By Dan Bahl
You turn your car on. It was there.
You set your alarm clock. It was there.
You follow a sports game, but you don’t have a television. It was there.
For over a century, AM/FM radio was the primary method for listening to audio content. People across the world got their news updates, sports games and favorite music from various local radio stations.
In 2004, however, the game was changed for good. Adam Curry and Dave Winer, who were both working in different capacities for MTV, discovered a way to download radio broadcasts onto an iPod Touch.
The software was called iPodder, and it changed the way people consume audio content forever.
Much like Curry and Winer, Quinnipiac University pivoted to podcasting in the spring of 2019. The university announced that it would be closing WQUN, the AM station owned by the university, in favor of opening a podcasting center in the School of Communications.
According to School of Communications Dean Chris Roush, the Quinnipiac Podcast Center will be located in Room 150, at the end of the hallway in the School of Communications. Roush said that the school hopes to have it ready by the end of the semester.
School of Communications Dean Chris Roush is pushing for more podcasting at QU.
The fallout in the Hamden community was intense, with some citizens going as far as creating a petition opposing the move. That said, teaching the student body the skills that come with podcasting makes a lot of fiscal sense.
Podcasting continues to grow and reach new heights, both in amount of listeners and amount of money being made through advertisements. As mentioned in Infinite Dial’s 2019 report about online media consumption, podcasting is the only audio source to see growth over each of the last three years. The number of people that have listened to a podcast has grown from 19 million in 2017, all the way to 2019 in 2019.
Breaking down the numbers a bit further, 70 percent of people are familiar with a podcast, a total that has grown consistently from the 22 percent that were familiar with podcasting in 2006.
What’s more, the percentage of people that have ever listened to a podcast eclipsed the fifty-percent threshold for the first time in 2019, clocking in a 51 percent.
In total, 17 million more people are aware of podcasting from 2018 to 2019, and there are 20 million more people that have ever listened to a podcast.
Students that have experience in podcasting are excited about the move, and are quick to encourage the School of Communications to continue on this path.
“I think podcasting is the new wave,” Quinnipiac senior Avery Zaretsky said. “Students who want to have a voice, you can go into a podcast studio, you can put a microphone in front of you, and people will listen.”
Quinnipiac senior Avery Zaretsky believes students should be taught podcasting.
Not only are the listener numbers continuing to grow, but ad revenue sales from podcasting continue to grow with it.
A study published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau that podcasting brought in $479 million in 2018. The radio industry saw a decline in revenue every year from 2006 through 2010. Though it saw an increase in 2010, that was attributed to the money made from digital media.
Simply put, podcasting and internet audio are integral to the radio industry being profitable.
But, if podcasting is so successful, what makes a podcast either succeed or fail?
The first pillar to creating a successful podcast is monitoring the length of each episode. A study from podcast hosting service Omny Studios published data showing the percentage of an episode that consumers listen to, broken down by length of episode.
“Our attention span is getting shorter and shorter, rather than longer and longer,” Dr. Norbert Herzog, host of Medical Discovery News, said. “So I think a two-minute snippet is a good idea.”
Dr. Norbert Herzog believes shorter episodes are the way to go in podcasting.
Once you settle on right length of each episode, then the real planning and creativity begins. Audio consumers aren’t just looking for the same product week after week, show after show. People choose to listen to podcasts for their creativity and unique subject matter.
That puts the onus on content creators and producers to create podcasts that provide a service, and bring entertainment and information that the general public wants to consume.
Nina B. Clarke, a former producer with WTNH and MSNBC, transitioned to the podcast genre more than a year ago. After spending years in the newsroom, she decided that there needed to be more “good news” spread around the world.
“I knew there was a niche,” Clarke said. “That was something I was seeking, and my friends were seeking too, so I knew that would work for me.”
Nina B. Clarke spreads the good news on her podcast.
Clarke launched Nina’s Got Good News in the summer of 2018, and has produced more than 50 episodes of the podcast since that time.
CBS senior NHL writer Pete Blackburn also hosts a podcast, called Brunch. In a similar fashion to Clarke, Blackburn found his own niche with his podcast, and learned quickly that each podcast needs to provide something different to keep their listeners hooked.
“It either has to be entertaining or informative,” Blackburn said. “You need to provide something to your audience up front.”
Pete Blackburn aims to entertain and inform on his podcast, Brunch.
While having a host, or in Brunch’s case two hosts, that provide insight and charisma about the topic is important, one can’t overlook the value of having guests. Bringing in another voice, especially an expert or someone related to the topic of the episode, brings in a whole extra group of listeners in to consume your content.
“There’s a whole lot of value in guests in terms of driving an audience,” Blackburn said. “Somebody who sees that someone who they like is on a podcast that they wouldn’t listen to otherwise, they might tune in.”
Podcasting continues to grow as a means of consuming audio content. While the decision to shut down WQUN still looms large over Quinnipiac and Hamden as a whole, the decision to pivot to podcasting falls in line with a larger, national trend.
Teaching students the skills involved with podcasting has a great deal of value, and may put Quinnipiac journalism students ahead of the curve when it comes to getting jobs in the audio field in 2019.
Sources
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/podcasting1.htm
https://www.podcastmotor.com/podcast-length/
https://www.edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2019/
http://www.medicaldiscoverynews.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ninas-got-good-news/id1400772422
Special Thanks
– Chris Roush, Dean of the Quinnipiac School of Communications
– Avery Zaretsky, 33rd and 7th podcast host and The Short Porch producer
– Dr. Norbert Herzog, Medical Discovery News host
– Nina B. Clarke, Nina’s Got Good News host
– Pete Blackburn, CBS NHL senior writer and Brunch host