Editor’s note from Jason Barrett:
The podcasting space is one many of us love to invest our time in. It’s a space where creativity and original ideas are encouraged, the listener has control, and personalities are given opportunities to try things that they may otherwise avoid on their daily programs.
But as liberating as the space can be, measuring a podcast’s effectiveness and importance remains a challenge. Programmers have enough to do with managing their station’s over the air content, analyzing ratings, and trying to assist sellers on monetizing radio content. Most radio companies don’t employ a Director of Podcasting who’s sole focus is to create, measure, and help monetize the brand’s digital audio content.
Because the podcasting space has turned into the wild west, we thought it’d be beneficial to bring back our 5 Podcasts in 5 Days project, and call upon someone to tackle the assignment who truly understands the space.
Jay Soderberg and I worked together at the ESPN Radio network in the mid 2000’s, and over the past 15 years he’s played an important role in helping ESPN and BlogTalk Radio develop, grow, and expand their footprint in the podcasting space. Nicknamed ‘Pod Vader’, Jay is not one to sugarcoat what he thinks. He’s candid, direct, and unapologetic. His focus is on helping creators produce exceptional content, and if it means having to get under their skin in the process, so be it.
The five podcasts we charged Jay with listening to and critiquing were Mystery Crate by Dan Le Batard and Friends, The GM Shuffle with Adnan Virk and Michael Lombardi, The Most Valuable Podcast with Charlotte Wilder and Jess Smetana, Locked on Jazz with David Locke, and Real Sports from BluWire’s Jack Settleman and Abe Granoff. I think you’ll find his reviews to be honest and well explained. If you have further feedback you can find him on Twitter @TheRealPodVader or by email by clicking here. Enjoy!
MYSTERY CRATE BY LE BATARD & FRIENDS
Title: Episode 8 Date: June 21, 2019
Length: 44 minutes
Cast: various members of LeBatard & Friends
Sponsors: ZipRecruiter, Tissot watches
Production: Perfect use of a quick music bump in and out of segments
Show Breakdown:
0:00 – The only show that’s a complete mystery – for sure, because I don’t know who these people are. There’s funny “scary” laugh and there’s the first voice. The hosts never introduce themselves.
1:16 – ZipRecruiter ad that devolves into a breakdown of the scary laugh.
2:58 – We learn we’re getting some “Dan”. Contributions will come from everyone except for Allison (Turner and we learn the host is Mike Ryan in a throw away line introducing Allison). Allison does contribute though when she’s asked to talk about the Hills and other reality TV shows from the background while eventually making it to a live mic.
13:48 – Throwing to Dan speaking to Danny Goldberg who wrote “Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain”
14:46 – Danny Goldberg interview from ESPN Radio
33:58 – Interview brought to you by ZipRecruiter
34:04 – Setting up Chris’ segment of “Ya Nevah Know” with Chris’ dad and intro music from JuJu Gotti who is the best thing on Instagram right now.
35:33 – Brought to you by Tissot Watches
36:20 – Ya Nevah Know segment – Chris’ dad is a weird cat, how? He gets into it.
40:10 – Oh by the way, Chris’ dad’s name is Greg. Their last name is Cody. Slowly learning who’s who.
41:20 – Download everything – even if you don’t listen – so they can do more Mystery Crate’s…they understand it’s a great investment of your time and patience because you don’t know what you’re getting.
42:20 – In case you didn’t realize, this was brought to you by ZipRecruiter – you’ve heard it before but this is your reward for listening all the way here
43:15 – Mystery Crate doesn’t like to tease much, but next week we’re getting Stugotz.
Show Analysis:
This is something I’ve been preaching about using repurposed audio from Live Radio shows for years. Have the production staff create original content that surrounds the audio from the radio show. In this way, people who already heard the radio content have a reason to download the podcast and listen again, and for people that never listen to the live radio show, either have time shifted their listening or have become encouraged to go listen to the radio show.
For the broadcaster, they’re developing future on-air talent that will have a built in audience from the radio show making that difficult time of introducing a new on-air talent a lot easier to jump start. However, without proper introductions to the podcast talent and without proper show notes to tell the listener what it is they’re about to listen to, there’s no impetus for new listeners to get into the show.
While it’s fantastic to see something different being tried, unless the listener is a diehard LeBatard & Friends fan, they have no idea what they’re in store for. Edison Research says that the active podcast listener listens to an average of 7 podcasts a week. With nothing to go by from the show description, there’s no reason for a person to eject one of those 7 podcasts to make room for a new one.
To that point, it took almost 14 minutes to find out we were about to hear an interview conducted by “Dan” with Danny Goldberg who wrote a book about Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. Previous to that, we heard discussion about reality TV shows, specifically the reboot of MTV’s The Hills.
I honestly don’t remember if Dan LeBatard was ever mentioned by full name – I can certainly assume that “Dan” is the “Le Batard” in “Le Batard & Friends” which is branded on the podcast, but again, unless someone is a diehard Le Batard & Friends fan, why would a new listener take a chance on show they have no idea about? A brand new listener will probably think this is a sports podcast, but the only mention of sports came with the ad for the watch.
Speaking of which, be careful with those pronunciations as it took a Google search to understand what brand watch was being advertised. To be clear, it’s Tissot, the official watch of the NBA. Also, the show is brought to you by ZipRecruiter, and it was odd to hear the same advertiser 3 or 4 times in one show.
Closing Comments:
I love the attempt at innovation here. It’s something that sports podcasts are quite lacking these days. When every sports podcast is a couple of guys or girls just sharing their opinions about the latest events, it can get monotonous. But understand that every new episode is an opportunity for a new listener – one from outside the radio listening family or even outside the podcast network family – and there’s never any reason given for a new listener to get attached to this particular show.
I don’t mind listening to pop culture talk from sports hosts either – but I’d like to know that’s what I’m getting in advance, so I can make that choice. Perhaps doing something different with the show notes so that a person has to scroll down through the notes to find out what’s inside is a better choice on the mystery theme. The only choice you have now is “you listen or you don’t.” I think more people would enjoy this podcast if there was less mystery in the crate.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
