Alpha Mind Blog

It’s a list of podcasts produced by businesses. On Constantin Basturea’s The New PR.

Well, I’ve learned just enough typo3 to be dangerous. I’ve built myself a shell of a web site. It is based on the only decently-functioning, free template I could find in the whole wide world. Many thanks to Gregory D. Remington at Mediatech for making his template a Creative Commons freebie.

For another few days, the blog is all the web site there will be on buildabetterpodcast. But it won’t be long before I have some serious content poured into the new site. I figure I’ll make it public by July 11, a week from today.

There’s so much to say about podcasting that I’ve built a new blog dedicated to just that.

I’ll continue to post about podcasting here, but the really meaty stuff will go there.

Okay, I confess. I like Better Bad News. And I like this week’s episode. Rife with sound effects. It takes surrealism to a new high… er, low… er, wide. Well, something. Yeah, wide, that’s it.

I was privileged to run the sound for BBN for the May 30 installment. I even got credit, the only time they’ve credited the crew.

Sweet!

But what if that used up 30 seconds of my 15 minutes of fame? Was it the best fame I could have gotten? Can I ask for it back?

Good to see Jude back.

As I prepare to launch my podcast, I’ve been listening to a lot of other folks’ podcasts by way of learning and preparation. Based on many weeks of listening, here are some notes-to-self that might also be of benefit to other podcasters. (Note that I am interested not in music or “entertainment” podcasts, but in newsy podcasts related to business, technology, and leadership. If my notes are a help to anyone, it will likely be someone intending to create the same types of podcasts I listen to and plan to make.)

Today’s notes:

• Don’t talk about the time. A podcast isn’t radio, in which you’re given a precise number of minutes to fill. Even some of my favorite podcasters, like Hobson and Holtz, spend a few too many of my brain cycles talking about how long or short the podcast is running. Forget it. Such talk is cruft; listeners come for content.
• Do be aware of the time. Keep it as short as your content will permit, and waste not a scrap of your listeners’ time. (I love Lee Hopkins because his short casts never give me the sense that he’s filling minutes.) I’ve heard business podcasters say that if so-and-so can get people to listen to a whole hour a day of MTV-like audio, they should be able to find an audience who’ll listen to them for a whole hour once or twice a week. It doesn’t work that way. First, an audience of business people is a lot different from an audience of music-lovers. Second… well, see next note.
• Understand how people listen. Yes, it’s long, but this article by Walter Murch is excellent. Murch is one of the finest sound editors in the film industry, and is highly articulate as well. Here’s how I simplify his wisdom and apply it to podcasting: There are kinds of sounds that people can take in and appreciate while their minds are engaged in other tasks. Music is the extreme of this. There are other sounds that require the hearer to be fully engaged with the sound. Speech is of this type, and some kinds of speech more than others. The banter of DJs requires far less engagement than an analysis of news or a dissection of business strategy. That’s why, if you’re doing the latter in your podcast, you need to understand that anyone who’s working has far fewer minutes in the day for your audio than for a music podcast.