IDEAS SHARED ON 'PODCASTING FOR PROFIT' Adam Jacobson – Radio and Records McVay Media News/Talk Specialist Holland Cooke led an afternoon RAB session yesterday devoted to making podcasts a revenue generator for radio. For radio stations that aren't hip to the power of the podcast, Cooke said, referring to newspapers, "We're letting the 'gray lady' beat us at our own game. We need to be in as many places as we can with podcasting."
Cooke likened podcasting, or downloadable on-demand programming played on iPods and similar devices, to TV broadcasting in 1952. "There's not a lot of right or wrong, and there's not a lot of yes and no," he noted. "Now is the time to try things."
Cooke stressed that portability of content means a lot to the busy people attracted by the idea of podcasts — who are, in fact, the very "soccer moms" and cell-phone-wielding "dads in Volvos" advertisers want to get to most.
Cooke described research he conducted using a sample of about 1,250 radio listeners that found that as of April 2005, one-third of the sample owned an MP3 player or similar device. When those people were questioned about their programming desires, 82% mentioned that they'd like comedy offerings. "This could include repackaging and reselling content from your morning show," Cooke said.
Among the other topics suitable for podcasts are local weekend "funformation," movie reviews, consumer electronics and travel information — all things that aren't as perishable as a traffic report and that can be sold in unique ways, Cooke said. About a podcast of a high school football game, Cooke asked, "Is it an aircheck, or is it a souvenir? If you own the rights to it, it can be used as a memento to the kid who played the game. It can be downloaded by the doting grandparent and by the divorced parent."
What Cooke pointed to as the "ultimate" station podcast was a seven-minute, fully produced on-demand video newscast produced by WDEL-AM/Wilmington, DE. "The station took a $60,000 capital hit, and it was paid for in one year by an advertiser who never bought radio before this," Cooke said.
Finally, Cooke suggested that auto-respond e-mail messages with a client coupon, a "tip jar" for contributions and "informative infomercials" be part of a podcasting plan. |