MWGblog

It has been a while since I mentioned the release of a Disneyland Resort Podcast. They just posted the most recent episode I produced. We cover the Food and Wine Weekends, where I interview Michael Jordan the manager and lead sommelier of the Napa Rose restaurant pictured above and an interview with Imagineer Tony Baxter about the return of the Subs. You can check it out here.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Valenti. I had the great privilege of meeting him a few years ago. (He spoke at an Entrepreneur Organization event I participated in and I got a brief moment to chat with him afterward.) I had never thought much about him other than his involvement with the MPAA prior to the night we met. However, I must admit, I came away from that evening with a sense of awe regarding Mr. Valenti. His politics are not mine, his views about protectionism and the MPAA are not mine, but I couldn’t help but be impressed by him. I don’t know what you call it, but a few people in life are blessed and/or burdened to be “there”. Call it the Forrest Gump effect. In my estimation, Jack Valenti was one of them. In the motorcade with Kennedy that fateful day, next to Johnson as he was sworn in on the plane back to Washington and countless Hollywood moments. To hear him tell those stories was amazing. He was an impressive and engaging speaker as well as being extremely personable in private. I am sorry to hear he is gone. RIP.

My friend JD Lasica captured him.

I just got curious after seeing some others test their speed. Apparently I am in the top 93% worldwide. I guess that extra $7.00 a month to Cox is working…

Paul Colligan has posted that he will have a public webinar covering a live demonstration of how he manages his podcast using the GigaVox platform. It is always interesting to see what our users of GigaVox Audio Lite are up to. If you are interested, check out his post on his blog for details.

One of my partners in Grape Radio, Brian Clark, and I are joining our local county sheriff’s Search and Rescue team. Yesterday we were at the local fire training facility working on basic rappelling from a 5 story tower. This is a video of Brian’s first time on a rope. For a total rookie he looks like a pro.

Read more…

You know who you are…

One of the most common complaints with podcasting is that there are no established metrics like in radio. People expect exact number of listeners, downloads and impressions for digital media. I am all for it, and we are working diligently on it at GigaVox but I constantly find it amazing that advertisers are completely satisfied with hand filled rating diaries for radio.

Mark Ramsey posted a perfect example today on Hear 2.0. (Mark is a well known radio consultant.)

In fact, if that one diary of listening were added to the station’s audience pile, it would have been worth an estimated .2 share among persons 25-54…. The station would have leaped five rank positions…. I don’t need to spell out the revenue consequences.

Make sure you read the whole post on his blog. This is amazing to me: One listener, one diary, five rank positions! These are the numbers they rely on to drive a $20 billion dollar ad market for radio. (And yes all you math wizards, I understand sampling sizes and all the fancy math behind this.) All that said: One listener, one diary, five rank positions.

Knowing this, I am confident that podcasts (and new media in general) can already give advertisers and sponsors more accurate and detailed data – now it’s just a matter of educating the marketplace. Two years from now, the pendulum will swing the other way and advertisers will then be hammering magazines and radio about why they can’t provide the same metrics as podcasts.

I am looking forward to NAB this year, lots of questions buzzing around in my head.

At NAB this year, one of the sessions I am leading is: Setting Up an Audio Podcasting Studio on Any Budget. I would like to feature some other podcaster’s setups. Cost is not the point, simple to complex, cheap to ungodly expensive I want to share with the audience what real podcast producers are using. If you are interested here is what I need:

• Picture(s) of your gear. (Suitable to be displayed on a large projection screen.)
• A detailed list of the equipment including names, numbers etc.
• A large format graphic of your album artwork for your podcast. (450×450+)
• The name of your podcast and the podcaster(s).
• URL for your podcast page.
• What you think/know you spent on the setup.

I’ll use this information to put together a couple of slides to cover your setup including the branding of your show using the album artwork etc. Always nice to get some extra exposure as well as have a bunch of radio professionals learn about your show.

I’ll need it by Monday the 9th to be considered, however, first come first serve. So if you want to get in, get in early. If interested, please send the info to Michael AT MWGblog DOT com. Thanks!