This week we released into the wild the latest edition of our new Small Market Radio Podcast. I’m gratified that hundreds of you have downloaded the podcast, more so that many of you have contacted me with words of praise.
All right, enough back patting. Sure, I’m pleased with my own progress thus far, but I have a long way to go.
For one thing, it has been many a year since I cracked open a microphone. Early in my career, I was lucky enough to be the program director and midday personality on the number one station in a top-10 market, and it was interesting to me to discover how many of those skills had been lost over the years – and how many came back relatively quickly. (Thank goodness podcasting – at least the way I do it – does not require the energy level of Top 40 radio.)
Putting aside the issue of on-air proficiency, the biggest challenge that I have is a technical one. I have used Adobe Audition for a long time, but in specific ways not related to podcasting. The ability to apply the right kind of audio processing to make the voices cut through without sounding boomy or tinny has thus far eluded me. (If you Google “tinny voices audition,” you get a lot of text and videos that are remarkably unhelpful. As with so many things on the Internet, they tell you what to do but not how to do it.)
Figuring out how to distribute the podcast series has been amazingly difficult. I’m using a service called Blubrry, which purports to make it easy to get listed on iTunes, Google Play, Tunein, and so forth. In some ways, the service does make it easier, but it, too, is guilty of inadequate documentation, and if you don’t get the settings just right, you can run afoul of the very distribution platforms Blubrry is supposed to help you with.
Case in point: Something I apparently did made it seem as though we were offering a free subscription to the Small-Market Radio NEWSLETTER instead of the PODCAST. I could not find the error; once I did, I could not change it. It took an appeal to Blubrry’s help department to resolve it. (I will say that Blubrry’s help people are responsive and effective.)
I want to acknowledge my gratitude to my good friend, SMRN Contributing Editor Jay Douglas, for sharing with me his considerable knowledge and experience in podcasting. Without his help, I would not be nearly as far along as I am.
I would very much appreciate it if you could give me some constructive feedback on how I am doing, most importantly, in terms of content, but also in terms of presentation.
Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I am impatient with myself and a little bit disappointed that Episode Three is not perfect. Then again, I realize that no episode will ever be perfect – but that doesn’t stop me from trying.