In addition to his thoughts below, I would advocate online or podcast only content made available by radio stations. Whether it be the long unedited version of an on-air interview, the 4th hour of a 3 hour morning show, episodes featuring character’s from the station,  or anything else you can imagine.

Mark also references the measurement of podcast plays and downloads that warrants some discussion, especially as it pertains to iTunes, but that’s for another time. Here’s Mark…

When it comes to radio station podcasts, we’re generally talking about two flavors:

One is the Public Radio kind, usually weekly shows with beginnings, middles, and ends or clips of information updates or highlights.

The other is the commercial radio podcast – often three hours of this or four hours of that.

The myth of podcasting is that this long-form way is the way listeners want to consume our content simply because it’s the way they consume our content over the air – a context in which they have no choice in the matter, by the way.

Actually, they do have a choice – it’s to tune in and out, ever-hopeful for a “hit” or “highlight.”  And tune in and out is exactly what they do.

But wait, doesn’t an on-demand environment give us the ideal opportunity to showcase the “hits” or “highlights” that our active listeners demand?

Let me ask this another way:  What’s likely to be more popular, the brief clip of the 47-year-old woman startling the judges with her vocal talents on Britain’s Got Talent – or the entire episode of Britain’s Got Talent?

Public Radio shows are generally like episodes in a series (for longer form stuff) or immediate and disposable, but useful in the moment (for shorter form stuff).  Or – in rare cases – the entertainment value of the whole (i.e., Car Talk) can’t easily be atomized into its parts.

Commercial radio shows, by contrast, almost uniformly lack beginnings, middles, or ends.  Arguably, the first hour of your morning show is not much different from the last.  And – by design – you do not usually need to hear the first hour to appreciate the ones which follow.  Nor, I would argue, do you need to hear today’s show if you miss it.  Indeed, today’s show is relatively similar to tomorrow’s show and yesterday’s show.  Wait a few hours, and like the movie Groundhog Day it will all come back again.

If I miss Hannity today, no sweat.  I’ll just catch him tomorrow.  One listener call on Dr. Laura can be substituted for any other listener call.  Thus the very consistency of the show reduces its value in an active on-demand environment.  When something is the same all the time, it’s never special – or at least any one show in its entirety is never essential.

Further, even though you can count your podcast downloads you generally can’t count the degree to which a listener is hearing the whole podcast – or any of it, for that matter.  My iPod doesn’t care whether or not I hear what is on it – it dutifully downloads podcast updates regardless.  No wonder most podcasts are heard online – not on portable devices.  At least a few minutes of them, anyways.

What this all suggests – at least in part – is that when we transform the radio show to the podcast we are thinking about the medium all wrong.  In an on-demand world for much of commercial radio, the unit of currency is not the “show,” it’s the “hit,” the “highlight.”

Sure folks will still listen to the long-form audio, but what many of them would prefer is that we carve out the “hits” – those special moments worth actively seeking out and hearing.  The “water cooler” gems.  Not the mundane same-old same-old that characterizes much of what lay between the “hits”

Listen, more folks will read your email if there’s only one short message in it.  And more folks will click your audio if it contains just the “hit” they’re looking for – and only the hit.

This, after all, is why people buy songs instead of albums.

Listening to radio over the air is as different from listening on-demand as an album is different from a song.

Share your content accordingly.

Reach Mark through his company and website Mark Ramsey Media

Whole Foods has been doing this for about a year with both audio and video podcasts, all of which are produced using in-house talent. Scott Simons, Regional Marketing Director, hosts the Secret Ingredient show. There has been discussion on the Yahoo Videoblogging List about this show and the opportunities to also integrate both freelance produced content as well as user-generated content. Word on the street is that Whole Food is not interested, preferring to control the show in-house. It’s a full service blog-based site, with comments accepted and RSS. Visitors can manually download the flash version of the episode, though that is not playable on most MP3 devices.

American Express last year launched LX.tv which is a combination traditional web site and video blog, using the “new” part of the media and not so much the “social” part of the media. It is Flash-based, which makes the site a bit slow for my tastes, but does allow the designers to create a very rich, urban mood and feel. They use freelance contributors and the episodes focus on restaurants (AMEX merchants) and celebrity/social life. You can get an RSS feed, and in their grab the embed code for each episode, but the flash programming makes that part very cumbersome and the interface is elusive unless you know what the little icons represent. Viewer comments are not accepted.

Starwood Hotels launched The Lobby as a text blog in 2006. It also hires freelance contributors around the world, sharing local life stories and virtually always ending with a link to a hotel or hotel service found in the region. They have started including YouTube-hosted videos made by their contributors. I really like the widget they have in addition to traditional RSS options.

We are in production with a Fortune 100 company to develop a branded show that is educational in nature. Naturally, the goal is to drive sales for this particular service, but the company believes (and so do we) that creating original branded content that is useful and entertaining using new media (aka your own internet TV station) is a terrific, largely untapped opportunity at this time.

There are many other examples of companies who are doing direct ad sponsorships of independently-produced shows. I discussed the Ford – Amanda Across America collaboration in this post with follow-up in this post. Earthlink was an early sponsor of the Washington Post video podcasts and pharmaceutical companies are pursing this as well.

I definitely have my preferences, based on years of experience as a consumer (!) and also the past three years of being on the forefront of creating audio and video content for the web. Keep in mind as well that the criteria will vary depending on your audience and your product/service – there is no cookie-cutter solution here. And if things go wrong, as they did on the Edelman-managed video for Walmart, do like Edelman did and learn from the experience. It’s not possible to know it all – and that’s the reason for us to keep talking. I look forward to reading your comments.

You can find me at these places on the web:
Twitter @ roxannedarling
Bare Feet Studios LLC
Beach Walks with Rox

…do everything I can to make the adoption of “new media” as easy for everyone as possible. We “early adopters” can’t forget that most folks are still digesting the internet as a whole, much less all it has to offer. There is so much more going on than Google, iTunes, and text messaging.

…remember there is a difference between sending a message and conversing. Spend more time talking face to face or on the phone with people. Text, e-mail, etc. are great for quick thoughts but can never replace the emotion of a great conversation.

…work to improve the quality and the content in my writing. I write more now than I have in years and I want my blog posts to be more than articles. I want them to inform, inspire, and entertain all at the same time. (Okay, this one is going to take a lot of work.)

…work to improve the quality of the audio online. I was listening to my son’s iPod the other day and realized that we’ve taught people to settle for audio quality that is, to put it politely, not so great. When we adopted the CD we sacrificed some depth to our audio, just as we did when we started using audio tape. Now that we are using the internet as our main source of music we have sacrificed even more or that sound quality. I heard a record the other day and I was blown away by the sound I had been missing. If you have some vinyl around you should do the same. (If you have no idea what a record is, please seek one out…maybe your attic?) I had become use to the sound of an mp3, probably downloaded a terrible bit rate. I will do whatever I can to hear more of what the musicians and performers worked so hard to put into their recordings.

…work to improve the quality of video online. The same challenge faces us with what we see online. With the advent of HDTV the bar has been raised even higher. What I see on my Smartphone should look just as good as what I see on cable.

…convince advertisers that the “new media” audience is of incredibly high quality and is worth more than a traditional media user. There are already scores of studies highlighting the incredibly high recall rates for online advertising (even higher with a mix of media), we need to get the advertisers to respect that and think beyond “cost per thousand.”

…enjoy more time outside the ether so that I can bring more reality into it. Pull myself out of the screen, away from the keyboard, and off the cell phone. I need to go outside and take a walk whenever I can. In fact, there’s a new layer of snow and a crisp morning waiting for me right now…

Happy New Year!

This post can also be seen at RemainComm.com

For years I’ve been asked what it takes to “be on the radio.” For those same years I’ve always given one of two answers (Three, if you count the “What are you nuts?” answer.); go to college and get a broadcast degree with an eye toward being a more well-rounded person and to have a fall-back or hang out at a local radio station and get to know the people. Radio folks are pretty open to teaching and love to help people “pay their dues.” Both answers always came along with the “work hard, it’s not for everybody and prepare to eat a lot of mac and cheese” warnings. It also had to sound just a bit harder than it was. C’mon, I had to justify the fact that it’s a blast getting paid for never really growing up.

So, when Jerome asked me, all I needed to say was, “Do you have a computer?” Okay, technically, podcasting isn’t broadcasting, it’s more narrow-casting. But, you can develop the same skills and have the same fun with a whole lot less effort. What followed were many more questions that I was happy to say I had the answers for, thanks in part to fellow members at the Association for Downloadable Media.

Q: What do I need for me and my buddy to do a show?
A: A computer with a decent microphone. Headsets with mics start at like $15.00 if you’re not going to be Mr. Audiophile. If you want better sound…go nuts.

Q: My friend lives in another state. Can we do a show together?
A: Sure, as long as your friend read the answer to question one.

Q: Do we need a license?
A: Nope. Heck, you barely need a license to be on the radio these days.

Q: Can we play whatever music we want?
A: Sure thing, as long as you license any copy written music through the likes of BMI, ASCAP and SESAC. Most of the pricey fees are based on revenue, so until you make it big, your fees will probably not break your bank.

Q: We’re going to do a talk show. My buddy writes music; can we use it for free?
A: As we say in Minnesota…ya sure, you betcha.

Q: Can we take callers?
A: Oh yeah. In fact, ADM member John Havens and his Blog Talk Radio, as well as others specialize in just such a thing.
Q: Can we make money?
A: Sure, you’ll need an audience first. Selling advertising can take place in many ways. From banner ads, click-through or endorsements you can get some extra scratch. (If you really make it big feel free to send me a cut.)

Q: How do I get an audience?
A: First, do the show you want. This is suppose to be fun so don’t get caught up in the “Who am I targeting?” question to start. You can concentrate on that stuff once you get your legs under you. Then market the podcast. There are plenty of sites with tips on doing that including plenty of help from ADM member Jason Van Orden.

Q: Can we say anything we want?
A: As long as you follow the guidelines of any of the services you use. Beyond abiding by them, there are no real limitations. That includes the famous, though legally non-existent, seven dirty words. But keep in mind, you want an audience, not just 12 year olds who sit around and snicker.

Q: I love it when a DJ tears apart a caller on the air. Can we do that?
A: Ah, Grasshopper, you ask a question that deals with the expectations of the audience. If that’s one of them you want to establish, so be it. However, you’re starting with no listeners. If you get two people that stumble on your show and stream it, and you decide to tee off on one of them, you’ve probably cut your audience in half….or to zero because the second person knows they’re next.

And the questions rolled on. You can see there are plenty of them and with the help of so many sites and individuals, whether members of the ADM or not, they can be answered quite easily.

When last I spoke with Jerome he was off to buy his mic and headset. What will happen with the “show” he is about to create? The world may never know. But, if and when it happens I’ll let you know.

Better yet, you could find out for yourself…have you got a computer?

These are basic guidelines for any creative endeavour. Painters, writers, musicians, filmmakers and video podcasters shoud ask these simply questions before getting started. Why am I doing this? What are my objectives?Luckily, the video podcaster today has a huge advantage over the filmmakers from yester-year – technology. Thus, like a writer or painter, video podcasters can afford to just do it.Create a video podcast, then decide later on the questions of “why”.

Paper and paint are cheap for the artists, but so are DV cameras and editing software. Technology allows for “filmmakers” to grow their project organically. Let the ideas flow from the experience of just doing it. Go back, fix the problems, do it again and again and again. Do it until you begin to answer the above questions. Don’t stop tinkering with the show will then have a style, voice, look, or nuance that captures the attention of popular imagination. Unless you’re interested in creating podcasts that fall into an empty forest. Do they make a sound if no one has downloaded them?

In creating Culture Catch, our objective was to create “smart cutural” discussions with artists who had been around the block a few times. These types of people have opinions and vast amount of experiences to offer up in discussions about cpture. We love dinner table discussions that meander around subjects for the very purpose of mutually discovery. Who better to have those types of discussions on cpture than with the artist who have tapped into the poppar imagination. They succeed in finding followers.

Everyone has that curiosity of those who are successful. What is their secret? Can we borrow their formpa to boost our own kool-aid. Dusty and I had the opinion that if we wanted to see and listen to interviews like this, than there must be a million others in the world like us. So, we set out to make Culture Catch for ourselves, but with the idea that a million other people wopd enjoy our flavor of content as well.

Having a solid philosophy about what your doing in the beginning really helps to keep you on track. There a many opportunities that have come to us over the last three years. When we’re tempted or not sure, we often go back to our playbook to see if the idea fits. If the concept is too far off the page, we don’t do it. Often we put a pin in the idea and don’t discard it. The future for developing totally different new shows is always in the back of our mind. We don’t force a concept into our format. Saying no is one of the best lessons you need to learn when creating shows weekly.

Remember one key point about creating podcasts in general. Your secret formula is being NICHE. The big radio and TV networks have lots of money, skill and experience to create wonderful programming. However, they have to create programs that are WIDE. They broadcast to a wide audience, thus can’t target niches.

The networks can do a show on gardening, but they can do weekly series on growing tomatoes.Podcasting is about being niche. There are 1 million plus tomato growers in the world who would love to find a show that is devoted to their passion. Doing a show on tomatoes in a really interesting cool format with find its why into the household of those who have a passion for growing the red fruit.

Viral growth works on the web. Find your expertise, exploit it and make interesting. Build it… they will come.