Charlie Meyerson and Dometi Pongo's presentation to the Society of Professional Journalists Region 5 Conference in Chicago, April 7, 2018. (The original was created in Apple Keynote and the animation is much cooler, but SlideShare won't accept that format.)

1. Charlie Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
facebook.com/meyerson
@Meyerson
C@ChicagoPublicSquare.com
Dometi Pongo
linkedin.com/in/dometipongo
facebook.com/dometi.net
@Dometi_
dometi.pongo@gmail.com
Podcasting do's and don’ts:
How do you build audiences -- and keep them?

2. • Good timing
• Podcasting basics
• Equipment do’s
• Editing do’s and don’ts
• Interviewing do’s and don’ts
• Recording do’s and don’ts
• Scripting do’s and don’ts
• How to publish
What’s to come

3. Do be excited.
Audio is hot.
2018 report card on digital audio
and other digital media

4. Do be excited.
Audio is hot.
2018 report card on digital audio
and other digital media

5. And the big players know it.

6. Howard P. Willens, Warren Commission lawyer, Charlie Meyerson (Photo: Debby Preiser)
meyersonstrategy.com/2013/11/warren-commission-lawyer-howard-p.html
You can make audio. Easily.

7. • Raw sound gathered with iPhone, voices with
external mic. Edited on a laptop.
• Live broadcasts, too, via Facebook, Periscope,
etc.—from your phone, or from a podium
(plugging the smartphone into a mult box).
soundcloud.com/meyerson/final-farewell-to-a-chicago
And with some editing
on a desktop or lapt0p …

8. What do you need to do this stuff?

9. • One
smartphone.
Really, that’s it.
But if you insist ...
What do you need to do this stuff?

10. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
Miki cable: amazon.com/Technica-Del-Arte-MIKI-B-Miki/dp/B00JVMUJQ8/
What do you need to do this stuff?

11. What do you need to do this stuff?
Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop

12. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell card
or cell-phone hotspot).
What do you need to do this stuff?

13. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell card
or cell-phone hotspot).
• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing
quickly on a smartphone).
What do you need to do this stuff?

14. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell card
or cell-phone hotspot).
• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing
notes into a smartphone).
• External battery for smartphone.
What do you need to do this stuff?

15. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell card
or cell-phone hotspot).
• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing
quickly on a smartphone).
• External battery for smartphone.
• Connecting cables (USB) for
faster connection between
phone, laptop and battery.
What do you need to do this stuff?

16. Also helpful:
• XLR connecting cable to plug
into mult boxes, mics + longer
XLR cable (so you can sit down).
• Laptop (with optional cell card
or cell-phone hotspot).
• Bluetooth keyboard (for typing
quickly on a smartphone).
• External battery for smartphone.
• Connecting cables (USB) for
faster connection between
phone, laptop and battery.
• Case with branding on it.
What do you need to do this stuff?

17. What do you need to do this stuff?
What about external mics?
• Yes, you can get them. Handheld mics, lapel mics,
desktop mics, shotgun mics, Bluetooth mics.
• If you’re filming a motion-picture soundtrack, or a
professional-grade podcast, you’ll probably want one
or two, or a whole console-filled assortment of them.
(And you’ll find plenty of buying advice on the web.)
• But the best mic—like the best camera—is the one you
have with you when something interesting happens.
Especially for beginners, a smartphone’s enough.

18. You probably already have
everything you need—
beginning with your
smartphone or laptop.
And you’ll find more counsel
on the Rivet blog
<blog.rivetnewsradio.com>.
What do you need to do this stuff?

19. But … if you insist!
Tascam DR-40
$179.99

20. Audio editing do’s

21. Do use your phone
iPhone
+ Twisted
Wave
(etc.) app
http://twistedwave.com/mobile
(or search iTunes store)

22. How to get sound out of your phone
and onto a laptop or desktop
• Email it (best for small
files).
• Connect your phone
and computer to the
same Wi-Fi network,
then let your app act as a
server.
• Upload audio from
your phone to a
service like
SoundCloud, then
download to your
computer.

23. And then, once it’s
on a computer …

24. Do consider using Audacity
Why it’s good:
1. It’s free and open source.
(AudacityTeam.com)
2. Works the same on
Windows, Mac.
3. Googling reveals answers to
almost any beginner’s
question.
Like: “How to connect a mic
to Audacity.”

25. Do consider using Audacity
Three things:
1. Basic controls.
2. Editing.
3. Fade-ins, fade-outs.

26. Basic Audacity controls
1. Record, play, etc.
2.Cursor
3.Zoom (shift = zoom out).
4.Time shift

27. 1. Drag cursor to
highlight
beginning.
2. Select “Fade
in” from the
Effects menu.
3. Repeat for
ending, with
“Fade out.”
Do fade in and fade out

28. Edit from the
middle of one
word in one
take … to the
middle of the
same word in
the second take.
(Reason to write down your
questions: You can re-do them
word-for-word in a second
take.)
Don’t edit hamhandedly
Lots more help from George Drake Jr. on the Rivet blog: blog.rivetnewsradio.com

29. But …
If you do it right in one take,
you’ll need much less editing.
So…

30. An encounter with comics artist Neal Adams,
recorded with just a handheld iPhone
Do avoid editing.
archive.org/details/neal-adams-comic-book-artist.P5aRq7.popuparchive.org

31. Do decide in advance:
What are you making?
• Documentary or news report? Multiple
interviews, multiple sources, lots of editing and
production required.
• Lecture or panel discussion? If well
recorded, sure.
• Interviews? One of the simplest, most
compelling formats. Unique content, easy to
create.

32. Interviews: ‘Game-changers’
• Outside experts augment your credibility.
• Their audience becomes your audience
(because they share with their followers, who
become your followers).
• You grow a network of meaningful
relationships with influential voices.
Andy Crestodina and Barry Feldman, “Content Matters” podcast
http://feldmancreative.com/2016/03/interviews-content-matters-podcast

33. Do …
• Learn where your mic is (on your smartphone or on your computer
or whatever you’re using) and get the subject close to it.
• If using a smartphone or external mic, point it at the corner of a
speaker’s mouth (to avoid popping Ps and bursting Bs).
• Record in a space as echo-free as possible—away from walls, or
even with a coat draped over your head.
Don’t …
• Be afraid of ambient noise, like a restaurant’s clinking plates or the
roar of traffic. It can make editing easier and it can add texture to your
work.
• Yell. No matter how noisy things may seem to you, the mic is right
next to you. THERE’S NO NEED TO SHOUT AT YOUR AUDIENCE.

34. A big

35. Don’t be boring.
Don’t create audio for audio’s sake!
… Because if you’re just doing it because you have to do it,
you shouldn’t do it.
You’re not playing in the world of analog radio, where they
have to have a show or the airwaves go dead.
Any time you create audio just because you have to create
audio, you’re diluting your brand, giving potential fans a
reason not to return.

36. The competition is a
click or tap or swipe
away.
Do fight for your audience’s attention.

37. Do create audio for a
Tinder-like listening
environment
… when the competition is a
click or a swipe away.
Like NPR One,
or Apple’s Podcasts app,
or Rivet.

38. How long would you listen?
Because the Rivet app functions
as a “Tinder for audio”
environment, our metrics reports
function as sort of a stress-test
for audio’s listenability.
http://www.rivetnewsradio.com/share/539475

39. See how Netflix does it?

40. That encounter with comics artist Neal Adams,
with lead tweaked
Do consider spiffing up
a raw audio interview
smartaudio.com/share/541909

41. Don’t …
• Start your audio with music.
• Start your podcast with unidentified sounds or voices.
(Confusing is a tuneout.)
• Start your podcast with the show number. (A tuneout for those
who haven’t heard earlier shows.)
• Start your podcast the same way every time. (Waste of time for
those who’ve heard it before.)
• Start your podcast with advertising or underwriting messages.
(The best way to get those heard is to create audio people want
to hear, and that’s to begin with something interesting. If you
begin with a reason to keep listening, you’ll get not only that
first promo heard, but maybe several more into the show.)

42. Do prepare a script
A strong intro, questions and a close, practiced
and ready …
… Written so that, when read, they don’t sound
like they were written and don’t sound like
they’re being read.
The better these are, the less editing you need
down the line. (Ideally: None!)

43. Do prepare your questions
• Write them down—word for word. (Makes re-takes easier.)
• Frees you to concentrate on what your guest is saying and not to worry about
your next question.
• Avoid yes-or-no questions, because you may get just “Yes” or “No” for an answer.
• Avoid simply making statements. Be a question-asking machine and get out of the
way. (Don’t “uh-huh” or “oh, no.” Nod and gesture.)
• Coach your guest—for instance, to be brief. (Or not!)
• Listen to what your subject’s saying. If you don’t get it, odds are your audience
won’t, either.
• Save your best—most controversial, engaging—questions for the middle or
late part of the interview. (These may be the answers you excerpt for your
introduction, so best if they don’t appear at the beginning of the interview itself.)
Consider Chris Farley in this 1993 interview on Saturday Night Live.

44. Do …
• Have a clear and engaging intro.
• Have a clean close.
• Have at least three questions.
(Everything doesn’t have to be 30, 60 or 90 minutes!)
—
• Your intro should lead with the most interesting words in the
whole story.
• You can return later to re-cut your intro and close, but write
them so they’ll work well even without editing.
• Structure your intro so you can later insert a great cut that
would fit.

45. Do prepare your intro
1. Interesting statement about guest, constructed so
one of his or her answers might theoretically be
edited in later.
2. Identify guest.
3. Identify the show and yourself.
4. Get to your first question.

46. Sample intro
“Why would you want to mail a resume, old-
fashioned-style, with a stamp and an envelope?
(Cut might go here.) Job-hunting expert Janna
Jones says what’s old is new. She’s the guest on
This Show Is Mine. I’m Charlie Meyerson and …”

47. Do prepare your close
“That’s job-hunting expert Janna
Jones, whose website is
jjjobhunt.com. I’m Charlie
Meyerson and This Show Is Mine.”

48. Don’t say “Thanks for being here.”
Thank guests
before or after
the show.

49. 1. Use contractions whenever you can. If it helps,
run a find-and-replace to replace (for instance)
will with ’ll, is with ’s, are with ’re, would
with ’d, etc.
2.Use pronouns whenever you can. That’s the
way we talk.
Sound like you’re talking, not reading.
Do …

50. Stress prepositions (of, by, for, in), conjunctions (and, but) or
articles (a, the). In musical terms, they’re the grace notes of
speech—present, but just barely. Save your emphasis for nouns
and verbs. (Exception: “… OF the people, BY the people, FOR
the people.”)
Bonus tips:
• The word “the” is pronounced thuh except when it appears
before a word that begins with a vowel sound. (Thee
elephant, thee NFL; but thuh cat, thuh president.)
• The word “a” is almost always pronounced uh. (Exception:
For emphasis, as in “He’s not just A man, he’s THEE man.”)
Sound like you’re talking, not reading.
Don’t …

51. How to
publish a
podcast
Lots of help
on the web

52. How to
publish a
podcast
Lots of help
on the web

53. How to
publish a
podcast
One really basic outline:
1. Create your audio.
2. Upload it (somewhere;
archive.org is free, but no-frills).
3. Embed it on a web page,
with a specific label (like
“podcasts”).
4. Find the RSS feed for that
label.
5. Get that feed to
Feedburner, which will
generate code you can feed to
iTunes, Alexa, etc.

54. Via SoundCloud.com
Do meet listeners where they are
Get your podcast on the major platforms using RSS feeds.

55. What’s an RSS feed?
A web feed that lets users to access updates to
online content in a standardized, computer-
readable format.

56. More options:
buzzsprout.com | blubrry.com | libsyn.com
Advanced options:
Google Drive
Do learn how and where people engage

57. Do create a web page for your show
Gladwell gets it
The Daily does it

58. To season or not to season?
Pros Cons
Stop Sets Give
You a Chance to
Breathe
Disrupts
Consistency
Allows for Change
of Direction
Could Complicate
Marketing
Strategy*
Builds in Time to
Book the Next
Season
Potential for Drop
in Listenership
Allows for Time to
Engage Press
Could Confuse
Passive Listeners

59. Do call your show …
Something no one else is using.

60. Don’t name your episode …
• with the show name.
• with the show number.
• with the show date.
Here’s why:

61. Here’s why:

62. Do …
• Make each episode name different.
• Put your most interesting words first.

63. Do …
Put your most interesting
words first.
(Because you only get two or three
on many platforms, including
email and smartphones.)
Advanced class in email and audience engagement, anyone?

64. Charlie Meyerson
linkedin.com/in/cmeyerson
facebook.com/meyerson
@Meyerson
C@ChicagoPublicSquare.com
Dometi Pongo
linkedin.com/in/dometipongo
facebook.com/dometi.net
@Dometi_
dometi.pongo@gmail.com
Podcasting do's and don’ts:
How do you build audiences -- and keep them?