What's Below

• The Sound Off Survey Takes 5 Minutes

• Cool Stickers At Podcast Movement

• This Was a Better Watch Than Listen

• Voiceover Info Here

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been giving careful consideration to how I allot my attention during the day. There’s the time I spend with my eyes fixated on something, and the time I spend with my ears actively listening to something. I haven’t been keeping a log or anything, but I can tell you that the time spent listening has been much more enjoyable.

Although it’s a quiet time of year for sports, I listened to sports radio today. I also tuned into some podcasts and checked a few radio stations to see if they had even noticed the death of Ozzy Osbourne—whether they had killed the voice tracks and shifted programming. A few stations in the bigger markets did.

Late yesterday afternoon, I went to a yoga class. I do the class with my eyes closed for more than half the time, simply following the teacher’s audio cues, all while listening to my breath.

Now, let me tell you about some of the things I had to do with my eyes open. I had to operate a motor vehicle, which is stressful where I live. (People drive like losers here.) I watched the news, which was bleak. And I feel like I’ve been waiting over 30 minutes for this week’s podcast video to download. You can watch it below, but once again, I’ll say that listening to it on any of the podcast apps is a much more pleasant experience.

This episode is about the importance of localism, innovation, and community-driven content in today’s challenging radio landscape.

The Sound Off Survey Takes 5 Minutes

Cool Stickers At Podcast Movement

James Cridland has mentioned more than a few times over the last 6 months: Podcasts are “Entertainment for your ears while your eyes are busy.” We had James on our program earlier this year and he says it in minute 8 of the show. He should probably have the slogan trademarked just in case the podcast industry decides to do a “Got Milk?” or “Radio: Red Hot Because It Works” ad campaign. James is having stickers made and will be sharing a few of them at Podcast Movement next month. His Podnews Coasters remain very popular.

This Was a Better Watch Than Listen

Last week, I said this show was the best thing I listened to. But here’s what you need to know: listening to this show is very different from watching it.

It starts with the guest speaking about what happened to them. And that’s fine if you’re watching it. You see the guest — the guest is a victim of trauma — so there's immediately a face to the story.

I listened to the show in the car, and I’m here to tell you that someone talking about their problems for five minutes without context or an introduction is a shitty listen. I was out.

See what I mean here.

Listen to what I mean here.

Two things I want you to know about this show:

First, it’s a YouTube show that’s also available as a podcast.
Second, you can tell they don’t care about the audio. They’ve pushed the boat out on a beautiful studio, but the echo in the room makes it a reluctant listen.

To make this a better audio show, I think the host needs to record an intro to give the listener some context about what they’re about to hear. And obviously, someone needs to talk to the people at Audimute about soundproofing the studio.

Voiceover Info Here

Here I am sitting inside a beautiful voice studio and waiting to voice something wonderful for you. There’s a camera in the studio and we can literally record it together. The same way you get a sandwich built at Subway.