The Ins and Outs of Creating a Podcast By Gene Rose, producer of NCSL’s “Our American States” podcast At Last Communications

Statistics from Edison Research (link: http://bit.ly/alc-edison18) provide sound reasoning for starting a podcast. It’s worth your time to study this.

64%, or 180 million U.S. residents, are aware of the term “podcasting,” up from 49% three years ago 44%, or 124 million, listen to podcasts, up from 33% three years ago 26%, or 73 million, report listen to podcasts monthly, up from 17% three years ago

We’ll dive into the equipment you need soon, but here are some questions you need to answer first.

What is your content strategy? Will the program feature interviews or will it be an in-office production summarizing legislative activity? Decide what your initial 5-10 programs will feature. You can always change and adjust in the future, but you need to know where you are going to record audio.

How much time can you devote to each podcast? The easiest podcast to produce is one where you control the audio. Conducting interviews, whether in a protected studio, at press conferences, on the side of the chamber or over the phone provides different types of audio that will need to be edited and adjusted for sound levels. If you will be required to edit “uhs,” restarts, and other items, you could spend 3-4 hours editing a 30-minute podcast. Or you could have it outsourced to save time.

How long will your podcast be and how often will you publish/post? Audacity to Podcast (link: http://bit.ly/alc-podcastlength) recommends 15-60 minutes for a weekly podcast, 60 minutes for a podcast twice a month, and 60-90 minutes if you publish monthly. NCSL’s “Our American States” runs 20-30 minutes, based on allowing legislators time to listen to an entire podcast to or from the Capitol. We publish 2-3 times a month.

Who is the audience and how will you market? There needs to be a conscious decision on your target audience. Producing a podcast for “the general public” will be much different than producing one designed for people who have direct connections to public policy and government. Also, marketing strategy will be determined by your target audience.

How will you measure success? Will it be the number of downloads? Will it be the content created? Will it be the result of surveys? At some point, someone is going to ask about the ROI (return on investment) of the podcast and you need to have data to demonstrate the reach of the podcast.

Will your IT staff help you with hosting and creating a webpage for the podcast? Having the ability to publish and edit the podcast webpage is essential. Work with your IT staff to see if you can have direct access or ensure timely edits.

� At Last Communications NCSL LINCS 2018 Meeting October 1, 2018

Next StepsOnce those questions have been answered, you will need to:• Establish a name for the podcast, complete with key, relevant words to match online searches• Select royalty-free music for the introduction and end of the podcast (narration optional)• Create high-resolution artwork to appear on iTunes and other sources, such as your webpage• Develop a webpage. This should be a part of your legislative chamber’s website, but try to get a

redirect url that is short and memorable• Get the podcast listed on iTunes and set up a subscription method on your webpage• Develop a marketing plan to promote the podcast

Equipment RecommendationsThe follow equipment is suggested, based on the following assumptions: you have a studio base to record narration and phone interviews and you will record interviews in members’ offices, at press conferences and other venues. The following items are either used for the recording of “Our American States,” or come highly recommended. Prices shown are from searches in the fall of 2018.

While you may have local sources to obtain these materials, two national firms we suggest working with are B&H (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/) and Broadcast Supply Worldwide (https://bswusa.com/). They often run specials on podcasting equipment packages.

Microphone(s): Heil PR40 Microphone, Arm, Pop Filter, Stand, Cable. $700 (you will need two packages if any or all interviews are recorded in a studio.) (There is high praise in podcasting community for Blue Yeti USB microphones at around $129 a piece. For us, the sound of the Heil microphone is unmatched.)

Recording device: Roland R-07 Wave/MP3 recorder. $200. Many podcasters record directly into their computer. We like having more control. For various reasons, we recommend using a device that can be used as a backup recorder. If done through a device, a mixer (below) is recommended.

Mixer: Mackie 8-channel mixer. $200 (we found a used one for $49)

Headphones: Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones. $199

Field Recorder: Zoom H5 Handy Recorder. $280 (plus XLR chords, batteries, memory card)

Software: We use Adobe Audition: $30/month. (Also allows you access to their graphic design programs.) The learning curve is steep, but provides amazing editing features when learned. We also recommend Audacity and Garage Band, if you believe you will need to do minimal editing.

Phone: Landline preferred, or high quality mobile device. Many podcasters use Skype to record, which requires software such as Ecamm (for Mac), Pamela (for PC) usually for

less than $30, or services such as UberConference or Callnote. Check to ensure they provide the audio quality you need before purchasing. We currently do not use these systems.

Hosting: Hopefully this will be taken care of by your IT team. If not, consider Lisbyn, Podbean, Blubrry and SoundCloud.

Don’t just take our word for it! Recommended reading:

• Everything You Need to Know About Starting a Podcast in 2018 (link: http://bit.ly/HSpodguide)• How to Start a Successful Podcast (For Under $100) (link: http://bit.ly/ShopifyPodGuide)• Pat Flynn Podcast Tutorial (link: http://bit.ly/PFPodGuide)• Want to start a podcast? Read this first. (link: http://bit.ly/NPRPodGuide)

� At Last Communications NCSL LINCS 2018 Meeting October 1, 2018