BJ Shea is the morning show host at the legendary KISW in Seattle. The BJ and Migs show has anchored the station since 2005; if you aren't familiar with KISW, it's the famous underground and later grunge station that's been home to great DJ personalities such as Bob Rivers, Howard Stern, Gary Crow, Mike West, and more.We met BJ a few times at places like the Conclave and Dave Anthony's Morning Show Bootcamp where he would mentor, share and encourage young talent.BJ also appears as a co-host of Geek Nation, a geek-centric podcast about all things nerdy, from movies and television to tech and comics. Check out an episode of this podcast linked below, where BJ reviews the latest comics from Spiderman, Oblivion Song, and Fantastic Four, and deep dives into a crazy new SyFy show. It's good, solid fun, with the added flavour of some good recommendations for new binge-worthy content.A thanks to the people who support the show each week and allow it arrive on your phones for free.Matt Fogarty VoiceoversNLogic: TV & radio advertising and audience data solutionsMegatrax - Licensed Music for your radio station or podcast production company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The last few weeks, I've been doing a lot of podcast housekeeping- pitching sponsors, and reviewing the stats, and thinking about what's next for the Sound Off Podcast. As it turns out, it's going to be more of the same, which is a good thing. One of the biggest questions I get asked is: "Why is my show doing better?" Here are some of the conclusions that often come up. Number 10: No Video StrategyHave a video strategy that includes Youtube. That's it. That's number 10.Number 9: You Are ImpatientDid you know that it takes three years to build an audience? It’s true, because Dave Jackson, who has been podcasting since 2004, told me so. Even if you have a big audience now with your podcast, because you are named Kim Kardashian – it is still going to take you three years to find that podcast audience. I see this all the time with actors, Youtubers and Instagrammers: They get a big audience out of the gate, and then the audience drops off because those initial people prefer to interact with the star on Youtube or Instagram or TV. But if they stick to it, over the course of three years, a true podcast audience will develop.So if you want to start a podcast, give yourself a lot of runway. Like three years worth.Number 8: You Thought It Would Be EasyWanna know what’s easy? Doing the midday show on a music station. You talk for a few minutes an hour, and all the elements are handed to you. Produced commercials, traffic and weather together, the music and promos… You have about 56 minutes of the hour taken care of. That’s why you hear the same midday person across many markets now. In podcasting – you don’t have any of that. You have to build most of it from scratch. You will need to produce all the necessary elements including the commercials (if you have any), the intro, the extro, and the music beds. You need to do some show research, show prep, writing, you need to produce the audio and make it sound listenable, and then after you launch it… you’ll need to market the show.Number 7: Your Show Is Not EverywhereI can’t tell you the number of podcasts I review who are missing from iHeart or Stitcher. And with countries like India offering a gateway to 1.4 billion people, it might be a good idea to be on Gaana or Jio Savaan. Think of India as the same size as the United States… with an additional billion people. Yeah you want in on that. And don’t forget to submit your show to Tune In… it works well with the smart speakers. Don’t be like a radio company that takes its stations off Tune In to be on an app only available in the US. That’s stupid.And finally don’t let your podcast host provider submit the show to Apple or Spotify for you. Do it yourself. It takes five minutes, and it’s a pain in the ass to rescue the show later should you have to move. You always want to keep your stats with you, not with someone else.Number 6: You Don't Release Episodes ConsistentlyIronic, I know, because I didn’t release an episode on time last week. But you need to be consistent with your releases. Those in radio know this better than any other, and it’s why radio people get famous. They are reliable and always there on time. What radio and TV people are doing is creating the consistency that allows for listeners to get in the habit of consuming their media. So, if you think you are going to release episodes whenever you want, and expect people to download it when you want them to? Not happening.Mondays and Tuesdays are great days to get episodes out. Early in the week, people believe they have more time to plan their life out. By Thursday they are swamped. You can still release your episode on a Thursday or Friday – but you’ll have to market through a weekend when attention spans are on neutral. Best of luck with that.And for those of you who do the “seasons” thing- unless there is someone honestly pacing the floor waiting for the new season of your podcast- don’t. Taking a random break is tantamount to pulling the plug on a bath and letting the water run out.We shifted to consistent releases after I had a conversation with Aaron Mahnke, who has a number of hit podcasts, including Lore. He gave a really compelling argument to releasing your show on time, and in the end it's about respect for the listener and their time. When we shifted to consistent releases, we saw a 20% jump in our audience numbers. If you show the listener respect they will show it back to you.Number 5: Your Podcast Looks Like Shit In The AppFor the life of me, I don’t know why people put episode numbers in the title field of their podcast. I think they do it because Joe Rogan does it. There are ways to put to the episode number in there without using the title field. People are not searching for a show called Episode. I also see some people put the show title of the podcast where the episode title is supposed to go, and they think they are gaming the SEO gods, and they aren’t. They're making a mess of the podcast. I wanted to listen to a podcast the other day in the car, and every episode title had the word "episode" in it. I couldn’t choose the episode I wanted, because the word episode was causing the guest's name not to appear on Apple Car play. So I moved on.Also, get some episode artwork. Spotify, Amazon and even some Apple apps are now using it. If you have a podcast that's about people – put the people in the show artwork. Get yourself a Canva account for free and take the 5 minutes to do some episode artwork.Number 4: Your Audio Quality SucksI've actually run into people who have argued with me about this. They say, "It’s about the content, not the quality of the audio." Uh, the audio is your content- and it sucks. There are 2.7 million podcasts out there, and if yours is serving up some sort of echo-y, staticky stupidity, the listener will go elsewhere. You need to create a listening experience that people will enjoy on their headphones, or in their car, or on an airplane.If you are producing your own show, learn about compression, LUFs, normalization, and mixing. I want to give a shoutout to The Insurance Podcast with Pete Tessier and Curt Wyatt, who are insurance guys but took the time to learn about compression and audio production. They have one of the leading podcasts in their field because they respect their listener and care about their show.The other thing you could do is what I do: Hire people who know way more than me to produce the parts I don’t know. This podcast was making huge errors when we started out. Our first four episodes were poorly produced by me. Later they were over-compressed and too loud. We made the corrections after some friendly advice from one of the best in the business, Jeff Schultz, who worked at KFOG in San Franciso doing the imaging (and is now at Wondery making great podcasts). He said, "Hey. It’s a little loud. Pull it back."Number 3: You Don't Have A WebsiteIf you're in it to win it, you need a website. One of the best things radio taught me was that making your website your marketing hub is a good thing. You need to be found on Google, and having a podcast website will go a long way to getting discovered. If you think your Buzzsprout or Anchor website is home base – it is not. James Cridland spoke on this show about the value of Google and SEO. Take notes.Make sure each episode has its own page, so when you have Matt Cundill on as a guest, Google understands that Matt Cundill was a guest on your show. Remember, every time you market your show on social media, send people to the website where there is an Apple badge for the iPhone users, a Google Podcasts badge for the Android and Samsung people, and Spotify because lots of people are into that. Anything beyond 4 is overkill. If you are just sending people to Apple Podcasts when they don’t have an iPhone – then it won't really work for them.By the way, there is one exception to this, and if you follow the Sound Off Podcast on Instagram, you’ll see it. Instagram stories are a great way to get listeners one click away from the show on Spotify.When you do social media, the less clicks to get them to the content, the better. And if you find websites a pain in the ass, there are a few solutions out there for podcasters. Our Network uses Podpage and it looks nice - see for yourself.Number 2: You Don't Market Your Show Very Well... Or At AllDo you know who your audience is? Or where they are? Do you just put out a few social media posts for every episode and then you're done? Well, that might be the problem. Think of your podcast episodes as items in your fridge. Is it something that is stale after 24 hours? 72 hours? A week, a month, a year? Two years? Okay, well I don’t know anything in my fridge that makes it that long, but I know many of the episodes I record from two and three years ago are still getting regular downloads because people are discovering them through search. I can market them with the same vigor as if they came out last week.I have the stats, and new people are discovering the show all the time. It’s not the same people who listen to the show every week. We churn listeners like any other media outlet does. Many people say they're discovering us for the first time, and see a wonderful back catalogue of episodes. Our biggest episode is the one with Tom Leykis, and his audience continues to grow as well. The episode I did with Tara Sands is excellent advice for anyone who aspires to become a character voice in anime. Both episodes with Sheri Lynch contain valuable information on becoming your own radio startup. Steve Reynolds' talent coaching isn’t going to change drastically over the course of a few years... I could go on, but you see what I mean.The same way a radio statio music director is going to program Led Zeppelin on the radio station, I am going to do the same with many of the episodes. The back catalogue is strong. In fact, I read in Podnews that 47% of all podcast downloads were older episodes- So tell people about them. That means tweets, and IG stories, and Facebook and LinkedIn and a newsletter.It also matters how you market. Maybe it’s audiograms and social media posts- and it doesn’t have to be a lot- but it should be consistent. And you want to hear something crazy? I am certain that some people just know and follow the show through their social media feeds, but haven’t listened to a single episode. I never watched Roseanne but I knew the characters and what the show is about. Marketing isn’t really about doing the homework. It’s really about being involved.Number 1: Your Show Is BoringAnything that you record, you can make better. Over the years, I'm certain that my live media game has deteriorated. I am only live on my Youtube channel every once in a while, but being able to produce and especially edit has been invaluable. And for those of you who do Youtube Live podcasts- Have you ever considered editing and producing around all that live audio to make a better audio experience? I know, time is money, but every click and every download counts. I did that a few weeks ago on another podcast, and you can view it here if you want to see the difference.It's about respecting your listener, but not being boring. It's about respecting your listener, and not wasting their time. You really only have one competitor in podcasting, and that is your listeners time. So respect it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we talk Amanda's journey through the industry (including receiving military training before working as a journalist in Afghanistan), as well as her thoughts on how Canadian broadcasting could evolve.There are University dissertations shorter than Amanda's resume, so for brevity's sake, she is currently: Director of Talk & Talent at AM640 in Toronto, entrepreneur, freelance podcast consultant herself, author of a best-selling book, and a Journalism instructor at both Ryerson University and Seneca College.Amanda and I also go deep on podcasting and discuss Canada feeling behind terms of podcasting, but Amanda shares some excellent ideas about how we can elevate quickly. And the best news - there is plenty of space for more Canadian podcasts.If you are looking to start a podcast - please contact myself or one of the Podcast Superfriends.For reference - follow Amanda on LinkedIn or her personal website.I'd also highly recommend picking up her book, Let's Talk Podcasting, or listening to any of her speaking engagements if you want to hear more of her sage wisdom.Thanks to those who have supported the show!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Will Nash is the afternoon drive host for Fresh 93.1 in Barrie, Ontario, as well as the midday host on Energy 95.3 in Hamilton and Toronto. He's a radio veteran who's been all over Ontario, and has dozens of celebrity interviews under his belt- but his career didn't exactly start out that way.In this episode, I talk to him about working on street teams, moving to a small town in northern Alberta for his first full on-air gig, his transition to a bigger stage in Toronto, and all the shuffling around that eventually brought him to the position he's in now.Will tells me about his struggle to come to terms with being gay, which as you might imagine, was quite the challenge as an on-air personality in Peace River, Alberta.He also shares his experiences teaching Radio Broadcasting at Mohawk College, giving us some insight into the changes the radio industry has gone through and the way schools have adapted for the future. He's hopeful the next generation will stay enthusiastic and keep radio evolving.You can visit Will's personal website hereListen to him here from 2-7pmOr here from 9am-3pmThanks to those who have supported the show!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Imperfectly Kind is the name of Julie Adam's first book. The President of Rogers Sports & Media had a unique pandemic experience that she shared with us and led her to write this book.In this episode, Julie and I catch up after nearly 4 years between recording podcast episodes. We spoke about baseball in the last episode and it came up again this time in a couple of places. While I normally would love to ask a zillion questions about the future of radio, I wanted to stay close to the theme of her book because the broadcast business could use a little more kindness. We also spoke about identifying who your competition is and the benefits of embracing them.You can order Julie's book here in Canada. And in the United States.Order it in bulk because all your employees or classmates should read it. Thanks to those who have supported the show!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Charese Frugé is the Net News Editor at AllAccess.com and has 20+ years in the radio business with a proven track record in multiple formats as both an on air personality and an award winning programmer. She's been successful in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Las Vegas and Denver. She's been recognized as one of Radio's Most Influential Women by Radio Ink on multiple occasions and has several awards for Excellence in Management from both CBS Radio, and the Alliance for Women in Radio. She owns her own Radio and Talent Consulting business and is also a Voice Actor and Voice over talent. She is one of few female talent consultants in the business and is ready to help you bring a fresh new approach and strategy to your talent or brand.Five Articles I love:Email Grenade (We talked about this in the episode)Life after RadioHow to Improve RadioThe Art of the VoicetrackThe Deeper Issues of ConsolidationThanks to those who have supported the show!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sam East is the afternoon host on 99.9 Virgin Radio, and host of weeknights on Virgin Radio across Canada. That means you can hear her on selected stations Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Sam has also recently launched the podcast Lessons to My Younger Self, where she chats with notables like Jully Black, The Social’s Jess Allen, sexologist Dr. Jess O’Reilly, and more. In this episode you will hear how she got her radio start in Chatham, Ontario, moved to Kitchener and then landed in Toronto at Virgin radio. We also talked about growing up as a Filipino-Canadian, the value of mindfulness, and how how she readies her day for radio.There's some fun things over on the webpage if you are up for it.Thanks to those who have supported the show!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chris St. Clair started at the Weather Network back in 1994. However, before that he had a worked in radio; in later years as the program director at 990 Hits in Montreal. After 26 years at the Weather Network, Chris has retired.In this episode, you will hear how Chris got his start in radio while he was still in high school. We also discussed his short time at Acadia University, his ties to the Annapolis Valley, and how he spent most of the 80's in Kingston, Ontario. We also talk about what he learned as a program director and how it became valuable as a presenter on the fledgling weather network. There's also some insight into his forthcoming book and a discussion about climate change. Yes it is a thing.Thanks to those who have supported the show! PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last summer when we had Vinny Barucco on the show, I mentioned that we would be having his co-host on in due time. Time is due. Shannon King's radio journey is different in that she didn't grow up idolizes radio personalities from the past. It was just kind of suggested to her. She cut her teeth by cutting hair and learned she was a people person.In this episode, you will hear how Shannon interned with all the major players before she worked for them. Her radio journey had her developing as a top personality in markets like Timmins and Sudbury, before successfully avoiding Edmonton and going to Virgin Radio in Montreal where she currently works alongside Vinny and Adam. We also talked about the energy her former PD Blair Bartrem brings to the show, adapting to Montreal culture, and manoeuvring through the pandemic and lockdowns and curfews... for a second time.A thanks to the people who support the show each week and allow it arrive on your phones for free.The CHR Prep Service - Click to get a free trial.nLogicMegatrax - Licensed Music for your radio station or podcast production company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A few times a year, the radio grim reaper makes its rounds and kills off another round of talented people. Depending on the sociopathic behaviour of the company who executes the plan, it is described as "dislocation" or "restructuring". To those that are on the receiving end, it feels more like a mob-hit. Mary Anne Ivison was let go in February of 2021, and spent the rest of the year pivoting away from the profession that was her livelihood for 12 years.In this episode, you will hear how the Tilbury, Ontario native got her start in radio, listened to Dave and Chuck the Freak in Windsor and later WRIF across the river. Also how she wound up falling in love with Ottawa where she worked on Country radio at Rogers and Bell. We will also discuss what lies ahead in the world of voiceover and why she is doubling down on audio.Thanks to our sponsors!PromosuiteJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.