Radio producers: Winning at the freelance game

The broadcasting industry is moving ever closer to a “gig-economy”, where more people take on short terms contracts rather than stay in a full time job. In audio production, freelancing is not as common as in television, but it is predicted to grow.

In this podcast we hear from two award-winning freelance producers. Kellie Redmond works in BBC radio and Matt Hill specialises in podcast production. Although working in separate areas of audio production, both have found innovative ways to create their own projects and ideas and be their own boss. They let us into the secrets of becoming successful freelancer, including the need to be persistent and learning to make contacts. They explain how they formed portfolio careers, find work and maintain a work-life balance.

We also examine the world of podcasting with media journalist Abigail Edge and get an industry view of how podcasts make money. Podcasts have a bigger audience than ever, partly thanks to the popularity of investigative crime show Serial, which has had more than five million downloads since launching in 2014. What has this meant for the industry?

Matt Hill is the award-winning independent producer behind podcasts Spark - True Stories, The Media Podcast with Olly Mann and For F1's Sake He is a regular producer of programmes for the Guardian, Private Eye and BAFTA, and contributes to The Allusionist for Radiotopia. Follow him @virtualmatthill.

Kellie Redmond is an award-winning freelance radio producer, named ‘Best Music Entertainment Producer’ in both 2014 and 2015 at the Radio Production Awards for her work across BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. She won a 2014 Radio Academy Award for ‘Best Creative Innovation’ for social media-driven show Now Playing @6Music. Follow her @KellieRedmond.

Abigail Edge is a journalist who specialises in the media. She is the U.S. community and editorial manager at visual-storytelling platform Shorthand and writes for journalism.co.uk, TheMediaBriefing and The Next Web. She produced podcasts for Journalism.co.uk, when she was technology editor.