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Turning Podcasts into PodCASH

Randall Bloomquist — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:19:08 +0000

Newstalk 106-108 in Dublin, Ireland does a ton of on-demand broadcasting. Its otherwise staid website is packed with audio — as every talk radio site should be. Now the station is actually making money on podcasting. It recently sold custom-created podcasts to sponsors Heineken and Ford, and is hot on the trail of more download deals.

“Exclusive content podcasts allow the client to have exactly what they want, i.e. their own show,” says Newstalk Sales Director Cera Ward. “We tend not to give them full editorial control, however, they are happy their sports coverage will not be interrupted by any other topics, ads or promos.”

The podcasts are hosted by members of the Newstalk 106-108 sports staff along with prominent analysts from other media outlets. Ward says the big-name commentators add credibility and boost client demand. The podcasts contain unique content that never airs on the radio station. The Heineken podcast was a preview of rugby’s Heineken Cup. The Ford podcast focused on soccer’s Champions League.

Does anybody listen? Seems so. According to Ward, Newstalk’s Champions League podcast is currently #2 overall on iTunes in Ireland — #1 in the sports category.

Key Point: These podcasts were not added-value. They were sold as stand-alone products in a package that included a modest number of on-air promotional mentions. Another Key Point: Newstalk staffers get paid to produce the podcasts.

Ward says sports appears to be the most salable podcast content. She sees Ireland’s legal betting parlors as her next big prospect. Podcasts, she explains, allow the oddsmakers sponsor sports content while avoiding the restrictions placed on their broadcast advertising by the Broadcast Authority of Ireland.

A New Category for Talk Radio Brokered Programming

Randall Bloomquist — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:16:24 +0000

Has your sales department talked to labor unions while prospecting for paid programs? Might be worth a meeting or two. Sure, unions don’t have as much money as they used to — but who does?

Oprah Names Radio an “Affordable Pleasure”

Randall Bloomquist — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:45:59 +0000

Well, actually it was novelist Caitlin Macy, writing in the current issue of Oprah’s O magazine. Macy tells of a life-long love affair with all types of radio programming, which has cost her almost nothing: “Radio is not only wildly cheap, it’s durably so: The machine I listen to now is not remarkably different from my clock radio of 30 years ago. Let your stereophilic husband have his fancy speakers and his subwoofer. Optimum sound quality is not the point of radio. For me, just listening is—tuning in, wherever I happen to be, to this private conversation that always includes me.”

Pass this one along to the Sales guys. (And never you mind how I came across an item in O magazine….)