This is Kyle Bondo, and this is Timothy Kim O'Brien, and you're listening to Pod Rec, the podcast that helps you navigate through the podcast industry. But welcome to the show today. We are going to talk about live, live, live, 5. Sunday Sunday Sunday.
That's right. No. It's not a monster truck rally. No. We're gonna talk about podcasting in the live world, in the real world, no prerecorded shows, no scripted notes, no it's a microphone, Maybe it's you and your cohost in a real place with possibly regal people. And I've been to a couple live recordings. So I've seen this in action. And of course, it can be the greatest thing ever or it can be a train wreck. It's a fantastic
environment to to understand how improv works. How to react under pressure, how to do technical fixes under pressure. In fact, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Mister Murphy, of mister Murphy's Law Firm. Murphy Murphy Murphy loves live podcasting. We're not really gonna get into that deep into the technical side of it. Now, instead, we're gonna talk about why it might be a good idea to live podcast your show to grow listenership. Now, podcasting is all about growing your audience.
This is really kind of a unique take on that, and I'm gonna kick it over here to Tim here because Tim has a good grasp on live. He's an improv guy too. So so Tim, what is really kind of the idea behind why would you wanna record your podcast live? It just sounds like this is a bad idea, but it it convinced me that maybe live is a good way to go. Alright, Kyle. Well, that's very easy because we've done it. We've actually done it -- True. -- live in a
coffee shop environment. We will not say the name of the coffee shop. Just suffice to say that, you know, there's a mermaid on there, a little thing there, and they like green, and they don't like Christmas for some people. Allegedly. Allegedly. We were there in the evening. But, yeah, if you remember, after we got done with our show, we got approached by somebody that watched us what we were doing, and they became instantly instantly interested
in exactly what we were doing. We had all of our gear laid out there. We're having a good time. We're drinking some coffees. And then afterwards, we got to speak with this young lady about exactly what we're doing, what podcasting was. She kind of knew what podcasting was, but guess what? There would have been no other way that she would have learned about PodRact if we hadn't been out in the public domain there and doing our show. Now, is this gonna happen all the time folks?
Yes. Actually, it will. People will you'll be out in doing your show, and people will come up and ask you what you're doing, which is a beautiful thing. It's free advertisement. How much did we pay for that exposure? Well, allegedly, we paid nothing. Well, nothing.
We had to You know, when you go out with the a to like a coffee shop, you did. Please. Please. Buy some coffee. You can't double hit the buy some coffee. You can't sit there for free like a bump. You gotta you gotta participate. You gotta pay for your space. And luckily, we had equipment that had batteries in it, so we didn't have to pay for any power too. But I believe I drank too large I don't want the Spanglish version of the with the large the
the ventilated version but -- Yeah. -- we drink a lot of coffee. I think we we have some empty white chocolate mochas there if I remember that. We we definitely consumed our fair share of beverages in that in that place. But this is this is something that that radio DJs have kind of been doing, like, forever. You know? Well, you know, welcome to KISW, not at 0.5.
That kind of thing where that you go to the venue, you see the Hydrofast, you go to the carnival, and you see your favorite DJ. Sometimes, you don't even know what they look like. You don't hear their voices in the radio. But do you think that that that everyone should be podcasting from a coffee shop? Now, I mean, our last episode, is the coffee shop episode, I believe it's episode 11 or 10. No. 2 episodes ago. That was a 10. The acoustics is kind of interesting.
But is that environment? I mean, it's kinda chaotic. What do you think? Well, it it can be chaotic. However, if you go in and have a conversation with the owner of the place or if you know the variations of the place. And and I'm just talking coffee shops, you can do it anywhere. We've actually done 1 of our very first podcast with Pod Rec in a college classroom, if you remember correctly. Oh, that's right. We did it at the Germane College after we had done a meetup
talking about how to do your podcast. We sat back and said, hey, you know, let's go ahead and record an episode of PodWright. Now, yes, the audio, the sound quality, you're gonna have some environmental noise in there. It's it's gonna happen. It is not impossible to get rid of, but it's very difficult. But you know what? I kind of enjoy having people out having that environmental noise around you. You can't buy that that kind of noise.
You can get people to you can pay people online to make that noise for you or you can try to, you know, grab a little m p 3 files and add that in to your post and then have to loop it and loop it and loop it. Why? It's there for you to use. It adds atmosphere to it. Do you want it for every podcast? I don't think so. I mean, there's other podcasts out there that I listen to. 20000 Hertz is 1 of them. It's a podcast all about, you know, sound and what sound means and all that kind of jazz.
They have to have pristine sound because they're all about the audio files. They're -- That would make sense. -- the sound. That would make sense. But for a podcast like Pod Rec, for our other podcast, I think adding that little environmental noise in there is okay. Now try to plan it out as much as you can. We went during a very dead time at the at the end of the night. We actually got kicked out
to coffee shop because we stayed so late. But that wasn't because anything that we did. We just, you know, we're there forever in a week guy talking with this young lady. Who, by the way, Kyle, she actually ran into my wife 2 days later at a a a store that sells gaming equipment for certain playstations. Shall we call them? And, you know, I had it talking. My wife was in there and saying, oh, yeah. My husband, you know, does a podcast. And the guy at the store was interested in our podcast.
Oh, 2 for 1. I I actually had to go back in the next day to return a game and talk to the guy. He was like, hey, Are you the guy? And I'm like, yes, I am. Here's our car. Wow. And I believe that they call that the coffee shop test. And it they don't think it was when you when you when you first think about podcasting, it's the, you know, people in the basement, it's the techie's, it's all that kind of thing.
And someone call I heard the other day, call it the coffee shop test. Is when you go to a coffee shop and people know what podcasting is or have heard of podcasting, when we call them the normals. When the normals know about podcasting, then you know podcasting has reached a level of saturation within the within the culture. That is that is a good sign that it's possible. It's not a fad. It's gonna be around for a while. People are listening to it. People are enjoying it. And people are curious.
And I think that you're talking about is you don't need to pristine sound quality. Number 1, which I think is a great thing to tell people because I think people get really hung up on sound quality. Oh my gosh. Like, I mean, I'm I'm here in the dark of my of my studio. Where my parakeets are sleeping. But every now and then, if you pay close attention, you'll hear them go tweet tweet, you know, just out of the blue, and it's almost impossible to get rid of that out of out of the mix.
So I don't I don't try because, you know, you probably don't even notice it even happened. Even you can hear it at all. The funny thing is is the coffee shop ambiance of of that episode is really kinda cool. I mean, that was I mean, I think it it added a flavor to it that we've never done before. It's not something we're gonna do every time because, you know, we want you to be focused on what we're talking about. But I think you're you're definitely onto something.
And I think the flavor that it added to the episode was hazelnut for sure. It was hazelnut. I swear to God. I tasted the episode afterward. Hazelnut. All of you. Yeah. Well, Natella for you. There's a there there's another aspect too that that and I'm glad you brought up the radio hosts that we're doing these these remotes. Okay. They're doing it for advertising.
Now you don't see that too much anymore. Because radio has you know, it it's reached its full saturation point. It it is not radio is not gonna grow anymore. It is absolutely not gonna grow anymore. It's in all your cars. It's in your, you know, it it's in your alarm clocks at home. It is not gonna grow anymore. I believe they call that ubiquitous. It's just everywhere.
You already expect the radio to be where the radio is. It's it's not really it's not really something new and shiny like podcasting kinda still is. Right. So your advertisers know what they're gonna get off of that. They know the days and times that they need to, you know, drop their ads to get the most set, you know, to get the most people and the markets that they need. Now podcasting is a little bit different.
We don't you know, we aren't saturated I mean, yeah, there's 650382 of us or podcasts out there, maybe not that many podcasters. But advertisers are coming to us now kinda tepidly. Some of them are are going whole hog into it like Casper. Thank you. A hundred bucks out for Casper there.
But they are they're coming at us, and and it's a great time to get into testing because what you can do is because you're a 1 or 2 man show or set up and your equipment. Now you think about for a radio station to bring out their equipment, they had to bring in a big van.
And if they were to do a live remote, they'd have to have the big old ant and shoot it up into the air and blah blah blah. Very true. Very true. Now for us, Kyle, we brought in some heavy hitter equipment, but all we really needed that night was your zoom h 4 to record us. 2 microphones, which are about 35 bucks, 50 bucks each, let's say,
ATR 21 hundreds are running for white, about 50, 75 bucks? Well, if you all could think about it, it's really what we brought in was a fancy version of the tape recorder. That's it. That's all we did. I mean, yeah. It might have it might it looks it looks intimidating. And sure that it it it improved the sound quality tenfold. Really, it's just tape recorder. You just you but what we brought besides the tape recorder, of course, was the content.
Because the topic we talked about was something that, you know, regardless of all the fancy equipment, if you don't you don't understand what the heck that that you're bringing, that brings the audience that the advertisers want in a live presentation, then it doesn't matter what kind of gear you have, I think. That's this my personal point on it. Is I think the advertisers are seeing the potential for this growth
based at the scale of the Internet. Versus the scale of terrestrial radio, which is a lot of times limited to the distance that, you know, AM or FM radio wave can carry from the antenna. What do they say all the time from, like, ABC Radio in New York? It's the 10000 blowtorch 10000 watt blowtorch, whatever. That covers all of, like, you know, New York City. Mhmm. At some point, that radio wave is is gone. It doesn't go anywhere.
So, you know, you you've got a limited audience -- Right. -- New York radio station. Right? You know? So what a radio do? You know, now they're on iHeartRadio, you can get your favorite radio station no matter where you live. Through the IRR 8 radio app. So now you're getting kind of radio on the Internet. But radio is still live. It's still live. So if you're not listening to 1 of the, you know, let's talk about 1 of the top
talk show hosts in America right now. Rush Limbaugh. He's on even on East Coast at 12 noon. If you don't catch a show at 12 noon, you don't catch a show. So terrestrial radio is an event driven, unique, presentational performance that happens. Now of course, what did the radio people do? They record their stuff and put it in a podcast. So they're kind of back door in their podcast,
but it's still something you have to be there to hear it. And if you don't hear it, you miss it. And here's the beauty Kyle. You go to iHeartRadio. You can hear rush limbaugh. You can also hear Podrect. Oh my god. Right. You can. That's right. You can. And so if you have this, it's almost like podcasters are doing podcasting only
and it'll which is recorded medium. And then we're we're still looking now at this live thing where radio people are doing this live thing and now thinking of podcasting. Are we passing other in the fog. What the heck is going on here? Yes. We are, Kyle. It's all part of a master plan. I'm just saying, But I there's another aspect that radio isn't doing,
that podcasters can do. And that is actually doing live shows and festivals. Now once last time you went to a radio festival -- Yeah. Well -- for radio stations. Very very yeah. Very seldom. I think I believe I I went to, like, a farmer's market once and, like, the local country station
had a booth set up. And they were doing, like, some local that wasn't even I don't even think they were broadcasting. I think they were just there doing some, like, gravels or something like that. It was really kind of yeah. It was really it really been a long time since I've seen full blown you know, rock station or alt station or country station at a festival. I mean, the county fair is all I can think about.
Right. And and they're not they're not doing, you know, if they're at a festival, they're promoting, like, some band or something like that. They're not promoting they're not, you know, promoting radio as a medium or as an art form. They're just going, hey, here's Zz Top playing at the raceway down here in Richmond. On Thursday. Thursday Thursday. I do I do have an allegory for you, though, if that's the right if that's the right word. Today's word is allegory.
My youngest kid went to Cato Kong this weekend. Cato Kong, of course, is the big anime convention they have at the Gay hotel at the DC waterfront. It's massive. There must have been a couple thousand people there, all in their costumes, everything. Not 1 radio station was there. However, about give or take 10 people or so or recording podcasts live at that convention. So think about the weird, the unique,
the tribal groups of people who don't have radio stations. There's no anime, katou Khan radio station. On 99.9 FM. That doesn't exist. I don't even think that exists on XM. The only place you can get the stuff that you really care about that you get all the content that you like is that unique audience is on podcasting. That was live from the convention floor of them doing their podcast. No radio stations to be found?
Nope. No. No. No. And another thing that we're seeing recently in the past few years here is radiotopia takes their shows and puts them on tour. We've talked about Pod Save America going on tour actually filling auditoriums with people. Now when when I saw radiotopia up in DC, I saw what showed down in a in a Richmond, Virginia, for about 25 bucks, saw 2 different podcasts, saw criminal, and saw and and and Benjamin Walker's theory of everything.
Which was okay. It was in a bar, but I paid 25 bucks. I had to drive down there and drive back up. It was on a school night. And they pretty much did a show, had a projector. It it wasn't a light show. There's no smoke. There was some merch there. But that's it. Their setup was dirt cheap. They had their laptops and some microphones, and they went through the PA system
at the bar. When I saw the big radio to help you show that coming through the East Coast, it was at the Lincoln Theatre, merch all over the place, big set up, Well, what was it? 6 shows, 6 major shows that were out there. Full shows, again, basically, they had a projection in the back and the people on stage in front, and that was about it. Now
there was a So it was simple. It wasn't very it was very simple. So so is it kinda like a if you think about it almost like a play in a sense, like a radio play being done on the stage, I mean, countries Going to that a little bit, describe the radiotopia venue. Is it where you're sitting there? What what kind of described that, like, 1 of the acts coming up, what is what is kind of going on inside a live show from radiotopia?
Well, they they had the kitchen sisters there, and they did their show. They were talking about civil war coffee. And so what they did to get the audience involved in this is they handed out coffee beans and coffee grinders to about a hundred people. And they had it they said, okay. Now, when we say this certain line, start grinding your coffee. So it's interactive. It was a very their show was very interactive
and that's I still remember it. Now, do I subscribe to the kitchen sister sure I do, do I listen to them a whole lot? Not really because they're not my bag. But I still remember to this day the smell of that coffee
grinding it. Wow. And I saved a little coffee in my back pocket and, you know, ground it up and went home with it and had a great time. Describe the stage. What what so when they were doing this presentation, what were they using on the stage? Maybe they have props obviously, a props because they have the copy grinders and anything. What's going on the stage? I mean, is it like full blown backgrounds and graphics and fireworks? Or is it subtle?
For them, it was very subtle. Now, there was another show up there, radio diaries. And that had a lot of video going on behind it. Unfortunately, the video got screwed up with what the narrator was describing. And so the narrator just said What? The visuals. Let's go with it. We're gonna have to make this explicit only. We're already there. To that. But, you you know, he was just, you know, he was going through a show.
You know, it stuff happens on stage. Murphy's So the so the visuals died. Yeah. The visuals died. Okay. His story was so compelling, and his voice was so compelling. And it was just a wonderful time. We had the bugle on there. And that was just a wild show that it was kinda like a Prairie Home companion. With British accents. That's kinda on the political side, but it was a lot of fun, you know, some really simple sound effects.
A lot of, you know, Monty Python type humor. I think I'm getting the Monty Python because they have British accents. But that was just a fun show to watch. It's like watching Monty Python on stage. So it's a regular percentage of stage. Everyone's, you know, in their seats. They got a couple of different levels and all that good stuff. And you really felt like you went to a play or a concert.
Is what it was, what the feeling was. And everyone out there has myself, I was wearing my, you know, my teacher for my podcast. Because, like, well, hell, you know, I'm gonna have all these other people that listen to podcasts. Why not self advertise for myself? And I got a few people pulling me aside going, hey, you weren't a podcast? Yes. I do. Here's a card. Have fun.
So would you even say that that because you went to that event, then obviously radiotopia is a network that has all these different shows that they they sponsor or they help coproduce. Did you learn is it is the is the advantage to having a show having a group show like that that you learned about different podcasts you never heard of before? Or is the advantage
seeing the people that you hear on podcasts you have listened to and seeing them live, which gives you this connection that you didn't have before. What's what's kind of what what do you think the do you think radiotopias marketing strategy of doing this tour paid off? Oh, absolutely. It paid off because I get to see the guys on Buego, which I kinda had in in my head what they looked like and what their kind of show was about, and then Benjamin Walker's theory of everything.
I'd like to see him on stage and find out, you know, his kind of avant garde kind of stuff, which I really did. I got exposed to the kitchen sisters. Like I said, am I listening to him now? Not really, but it was good to to get the the exposure to them because now I can go and, you know, refer somebody that's looking for something that's like the kitchen sisters straight to them. I go, you know what? I saw them not my bagging, not my cup of tea, not my cup of coffee in, you know, in that case.
But you might like it and then I can refer them off that way. So for me was seeing the people that I really enjoy seeing or listening to, live. Going, oh, that's what you look like. Oh my god. You're ugly or you're looking. You know, when people see me live, they're like, oh, you're not what I expected. I expected a little Chinese guy, and you're this big 6 foot to, you know, a Harry Knut guy, not what I was expecting. And that's okay.
But you actually you know, it it's kinda like meeting your heroes. You know, meet me, you know, you think about your favorite band, you know, the lead singer or the lead guitarist for your favorite band and getting a chance to meet them in a in a regular concert venue, you probably are not gonna be able to do that unless you're a grouping and I don't think you want to do that. But in these shows, you actually got to shake their hands
and sit and shit you out. So they're very approachable. They're you're really good to engage at a level that you can never engage by sending an email or or liking their Facebook post. This is true fan service. Absolutely. And and Kyle, I know I bring this up a lot in our talks and everything with the Seth Golden thing, but, you know, he talks about
developing your audience space, you know, doing your show, doing whatever you're doing for the smallest sustainable audience. And for most of us, that's you know, the people in our neighborhood. I'm gonna sound like mister Rogers here for a second on Sesame Street. I apologize. But if you can go around your neighborhood to your to your people and do a show that they can see, and then kind of explain it to them, go to your local library
and when there's, like, a little because in in in front of berg. We have little comic cons in our libraries, and there's always a podcast guy there that's doing his show that talks about comics. Or talks about books. You can wedge your way into that, you know, like a book signing. Hey, you're the podcast that talks about writing or books.
Wedge your way into that with the bookstore, the coffee shop, and there you go. And how much work is that? That's shaking hands and kissing babies. Which is what which is what I tell my soldiers all the time, but that's what you wanna do if you wanna grow your podcast. And I think I think your I think your you're spot on. And I have experience at Pod Fest in Orlando last year where
there was a couple of speakers up that it didn't really it was, like, wasn't really interested in their their topics. Then there was a live recording by Jim or Jim Brany for Congressional DISH. Now, politically speaking, Congressional DISH is obviously about politics. So regardless of what you're you're bent on on politics, is not the point. The point is she had a live recording of 1 of her podcasts. And I thought, that
Let's What is that what is that like? Because I'd never never experienced that before. And this is this is how you can really kind of sum it up in a nutshell. Her first 10 minutes, she had all sorts of computer problems. The cord she had connecting to the slide projector was not long enough. And trying to figure out how to move the table around. And she's not a short woman. She's a very tall woman. So the table was, you know, weird the configuration.
It was all this kind of like, you know, weird, awkward. Hold on a second. I'm really sorry. But the room was packed.
Like maybe 30 or 40 people in the room, but 30 or 40 people patiently waiting for her to get her technical difficulties out of the way. And when she did and then she queued her record and she started doing her podcast in which she does clips, so a lot of it's playing videos. So there's she'll talk about and she does things where she'll read a bill from the house or from the senate or a piece of legislation.
And then go through what the congressional representatives are saying about this bill and then talk about, in some ways, some of the insanity of that In other ways, how you're being told 1 thing via media and how what the bill actually really says. This is someone who who enjoys reading 1100 page documents like the the budget bills and things like that. And then what was in there? And she finds some of the craziest things in there. The point of that is is a live show,
of course, keeps you on your toes. But she wasn't reading off a script per se, shame she had her notes and everything in front of her. But she was not only reacting to the the things about her show that she was talking about. Here's this thing. Here's this clip from this center. Here's this thing. Here's this clip from that congressman. But then the audience would do something that I don't think she expected. As recording alone in your, you know, in your studio, in your closet. They laughed.
She told something that was funny and or shoot a clip where it was funny and people laughed and she was like kind of taken back from that for a second like, oh my gosh, feedback automatic first hand cannot believe this feedback. So she started kind of getting a little, like, a little comfortable
in her her mannerism, she stopped being, like, the way she is on her podcast where she can get a little almost agitated in a sense because some of this stuff is like, I can't believe spending money on these kind of things. Right? Mhmm. But Jen Briny really kind of enjoyed the instant feedback. And I think that is 1 thing that a podcast can take from this that you can't get when you're recording the studio. And that is automatic instant positive or negative audience feedback.
I think that was and to see her do that was was awesome. I mean, I was sitting there thinking like, you know, I was like, well, I don't know if I agree on that point. Well, I don't agree at that point. And then I started going, wait a minute. What am I missing here? And that's was it. It was the, oh my god, she's doing a live podcast recording and the audience is reacting to her
That is amazing. How did I not see that before? And then I didn't care what she had to say. Politically wise, you know, we can disagree or not disagree or, you know, agree doesn't matter. What I saw was a a live presentation that had so much benefit to it. And I think the radiotopia thing, I don't know if they had that same benefit because the bigger the crowd, I imagine, the bigger the laughs, the bigger the
kind of like that, all that kind of thing. That is something I think podcasters do not understand. The maybe radio people do. What do you think about that? Oh, yeah. Well, definitely radio people understand that because, you know, you can call into a radio station while it's going on, while the shows going on. And, you know, a lot of times, they'll take calls, they'll complain, they'll be happy. All the stuff that I'd listen to on the radio,
does include a call in portion to it. Right? I I enjoy getting print viewpoints that way from it. And the the host usually enjoy that that kind of different viewpoint as well. There's nothing though that get you on your toes better than doing it live in front of an audience. You've learned exactly what you need to what the fad is that you need to cut out of the shell.
You can see that directly with the audience. If they're falling asleep, you know you know. Hey, listen. I gotta yeah. I gotta amp this thing up. If they're falling asleep now while they're listening to a Kyle, we're not gonna know. Because more likely, people are not going to go on to iTunes or Apple Podcasts or whatever and go, yeah, I slept through your show.
But well, a bet even a better 1 is to to look at the audience and see them all on their phones. If they're, like, on their phones and not paying attention to you, you you better step it up or or yeah, you're right. Cut the fat out. That is fantastic. And it also gets you to figure out, you know, technically, what do you really need? I mean, quite honestly,
a recorder and a microphone, and you're there. You're done. Yeah. I mean, you can do it right on your phone as well, but you just need a recorder on a microphone. As a matter of fact, tomorrow, I'm actually doing for for my other podcast, I'm actually going out to a coffee shop. And doing a conversation with 1 1 of my guests, and we're just gonna record it that way. Because I've done that before, and I really enjoy that kind of a feel for it. It really works for my podcast.
And also, you know, people come up and talk to us. And I'll leave that in the show. I'll leave that in the recording just because it has that extra dimension that you're not getting on other shows or even on the radio. Maybe when radio's doing their stuff and they they get people calling in, they don't get some random Joe walking by and going, hey, you guys sound like crap.
Yeah. Or what are you what are you talking about? You silly artists. Why be free? Well, Jim Brady's a gin that keeps saying it sounds like it's some gin, but it's gin, Jennifer Briny, was included in the price of a mission for for for pod fest. Which is okay. But radiotopia charged you a mission. Correct? Yes. Absolutely. So I'm thinking about, like like, shows like Pod Save America. Pod Save America charges
25 dollars for a mission. Mhmm. And another 25 dollars if you wanna see the pre show and I think there's a dinner thing. So it's it's kinda an event you, like, go to a dinner and there's a pre show where you see them warming up and doing their thing. Mhmm. And probably sound checks and all the all the audio stuff and everything else, you know, either working or not working. And then 25 bucks to see the show for 50 dollars per person, they're filling
thousands of people are coming to these events. Oh, yeah. Radio show up, you did the same thing. They had a VIP packers. That was a hundred bucks that you're you're gonna have you know, want pretty much 1 on 1 time or, you know, a small party of, like, 30 or 40 people there that is gonna have access to these hosts
for an hour, 2 hours, with drinks and food included, you know, for a hundred bucks. So this this article talks about that. This is experience that they think serious podcasters should consider.
And 1, of course, is I think we already talked talked about is nothing but lot you know, Live gives you the experience you've never you you can never have had in any other place. Right? You get the automatic feedback. That's 1. You get the ability to reach out to fans that you you never see or you rarely hear from that wanna come see you talk live. So there's the audience engagement there too, which is something that's that's really good. Mhmm.
There's also the possibility that if you're I guess, if you have enough fans, you could cover your costs with an an event like this where you could actually make a a little money. Maybe you'd maybe it's almost like the the the the open mic night stuff, you know, hey, thanks for listening to our show. And by the way, buy the merch in the back. We're selling our CDs for 5 bucks.
It's kind of like like that because you sell your merch and that kind of thing. What other benefits do you have of the live experience? Because it almost feels like and again, we talked about radio becoming you know, radio is starting to
touch a little bit on podcasting even though some of them are still, like, you know, oh, podcasting is so good. Right? We're starting to see podcasters start to branch out a little live stuff, a little more radio stuff, is it an event or is it a live presentation of your podcast which technically is radio ish. I mean, is are we are we mixing metaphors here? Or is it is it really to say is radio in a live podcast performance the same thing?
Or are they actually different animals? And I'm not sure. I think they're different animals, but, you know, help me out here. Well, no, Kyle. You are right. They are different animals because radio just because of the tech technology and everything has been doing that a lot longer than podcasting. I think we'd learn from radio what actually works. I I I don't know if well, you're not a Chicago guy. I am. But
No. I don't like don't like that kind of snow. I'm I'm a rain guy. You're a rain guy. He's a rain guy. Yeah. Yeah. Back in the day, there was a radio station out of Chicago that was, you know, they hated disco, and they were doing the death of disco. And so they did a live event at and Kymiski Park, which is now the cell field, but it's still Kymiski Park for anybody that's important. And they
they were burning records or they're blowing up disco records. Well, it turned into an absolute mob fast, you know. People were just ripping up the infield. They jumped over the stands. They they tore up the bases. They actually had to cancel the it was a double header, so it was the middle of a double header. They had to the White Sox had to forfeit the game. Because, you know, they they couldn't play because the field was all tore up. The radio station pretty much fired the DJ
that did it. And it it was an absolute disaster. If you don't think do you think podcasts or podcast for fans or or better people? You can have to I It works hard to convince me on that 1. I know our fans are better people. Well, they are much better behaved than that. They're all have already been sophisticated, smart, and liked by the community as a whole. And they're well paid for it too. There you go. And if they want to, you know,
let us know their ideas or anything like that, they can get in touch with us at pod direct at g mail dot com. Look at that. And you can always go to the website at pod direct dot com and see all of our show notes and, you know, all of our articles that we're quoting here. But Kyle, yes, it is 2 separate animals. I agree with you on that. But it's an animal that we can learn from radio's mistakes.
We can learn because I don't wanna I'm not gonna say radio is dying. That that's stupid. I don't think radio is going to die per se. I think it's going to be with us for a good long time because it is an effective means of communication. However, I think podcasting can take a lot of the good ideas from radio and transform it and make it into our own because, really and and I want a little artsy here on you. There's nothing new underneath the side. Okay? Oh.
There isn't. Spoken like a true IBM executive. There's nothing you wanna meet the sun. What we're doing is we're just taking from the old end, making it, you know, morphing it into what we need it for. I would I would agree with that. I would almost say that that radio doesn't have to die and podcasting doesn't have to kill it. They can both exist at the same time. It's not like it's not like radio is is the cassette and podcasting is the is the the CD
or m p 3 download kind of the old napster kind of thing. I don't think it's that kind of relationship. I think it's it's it's almost like it's almost like, if you think about this, is recorded events versus live events. Radio is a live medium and it's done, you know, it's a it's a participation. You have to be there to hear it most times. Where podcasting
is a appointment medium. It's when I want it. It's on demand. And radio is starting to understand that some of their hit shows require an on demand piece to it. Mhmm. And, of course, some of them have paid walls. They make money off of that. You can't listen to the, you know, the recorded radio show unless you pay the money. But not all of them. There are a lot of people out there who are on the radio, late night radio, you know, coast to coast. You have all those kind of the the smaller guys.
Who are out there in the in the kind of smaller markets, they found out that podcasting gets them way more audience than being on at 2 AM on a local station at Schmidt or Charlottesville or something like that. Podcasting grows their audience in a way they could have never have grown it in a tiny little market. I think it's becoming you almost as a radio person, you have to have some sort of podcasting there too. I think that they I think they're
I think radio people haven't figured that out, but podcasting people have. Mhmm. And Kyle, it is time for Tim's forecast. Oh, well, Tim's prediction. I've I you know what? This is, like, the third episode in a row where I thought I was gonna have some theme music for this. I will. By by next episode, I will have figured out some theme music for this.
Kyle, I'll send you the theme music. That or I'll plug plug it into this 1 and send it to you. Oh, I'll plug it oh, there you go. Give me a loop. Yeah. Give me some like, you know, give you some good magic. Okay. So Tim's Tim's prediction. What's Tim's prediction for for this? Alright. So my prediction is gonna be this. We are going to see more live events. We are gonna see, you know, more stuff like radiotopia with all this -- Okay. -- coming together.
And I know everyone's talking right now about the whole Spotify buying out, you know, just that and the other thing. But I think we're gonna see these networks do more of these these live shows because they are profitable. I think we're gonna see more hobbyist podcasters go out into the community and and do these live shows. We have a local 1 right here in Fredericksburg, Popcorn Praddle.
That they talk about movies and all that kind of good stuff. And they actually go to a bar and they do their show live there. Down in Richmond, you have Geeks under the influence, they go and get a movie theater and they do their show right there and see and watch a movie. So it's happening. It's gonna be more people doing it. Is gonna be everybody in their niche doing what they're doing. And
I don't wanna say it's the next wave of it because it's already happening right now. So I think it's just going to increase and people are gonna find better ways to make a profit at it so that way they can keep on doing it. I I I think that prediction is is spot on. I would almost say that it's it has begun.
Is 1 of those things that but I I think you're right. Throughout this year, you're gonna start to see more of these these live presentations because it just works because you have the ability to engage with an audience on this kind of like this little tour is is something that that that podcasters can learn from, can benefit from, can even monetize from.
I think the the other thing now we talk about radio people being you know, starting to embrace some elements of podcasting. Not all of them. We and you know who you are, you radio people. We love you, but, you know, you'll come around eventually. We have podcasters starting to in podcasters, as far as, you know, different I mean, think about the categories of podcasters that do this. It seems like the politics
definitely a big 1. History, definitely a big 1. Education is a big 1. I wanna throw in there 1 others 1 other part of podcasting that is a isn't a weird place, and that's the audio drama people. Mhmm.
And I've seen this kind of trend now where and I think the the podcom that has had in Seattle a couple weeks ago, And also at where my kid went, Kato Kong, where you get the actors who do the audio drama to come alive onto a stage on a tour and reenact episodes from the audio drama that everyone's falling in love with.
A Steel of the Stars has done this a lot, where they have done a tour, where they have come and presented their show, where you have people reading from their scripts right there on a microphone, on a stage, like a law like a law almost like a a table read for a first for a movie -- Mhmm. -- only they're recording. I mean, there's the microphone.
They'll do sound effects. They'll have they'll the script read, people, and sometimes they'll they'll have to live and and they'll do some funny stuff that is special for the audience. But I think this is the other piece that's gonna start becoming more and more interesting. Mhmm. Is is these come out? And what we saw at at some of these conference, especially comic con has had this, where you have voice actors who go up on the stage and they just create something new.
I mean, they're the characters you love and love because you wanna see her their voice. But you know my I get Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty is a perfect example where the voice actors for those 2 characters did a completely different script on stage and microphones.
You're gonna see a lot of this happen, I think, at these conferences and conventions. You're gonna see a lot of this happen as the circuits tour and you get to see these people in real life. I think audio dramas podcasting are gonna be a chunk of that. There we're gonna see doing some tour stuff because why not? That's how you that's how you I mean, that's all gonna engage your audience. That's how you turn people on to your podcast.
Well and we were talking a little bit about the whole radio versus podcasting thing. NPR is already doing that with their shows. You know, prayer home companion has always been a a live show. There you go. You have Ira Glass who's come in our neck woods up here at Wolftrap. He's done his show a couple of times. You know, they they have their touring shows as well. It works. It works for the not for profits. It works for the 4 profits.
It works for everyone. And I challenge you, you know, e listeners out there that are doing their own podcast, you know, think outside the box, see where you can do your show live, and give it a shot. If it works, fantastic. It's a way for you to market yourself and grow your audience. If it doesn't work,
maybe you need to learn something about that and then try it again in in in a different venue in a different way. But it's a great way to get that instant feedback that we all love and appreciate. Well, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Pod Rec. If you enjoyed the show, we'd love for you to subscribe. We we are everywhere. Go to pod rec dot com We're on Stitcher. We're on iHeartRadio. We're on tune in. We're in the course Apple Podcasts.
We are wherever you find podcasts We're everywhere. We have really kind of put this show in every nook and cranny we could find. We have tried to make this as simple as possible. So by all means, please subscribe. We'd love to have you subscribe. And if you find this show interesting, do you like what we had to say? If you think If you think Tim and I are totally out of our minds, we have no idea what we're talking about, please hit us up at podwrex,
that's with the e d at the end, podwrex at gmail dot com. Send us some feedback. We'd love to have some audience feedback. They kinda hear what it is maybe you wanna talk about because we wrap this show around helping podcasters and we hope that whatever we whatever we talk about is something that you can use to improve your podcast.
And Kyle, I wanna let let all of our listeners know. Jump on the website, pod rack dot com. Because on that website, We'll let you know when we're connected up with GagroPod, which is our great company and our great network sponsor that helps us make this presentable to you. Now with Gagapod and Vopoda, we do meetups once a month. And that's a perfect way for you if you're in our local area here to learn about how to do podcasts.
And heck, we might even be crazy enough to do a show right then and there with you in the audience. So, knock it out. Go to pod rec dot com and see all of our notes. See all of our announcements. And you can even see our faces there. Our lovely faces, isn't that right? Kyle. That's right. And this show, of course, recorded 100 percent live in front of nobody. Yes. We recorded this on squad cast, squad cast dot f m. Which I think is just a fantastic tool. So if you need to, you know, forget Skype, forget all that stuff. Use squadcast.
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