The Sound Off Podcast

In this week's episode, we visit with Dave Bannerman, one of the richest sources of intel on Canadian radio in the twentieth century. He retired earlier this year from his role as radio-TV-journalism instructor at Nova Scotia Community College. We even take a walk down memory lane of an overnight radio show I hosted called "The Whine Line", and talk about the talent that has passed through his cla...

Dave Wheeler is the morning host at 92 CITI-FM in Winnipeg. Along with Rena Jae and recent addition Dave Turnbull, they continue to be one of Winnipeg's top morning shows. I had the opportunity to work with Dave from 2006 to 2012 and really loved how he would create without a safety net: Not stopping the creative process to water down or negate an idea. Great ideas are refined and shared with the...

Jeff Vidler’s company Audience Insights teamed up with Jeff Ulster and conducted a deep dive n podcasting. The study was commissioned by the Globe & Mail. The study’s goal is to help podcasters develop content strategy, increase opportunities for monetization and create a road map for growing a young and diverse new audience. There were questions about the types of podcasts consumed, where they li...

Seth Resler has just released a new podcast called the D-Brief. He has experimented with everything from backstage podcasts at conferences, to travel podcasts, and finally realized that he really hated audio post-production, and that having your hard drives full of audio created creative clutter. The D-Brief is a Detroit-centric podcast that has little post production, and co-hosts with strong rol...

The Sound Off Studios are being renovated this week, so I took unloading some house keeping. Namely, I answer questions that I get asked a lot about podcasting. Can I make money podcasting? Should I do a podcast? How long should a podcast be? Also, I play two never before heard stories from two of our most popular episodes. Charles Adler recounts the story of how he almost became Terry Dimonte’s c...

Sheri Lynch bought her own show. Yes, I know that sounds really weird considering that her name is in the Marquee, but she essentially got tired of trying to manoeuvre her branding through radio station filters, that she take ownership of the whole thing. In this episode, Sheri will share the reasons why you might want to start down a similar road; or at the very least understand just what digital...

When the NFL announced they had a partnership with a British company to carry what was NFL Sunday Ticket via streaming, major alarm bells sounded in my head. Not one to rebuff change, I welcomed our UK overlords and their streaming television idea because frankly - what choice did I have. After 5 weeks of Canadians paying for a service that often doesn't work, I reach out to Sean Meade, owner of t...

Donna Halper is an associate professor of media at Lesley University. She is also in the process of leading an incredible life in radio as a music director, later as a consultant, and now as a professor of media. She is largely credited for breaking new bands including Rush when she was the music director of WMMS in Cleveland. We spent our time reconnecting as I had e-mailed her back in the 90’s t...

Lauren Hunter from Sonic 102.9 in Edmonton is in the hot seat this week. Apart from a brief stint in Kelowna, she has been in Edmonton her whole life and knows the city well. We talk about everything from how to tackle the social media beast, to what makes a post go viral, and, of course, Connor McDavid and the Connor McPortrait. This episode is brought to you by Promosuite, who has been proudly s...

This week Jason Barrett from Barrett Sports Media joins us after a tumultuous summer that saw Sports and Politics further collide. There were also a number of sports personalities making the news for all the wrong reasons, and ESPN found itself at the center of most national headlines for layoffs or damage control. With the new NFL season upon us, there is no better time to reach out to Jason Barr...

Sometime around 2007, it became about websites and monetizing them. The company I was working for started to remove the digital parts our station was using. The preverbal shit hit the fan and I knew that the people in charge didn’t have a clue on how to use digital to monetize the future. Sadly, the problem persists to this day where there are people in charge who don’t have a digital strategy. Th...

Jamie Watson is more than a station voice. He works with imaging producers, program directors, and morning shows. He started writing and voicing commercials, and parlayed those talents into becoming a leading voice for radio imaging, commercials and cartoons. In this episode, Jamie tells us about the writing and voicing process, and the importance of creating a promo that isn't going to waste the...

Matt Sutton worked with me in 2013 and 2014. On my trip home from Podcast Movement, we went to lunch.... and made a podcast at the same time. Matt Sutton is the afternoon host at Z95 in Vancouver. I got off the play just before 11am and we went to hit the Wicklow Pub where I pulled out my recorder and announced we were going to be doing a podcast. He didn't think it was for real. It was. We spent...

We wander the halls of Podcast Movement 2017 in Anaheim. I provide a few takeaways of things I have learned so far, plus catch up with some of the notables who have been on our podcast before, or are starting a new podcast shortly. I was speaking on a panel this year at the Jacob's Media sponsored, "Broadcaster Meet Podcaster" event. Radio had it's biggest turnout so far, and by all accounts are s...

Peter Anthony Holder has interviewed a lot of people. From the famous to the quirky, his weekly show "The Stuph File" is syndicated on radio stations around the world and delivered in podcast form every Sunday night. Peter has a new book out now called "Great Conversations: My Interviews with Two Men on the Moon and a Galaxy of Stars." He picked up his interview craft working in radio at Montreal'...

Rob Greenlee is the Head of Content at Spreaker. Recently, I spoke with him on a panel at the Conclave Radio Learning Conference in Minneapolis. At the end of the session, the moderator and panelists all felt we had a few more things we could have gotten to if time had permitted. No worries. That's what podcast is for! Rob and I spoke about some of the things radio does well with podcast, and some...

Dahlia Kurtz does not do things conventionally. She has worked in radio, written a national newspaper column, nearly went to the Olympics, and spent her first day in radio under water. And she lived to tell me about it. We worked together for a period when she was at 680 CJOB in Winnipeg and I felt the need to catch up with her. The link to her demo: http://www.dahliakurtz.com/my-uncover-letter He...

Alan Burns has been consulting radio stations since the mid 80's, and knows a thing or two about change. His company Alan Burns and Associates has had long standing relationships with some of the biggest brands across North America. His company is well known for their "What Women Want" research which always creates more than one a-ha moment upon reveal. Now comes word that headphone listening is m...

Ira Haberman is the host of the Sound Podcast and passionate about storytelling, and the Grateful Dead. Put it together, and that's a podcast. He has hosted the Sound Podcast since December, but its success has radio roots as he was working as creative director for Corus Entertainment's Deep Sky in Toronto in 2003, and segued to digital content in 2008, right when it all began to happen. We look b...

Tootall is a Montreal radio legend. Earlier this week he announced his retirement this September, making it an even 40 years on Montreal's legendary CHOM 97.7FM. Tootall is well known not only to Montreal radio listeners, but in Canadian Music Industry circles. He's interviewed every band long before they had airplay, a video, or even a label deal. I worked with Tootall twice in my radio career an...

Dave Farough has a lot of ideas about radio. Today he published some of those ideas on his LinkedIn page entitled "If I Had a clean Sheet of Paper" and I asked them if I could add them to my page - and then the only thing that was missing, was the companion podcast. On this Canada Day in 2017, we spent our time talking about radio and tossing out ideas that could move it forward. So of these ideas...

Fred Jacobs is the president of Jacobs Media. Their tech surveys have become increasingly important as we progress through the digital revolution. The survey itself undergoes changes with the inclusion of new questions about personal assistant devices like Alexa. Which brings me to Podcast itself. Jacobs Media went all-in on podcasting a few years ago and I met up with Fred Jacobs and Seth Resler...

X92.9 in Calgary is celebrating 10 years of being Calgary’s Alternative radio station. The station launched January 1, 2007 and immediately found an audience. It’s brand promise has made it a favourite in a city where Millennials are becoming the majority. In this episode we discussed hiring talent, managing talent, and giving yourself permission to create great radio programming in the name of br...

This week, I look back on the last few episodes and provide some lingering thoughts. Special appearances and re-appearances from Georgia Beasley and Jeff Vidler. In this episode: * I make reference to Larry Gifford's insightful conversation with Jeff Vidler which you can listen to here: http://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-qk8cs-2670662 * If you are talent and looking for new on air opportunitie...

If you don't tell your story, someone is going to tell it for you; which is why we have Radio Connects. They speak to advertisers and agencies on behalf of 540 stations in Canada. Today we provide a little background on what they do for Canadian radio. Radio Connects has commissioned a Share of Ear Study for Canada – aptly called "The Canadian Audio Landscape Study". The results show that radio is...