and it's all accurate. What's not in the story is how she got there. Credit her marriage and ensuing divorce for the getting her to where she is today, one of Canada's top up and coming comedians. She is often recognized locally as a radio person...

Jean-Marie Heimrath became interested in podcast sometime in November 2016. He has always been fascinated by the business side of the entertainment industry he has worked in. Whether it be the record industry when he worked for Island Records, the business of radio syndication when he worked for the Sound Source Radio Network., or being at the forefront of streaming with Iceberg Radio. His knowled...

Art Vuolo was radio's best friend long before Scott Shannon knighted him with that legendary slogan. Throughout the decades, Art has been a mainstay at conventions andin the hallways of radio stations with the latest video technology ready to capture incredible radio moments. From the early days of Vuolo Video Airchecks for the radio programmers and performers, to the Radio Guide for travelling ra...

Sharon Taylor's radio career has criss-crossed the country from Moose Jaw, Winnipeg, London, Ottawa and Toronto. Her love and passion for radio programming has made her one of my calls I make when I need an opinion. This includes the time we worked at competing stations in the same market. Between our stations, we had the top 4 morning shows in the city and loved to have to odd conversation about...

Actually, he never went away, but it's great to catch up with Bruce! After a 2017 that featured a health setback, Bruce joins me to talk about his path from Ontario to Alberta and back again twice. We catch up on his career and talk about his 2 loves, radio and sports. And yes, these two Buffalo Bills fans used the occasion to acknowledge their first trip to the playoffs since 2000. Bruce's path f...

Drake Donovan's path to becoming the voice of great radio stations across North America went from the on air studio, to the production studio, and then to his home studio where he manages Drake Donovan Creative Services. The thing with Drake is that it is not just the voice; it's also the writing, creative concepts and the swag. Yes, the swag. Drake is making the radio Tee great again. (We have po...

Chris Scheetz spent his first 18 years in Edmonton radio as a dedicated listener. He spent his hours on his family farm in Thorsby, Alberta listening to CISN country 103.9 while driving tractor. He was hooked. In 1989, he started working overnights at CISN country 103.9. He has never forgotten about what makes the station tick. The listeners, the sense of community and lending a helping hand when...

Karen Steele is the new Program Director at 99.9 Virgin Radio in Toronto. She has worked in radio for over two decades and in this episode, she walks us through her impressive career, from small markets to big ones, from radio to film and back to radio again. She even throws out a couple dollops of advice along the way, so stay tuned, this one's a keeper!  Over two decades of h...

There is something refreshing about starting a brand new year with a brand new episode. Radio, and podcast should be excited for 2018; not since the iPhone and iPod has so much technological been exchanged at the holiday season. The good news is that it is a speaker and it plays radio. Perry Michael Simon is the News/Talk and Podcast contributor for AllAccess.com. We spent time looking back at the...

Terry Dimonte is back for another Christmas episode. The CHOM 97.7 Morning man has a love for Christmas and radio. Last year we spent our time talking about his relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This year, we spoke about his love of Canada, his morning routine, and the loss of his dear friend Kenny Shields of the rock band Streetheart. Terry and I have known each other sinc...

With the arrival Amazon Smart Speaker products in Canada, I thought it would be a good time to speak with Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media about what it means for radio stations. Indeed there is a race to secure names like Z100 and Mix 96, the same way we raced for URL's back in the 90's. The radio is back in the house, but so are a whole bunch of new audio competitors, including newspaper and p...

Amber De La Garza is a productivity specialist and the host of the Productivity Straight Talk Podcast. She helps businesses and entrepreneurs get their act together and not waste time. We are big fans of her work and spoke with her briefly in our episode when we were live at the Podcast Movement. We see this when we visit radio stations: People spending too much time on e-mail, and not enough on t...

Blair Bartrem is the program director at Toronto’s Q107. Over his 30 plus year’s in radio, Blair has worked in promotions and as program director at legendary brands like CHOM-FM, Q107, Mix 96 & Mix 99.9 in Montreal and Toronto. His promotions have ranged for award-winning to haven’t always rubbed everyone the right way. What goes into a making a great station brand? Hiring great people and no...