Charlie Meyerson MeyersonStrategy.com linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson facebook.com/meyerson Twitter: @Meyerson Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com 708-TEQ-NEWS

You’re in the right place at the right time.

• In-home ownership of over-the-air radio receivers has plummeted: 79% of respondents have a radio at home (96% in 2008).

• Among 18-34-year-olds: Over-the-air listening has dropped from 94% to 68%.

But … • Half of Americans listen to online radio weekly. • Podcast listening up monthly (17% to 21%)

and weekly (10% to 13%) — an average of 5/week.

2016 report card on digital audio and other digital media

edisonresearch.com/the-infinite-dial-2016/

Free and easy tools give you the power to build your own radio station.*

*No antenna, no federal license necessary.

You’re in the right place at the right time.

But let’s back up.

Who am I ... and why am I here? I’ve been

thinking about news for a long time.

And high-tech delivery, too.

Who am I ... and why am I here? I worked

here for 13 years:

Who am I ... and why am I here? I worked

here for 13 years:

Who am I ... and why am I here?

Who am I ... and why am I here?

What can radio teach the Internet?

For radio, the competition’s always been a click away.

fredsuniquefurniture.com/Good-Used-

Furniture/Appliances/i-FmcR7Hb

Rivet: ‘Tinder for

radio news’

Rivet stress-tests listenability.

… and we’re learning more and more about what it takes to keep people listening.

• Example: After a period, 1 space or 2?

So, if you’re creating audio for the digital age …

• You need to fight for your audience’s attention.

—

Your turn.

Listen to these stories. Make note of the time at which you’d have swiped to the next story. …

How long would you listen before skipping?

How long would you listen before skipping?

How long would you listen before skipping?

What doesn’t work in this ‘Tinder for audio’ environment?

• Starting your podcast with music. • Starting your podcast with unidentified sounds or voices.

(Confusing is a tuneout.) • Starting your podcast with the show number. (A tuneout for

those who haven’t heard earlier shows.) • Starting your podcast the same way every time. (Waste of time

for those who’ve heard it before.) • Starting your podcast with advertising or underwriting

messages. (The best way to get those heard is to create audio people want to hear, and that’s to begin with something interesting. If you begin with a reason to keep listening, you’ll get not only that first promo heard, but maybe several more into the show.)

The smartphone: Liberating you from

the studio

Script editing then (c. 1984)

Cut and paste …

… and paste.

... meant cut …

Audio editing then (c. 1984)

Cut and paste ... meant cut and splice.

http://pauleaston.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-cut-is-deepest.html

Radio editing now

Cut and paste are just menu items.

Recorder (typically, cassette; later MD or SD) + VoiceAct (or alligator clips) + Hunt for a phone that would unscrew

Radio reporting then (c. 1984)

Radio reporting nowiPhone + Twisted

Wave (etc.) app

http://twistedwave.com/mobile(orsearchiTunesstore)

It’s not the future. It’s now.• A team of reporters at FM News 101.1 covered

Chicago live for a year, often with just an iPhone and -- sometimes -- a laptop:

• All sound recorded with just an iPhone: http://soundcloud.com/meyerson/final-farewell-to-a-chicago

• Live broadcasts, too, via Periscope, Facebook, etc. — live from your phone, or from a podium (plugging the iPhone into a mult box).

You have the tools already.

• A modern smartphone. • A modern laptop. • Free audio publishing options:

SoundCloud, Pop Up Archive.

• You can use it as the substrate for a slideshow or other visual presentation.

• You can upload it (free) to SoundCloud, and place the audio file in your multimedia presentations, or share it through social media (Twitter, Facebook).

Things you can do with audio

Or you can insert it right in your text, using Knight Lab’s free SoundCite tool. (HTML skills required.)

Things you can do with audio

https://soundcite.knightlab.com/examples-music.html

What do you need to be a podcaster?

(Beyond, of course, the essential skills of knowing how to write, how to speak, how to tell a story, how to be fair, and all the rest ... ?)

What do you need to be a podcaster?

• One smartphone. • Really, that’s it.

• But if you insist ...

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Mikicable:amazon.com/Technica-Del-Arte-MIKI-B-Miki/dp/B00JVMUJQ8/

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop (with optional cell card or cell-phone hotspot).

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop (with optional cell card or cell-phone hotspot).

• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing quickly on a smartphone).

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop (with optional cell card or cell-phone hotspot).

• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing notes into a smartphone).

• External battery for smartphone.

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop (with optional cell card or cell-phone hotspot).

• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing quickly on a smartphone).

• External battery for smartphone.

• Connecting cables (USB) for faster connection between phone and laptop.

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Also helpful: • XLR connecting cable to

plug into mult boxes, mics + longer XLR cable (so you can sit down).

• Laptop (with optional cell card or cell-phone hotspot).

• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing quickly on a smartphone).

• External battery for smartphone.

• Connecting cables (USB) for faster connection between phone and laptop.

• Case with branding on it.

What do you need to be a podcaster?

Recap You probably have everything you need to begin right on your smartphone or laptop.

And you’ll find more counsel on the Rivet blog <blog.rivetnewsradio.com>.

Google Voice: A great tool.

Things you can do with Google Voice• Record incoming phone calls. (Note: Before recording, you must get

your subject's permission: "May I record this for possible use on the air and on the Internet?”)

• Press 4 to record, and 4 to stop. • When done, return to Google.com/voice, where you can download the file

for editing or email a link to the file (instead of the whole file as an annoying attachment).

Audacity for beginnersThree things:

1. Basic controls 2. Editing 3. Fade-ins, fade-outs

Basic controls

1. Record, play, etc. 2.Cursor 3.Zoom (shift = zoom out). 4.Time shift 5. Multi-tool (changes to whatever

you most likely need)

Fade-in, fade-out

1. Drag cursor to highlight beginning.

2. Select “Fade in” from the Effects menu.

3. Repeat for ending, with “Fade out.”

Seamless editingEdit from the middle of one word in one take to the middle of the same word in the second take.

(Reason to write down your questions: You can re-do them word-for-word in a second take.)

http://blog.rivetnewsradio.com/blog/audio-production-editing-within-words-video/

A few words on sound

• Learn where your mic is (on your smartphone or on your computer) and get the subject as close to it as possible.

• If using a smartphone or external mic, point it at the corner of a speaker’s mouth.

• Record in a space as echo-free as possible — away from walls, or with a coat draped over one’s head.

What should your podcast be?

• Documentary or news report: Challenging, lots of production required. (Advanced course, anyone?)

• Lecture or panel discussion: If well-recorded, sure.

• Interviews: One of the simplest, most compelling formats. Unique content, easy to create.

Interviews: ‘Game-changers’

• Outside experts augment your credibility. • Their audience becomes your audience

(because they share with their followers, who become your followers).

• You grow a network of meaningful relationships with influential voices.

AndyCrestodinaandBarryFeldman,“ContentMatters”podcasthttp://feldmancreative.com/2016/03/interviews-content-matters-podcast/

Preparing your script:Key steps

• Have a clear intro. • Have a clear close. • Have at least three questions.

(Everything doesn’t have to be 30, 60 or 90 minutes!) —

• Your intro should lead with the most interesting words in the whole story.

• You can return later to re-cut your intro and close, but write them so they’ll work well even without editing.

• Structure your intro so you can later insert a great cut that would fit.

• Don’t say “Thanks for being here.”

Preparing your script:Sample intro format

1. Interesting statement about guest, constructed so that one of his or her answers might theoretically be edited in later.

2. Identify guest. 3. Identify the show and yourself. 4. Get to your first question.

Preparing your script:Sample intro

“Why would you want to mail a resume, old-fashioned-style, with a stamp and an envelope?* (Cut might go here.) Job-hunting expert Janna Jones says what’s old is new. She’s our guest today on This Show Is Mine. I’m Charlie Meyerson and …”

*Presumes you know in advance she recommends that.

Preparing your script:Close

“That’s job-hunting expert Janna Jones, whose website is jjjobhunt.com. I’m Charlie Meyerson and This Show Is Mine.”

Preparing your script:Questions

• Write them down — word for word. (Makes re-takes easier.)

• Avoid yes-or-no questions, because you may get just “Yes” or “No” for an answer.

• Avoid simply making statements. Be a question-asking machine and get out of the way.

• Listen to what your subject’s saying. If you don’t get it, odds are your audience won’t, either.

• Save your best — most controversial, engaging — questions for the middle or late part of the interview. (These may be the questions you excerpt for your introduction, so best if they don’t appear at the beginning.)

Preparing your script: A few words about words

1. Use contractions whenever you can. If it helps, run a find-and-replace to replace (for instance) will with ’ll, is with ’s, are with ’re, would with ’d, etc.

2. Use pronouns whenever you can. That’s the way we talk. 3. Don’t stress prepositions (of, by, for, in), conjunctions (and, but) or

articles (a, the). In musical terms, they’re the grace notes of speech — present, but just barely. Save your emphasis for nouns and verbs. (Exception: “… OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people.”)

Bonus tips: • The word “the” is pronounced thuh except when it appears before a

word that begins with a vowel sound. (Thee elephant, thee NFL; but thuh cat, thuh president.)

• The word “a” is almost always pronounced uh. (Exception: For emphasis, as in “He’s not just A man, he’s THEE man.”)

What to call a show?

Something no one else is using.

What to call an episode?Don’t … Include the show name. Include the show number.

Do … Begin with the most interesting words. Make every episode name different.

… And here’s why:

… And here’s why:

Advanced class, anyone?

An exercise1. Pick a partner. 2. Pre-interview that partner. What makes him or her interesting? 3. Switch roles (because you’ll be guesting on one another’s shows). 4. Write an interesting intro (most interesting words first),

structuring it so you might later insert a good quote — but so that it also sounds good even without editing.

5. Write 2 or 3 good questions. 6. Write a solid, clear ending. 7. Record in one live take. 8. Get extra ambient sound before and after. (Good for patching

holes.) 9. Get a picture.

Charlie Meyerson MeyersonStrategy.com linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson facebook.com/meyerson Twitter: @Meyerson Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com 708-TEQ-NEWS