The Sound Off Podcast

There I was flipping through Facebook and seeing Steve Reynolds comment about hearing something he felt was out of place on the radio in the era of COVID-19. This is not to be confused with the non-COVID comments about Sirius Yacht Rock playing a lot of crappy B-Sides on their channel. (He's right. No one wants to hear B-Grade Little River Band song. Ever. With so many radio people and radio shows in flux Steve is good person to bring on right now to talk about our new surroundings.We also got into some great discussions on the role of social media and how important it is "go live" more than ever. Also this might be a time to adjust your personal brand rather than doubling down on the emotions that may not matter to many people right now. And what happens when the two or three person morning show starts to struggle with the "at home" dynamics that have been put upon them?FREE! Inside this podcast Steve offers up a free promo idea for your radio station. It's like a prize in the Cracker Jacks box!Bonus material:Steve made mention of a great bit from Hawkeye & Katelyn at KSCS in Dallas featuring Sam Hunt and his wife buying a bidet. Also Steve said he was feeling the "weight" from staying home. Here's a podcast episode you might want to check out if you're feeling heavy. Lianne Laing and Eliza Kingsford talk about managing your Quarint-eating.Finally, if you have any drink recipes for Steve, please e-mail him. He is not a cocktail kinda guy generally, but he has the time to see what all the fuss is about. Personally, I think a caesar is a good drink before a carnivorous meal. All the ingredients on the page are fair game - My favourite magical ingredient is HP Sauce.There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's no wonder that Kipper McGee wound up in radio have grown up in between two great radio markets in Milwaukee and Chicago. He's a broadcast consultant, author and host of the Brandwidth on Demand podcast alongside David Martin. The show has been in production for as long as this show has, and it has an A list of broadcasters appearing for what turns out to be, "not your average quarter hour".In this episode, Kipper and I spoke about his years in places I have never been to. Des Moines, San Diego, and Orlando which I just recently went to for the first time. Asking innocuous questions about those places gave me some insight into the radio that was made. You won't be able to see Kipper in his usual places this summer because like the rest of us - he's at home. But you can connect with the podcast.I was a guest on the podcast back in August of 2018.... (Where does the time go?)There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sunni Puric works weekdays apart of the Joe Clair Morning Show on Rhythmic/CHR radio WGPC 95.5FM. Her journey to radio is unlike any other. This marks the first time I have asked what it was like spending your teenage years in a refugee camp in Bosnia. While the world saw a picturesque Yugoslavia during the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, it was 12 years later that th country fell into civil war. Sunni was open about sharing her times in the camp, and about her family's pathway to America.In this episode, we spoke about moving from Bosnia to Hamtramck, Michigan where she caught the radio bug listening to WJLB in Detroit. learned English watching Mama's Family, and found her way into WJLB as an intern at the age of 18. Sunni moved to Miami to work at Power 96, then went to New York before landing in the midday spot at WGPC and then on to the morning show with Joe Clair and Guy Lambert. Sunni also does a weekly hit with Fox 5, and is great Twitter and Instagram follow.The Washington Post wrote a very extensive piece on Sunni back in 2014.There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Susie Erjavec Parker knows lots about social media, blogs, communication strategy and working from home. At one point she had 3 children under 5 years old in the house while juggling clients, and appointments and everything else that comes with running a business. With so many people working from home for the first time in radio, I though it would be a good time to bring Susie on to talk about working from home now - and planning a marketing strategy as it pertains to your recovery strategy. Her company, Sparker Strategy Group has does media and marketing planning, and she says there is no better time for radio than right now.In this episode, we also talked about a lot of the social media changes that have occurred over the last week. There are more people going live on Facebook and Instagram than ever before. For example at 3pm Eastern, Noon Pacific, my Instagram lit up with 5 live conversations from Bachelor and Bachelorette cast-offs that suddenly had a lot of free time on their hands. Susie has also been tracking social media behaviour and the whole internet appears to be going full throttle at 9pm Eastern.Susie also made mention of a post on her Winnipeg Mom Blog about scheduling recess using "Zoom" that her kids loved, along with their classmates. That blog post is here.Also totally useful are her full tips for working from home in the COVID-19 era in case you failed to take notes during this podcast.There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's been nearly 20 years since radio has had to shift into crisis mode. The Corona Virus or COVID-19 has arrived and broadcasters find themselves having to write rules, redo formats, get more information sourced, while dealing with staffs that have children coming home and everyone faced with the challenge of working from home. In this episode, I spoke about the importance of working from home, and get down to the nitty gritty of what it means to be a broadcaster during a pandemic.Here’s the article from Perry Michael Simon I was talking about.I also made made mention of the Jacobs Media one which is coming up on March 26, always an important survey because it really serves as radio's report card.The Infinite Dial Study was released March 19th by Edison Research. You can get a copy here.Also Coleman Insights has this very handy list of tips. ========There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Josie Dye is the morning host at Indie 88 in Toronto. The longtime 102.1 The Edge personality who also did hosting duties for Cosmo TV, and W Network took a chance on jumping to Indie 88. It has paid off well. You can hear it in Josie's voice. She is having more fun than ever at a station that has all the sounds and feels of any successful alternative radio station.In this episode, we spoke about her early days studying at Ryerson while working at Mix 99.9, which was at its peak with an 8 share. Rather than head out to a smaller market, Josie found her way to the Edge where she eventually found her way to middays; working for great programmers like Ross Winters and Dave Farough. We reminisce about those old knock 'em down and drag 'em out music meetings over adding a song to the playlist.We also spoke at great length about life at home, that time she fucked up the national anthem, and why she is so heavily involved in public speaking. There's additional stuff on the Episode Page Here. There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave Jackson is the Owner/Headmaster at the School of Podcasting and also a support specialist at Libsyn. He was there back in the early days of podcast and has helped thousands launch their podcasts with his talks, online tips and podcasts. Dave is a Hall of Famer and a regular contributor to Podcast Business Journal. In this episode we discussed some of the many stages of podcasting's evolution including its early days, the advent of iTunes, Serial, radio's entry into the podcast space, the gradual rise of listenership and the recent announcement on the creation of the Podcast Academy and the feathers that were ruffled in the process. We also dug into monetization and the value of video to podcasters.There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Radio is a lot like the mob: "Just when you thought I was out, they pull me back in." Okay, that's an exaggeration but for Carlos Benevides, leaving 91.5 The Beat in Kitchener and transitioning to Conestaga College to teach radio just made sense. So does his new lunchtime show for the Jack radio stations "Jack Up the 80's". which can be heard in Halifax, Calgary, Smith Falls, London and Victoria. As we recorded this episode, Carlos had been a dad for one week and was settling in to life post morning radio.In this episode we riffed on working the overnight shifts in large markets, making the jump away from Toronto to Kitchener, and eventually pivoting from radio to teaching. Be sure to check the blog page for some great podcast recommendations that Carlos made.Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Zenga McCurdy called me back in May of 2018 and asked for some feedback on his morning radio show. Since then I have made a point of listening to the show every once and a while to hear the progress. I meant to grab a beer with him in Toronto last year but we only had enough time for a "Hi, How are you?" and then we were off to whatever we were off to. I am very pleased that I got to have this conversation with him about his Kitchener/Waterloo upbringing where he confesses he wasn't always on the right side of an issue. He explains why he chose radio and how in his first job in rural B.C., he faced down racist slurs and marched onward with the support of his parents who have always been there for him.Today, Zenga is the morning host on Kiss 100.5 along with Casey. Sault St. Marie may be one of those Great Lakes towns where the hockey players will always be a little more famous than the media personalities. I totally blanked that Wayne Gretzky played his junior hockey there for one season before he went to the Indianapolis Racers and then the Oilers.There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jon Gay has a radio story that is probably not unlike yours if you have worked on the programming side of radio. It involves a little bit of the WKRP theme song, "Town to Town. Up and Down the dial...". Jon's radio career started with an internship at Kiss 108 in his hometown Boston. His stint at Syracuse University got him even closer to his dream on being a top radio personality. His tenure in Vermont, Detroit, and New Orleans all ended with radio cutbacks - which later became known as "restructuring and what is now affectionately known today as "dislocation".In this episode, we talked about those struggles and how Jon rebounded by starting Jag In Detroit Podcasting which creates branded podcasts for companies. Admittedly, we spent a fair amount of time on Vermont radio because I am very familiar with that radio market and travel through the area often. (I first heard Jon on WXXX (95 Triple X) all those years ago.I promised you a few links in the show notes including:Jon's attempt at a phone detox while on a cruise. Jon's powerful social media piece he circulates annually about losing his best friend Bill Leaf to a drunk driver. There's more about this episode on our show page!Thanks also to the people who make this show possible every week including:PromosuiteMatt Fogarty VoiceoversJustin Dove at Core Image StudiosMegatraxNLogicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.