Podcasts

While trying to improve my skills at and knowledge of podcasting, I found a great list on Mashable (they're awesome about lists) of seven tips for launching a successful podcast:

1. Choose a topic you're passionate about.
2. Brand your podcast.
3. Choose a format and structure.
4. Plan your content.
5. Record, broadcast and edit your podcast.
6. Grow your audience.
7. Monetize your podcast.

The second tip caught my eye the most, so I interviewed someone I used to work with at 89.3 KUGS-FM, Jeff Emtman, who is now starting his own podcast with our fellow former KUGS reporter Bethany Denton. They're still trying to choose a name, so he told me what they were considering and asked me what it evoked in my head -- interesting question. Their favorite title right now is "The Road to Hell," as in "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." He wanted to know whether my mind completed the phrase (it did, but not at first). One of his concerns about the title and brand (tip 2) was actually related to growing an audience and monetizing it (tips 6 and 7): he hopes to be able to contribute some of their stories to other shows, such as RadioLab or This American Life, to gain exposure and make some money. It all ties in together!

This video shows the bare basics of creating a podcast in Audacity. Try to ignore the narrator's boring voice!

We're using Audacity to edit our podcasts in class. I have used Audacity before, but I used Audition at KUGS and liked it better. Oh, well; Audacity is awesome for a free program, and I can't afford to buy Audition for my personal laptop. I miss some of Audition's more advanced controls, but Audacity gets the job done just fine.

I only used music beds the old-fashioned way at KUGS -- recording the music into the editing program, usually played from a CD. Because I always reported the news, I never used sound effects or downloaded clips before; only real, authentic sound (anything else would be a violation of my ethics as a journalist). It will be fun to see if we can work some sound effects into our entertaining podcast, which is about Twitter vocabulary. Expect some tweeting noises, of course!