Stay Out Of Our Podcasting Lanes, Broadcasters!

PP294 - Stay Out Of Our Podcasting Lanes, Broadcasters!

Evo Terra: [00:00:00] Broadcasters recording from home have lost the professional sheen and are now encroaching on Podcaster's claimed authentic space since we mastered at home production years ago. Does this make podcasters the new professionals?

[00:00:22] Hello and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me. Evo terror. There is a troubling trend on your television. Probably your radio too, but I haven't listened to the radio in a long time. For me, it's a troubling trend. I see you on the radio and that troubling trend is when these broadcasters who are no longer able to go into their studios because of the lockdown that is well worldwide.

[00:00:50] Now we're seeing some, um, process exposure. We're seeing less than professional results from these broadcasters as they adjust to the realities of not having a huge studio with lights and sets and makeup people and hair. And I'm going to have to have a haircut very soon here, but I see that trend. Then we're all going, Oh, that's interesting.

[00:01:17] And we talk about it and we remark about it and we say, that's cool. You know, it used to be that it was podcasters that had a little less spit and Polish that had a little rough around the edges approach to the content that they made. And many broadcasters celebrated that fact. Rather than try to get rid of it, they embraced it.

[00:01:43] They said, Hey, we're not. What the other guys, the professionals, the broadcasters are, we're going to let this authenticity train run as long as we can.

[00:01:59] A little later than that, in the last few years, I've noticed a trend where big organizations, and I'll call two of 'em out, we'll talk about the New York times as well as Vox media. These larger publications have made a good and strong and wonderful pivot, I think, to podcasting, but they have brought in and I think artificially include some rough edges to it.

[00:02:27] Artificially include, might be too strong. They could have edited those out. And what I mean by that is it's, it's hard to imagine listening to an episode of the daily by the New York times or a I listened to today, explained from Vox where they don't let the phone call ring happen or they don't have some quasi humorous false start.

[00:02:53] They've even incorporated into their advertising and they do this because. They want to bring an air of authenticity to it. One, so now that we've got broadcasters also just realizing they can't fake the fact that they're from home, so why not embrace it? We're seeing a lot of that happening as well.

[00:03:17] So as I said earlier, that means that broadcasters are now encroaching into the authenticity. Space, the authentic space that we, podcasters have claimed for the longest time,

[00:03:27] Music: [00:03:27] and

[00:03:30] Evo Terra: [00:03:30] I am torn when it comes to this conversation. I've seen some of the forums, the podcasting forums out there as people have also noticed this trend, and it's usually one of two things they say.

[00:03:46] One is that, Oh man. We've got this figured out. Why can't those big people do the same thing we are? Why can't they make their audio sound good? Or even their video look good, different thing altogether? Why can't they do that? We can do that. They should do that. That's saying number one, saying number two is, you know, maybe we've been too polished.

[00:04:12] Maybe we've been too produced and maybe we need to expose some of the process back to our audience again, maybe that's what makes a good podcast is showing all of those rough edges. I'm going to dismantle both of those arguments. The first is the latter. Why? No, that's seriously the rough edges are what somebody come for.

[00:04:39] Look, I get it. When brownies come out of the oven, I want the ones on the edges. I want the ones that are hard and crunchy on the edges, but that's not just me. That's the vast majority of people where you like that stuff. Not because it's the edge, but because it tastes good. It's cool. It's crunchy. It's more like a cookie than it is a brownie.

[00:04:56] Don't get me wrong. I love brownies. But that's not how it works in podcasting. Land listeners don't enjoy podcast because of the rough edges. Those rough edges might add a bit of character. They might somehow signal the show that you're actually listening to as a branding element, but I promise you, if you, J D no one's listening for that, oftentimes they're listening in spite of that.

[00:05:24] So I don't think that you should be less professional. Goodness. No, no one ever stopped listening to a show because it sounded too good. People stop listening to shows that aren't great quality all the time because they're too rough and too tumble. Second argument is that these broadcasters  are doing it, you know, because they don't, because I don't know any better, you know, and that'll eventually get better.

[00:05:52] I don't think they will. I mean really, honestly, I do not think that the broadcast television people that you watch who are doing it from their homes rough and tumble, they do that not because they have to. They're doing that on purpose. They're doing it on purpose because they want to showcase what they're doing, not in their big studios.

[00:06:19] They want to showcase the fact that they are not. In their normal place because they don't want you to feel like this is the way they're going to do things from now on. They have a vested interest in showcasing that what they're doing is not normal because it's novel. It gives you a reason to keep listening, keep watching, because it is that Marvel piece.

[00:06:46] Everything is different right now, and they're embracing that different. Thus they have no interest in trying to make professional studios at home. Listen, broadcasters haven't seen at us anything, and they're not jumping in or Northern encroaching into our territory. They are just dealing with this and none of them want to do it from home.

[00:07:06] Every single one of them, practically speaking, wants to get back into their studios. I don't want to keep doing this. They want to get back there with the professional makeup and lighting and sound people. I don't want to do the hard work that you, the working podcasters do every day. So when you see them on screen looking dorky and goofy with bad audio or whatever, understand that for a lot of them it's a choice and they've chosen to be rough and tumble to keep it on your mind that what they're doing isn't the way they're going to always do things that they will eventually go back.

[00:07:41] And put things out on a more professional level. This is them trying to cope with it and trying to address, if not the needs, the the reality and try and just recognize that, Hey, this is weird. We're going to play in the weird space for a while, but soon we'll get back to normal. Of course, I don't think we're ever going to get back to normal, and more importantly, I don't know that what's a podcast or to do.

[00:08:02] We're already in our same spot. Most of us, some of us are, are not. Some of us have been changed around, but. Yeah. Before we start yelling at the broadcasters for jumping into our lanes, they're there in a temporarily. They're not here for the longterm. That's still our space. And we'll be fine. Don't make the mistake of thinking that we need to be less proud than we are today.

[00:08:21] Bad. I DIA, if you need someone to talk you off the ledge, I am your huckleberry. Email me evo@podcastlaunched.pro before you make any silly decisions about that. And also, would you please tell one friend about this show? Maybe you've had a friend. Maybe you have a friend who has said to you, you know, I'm thinking of starting a podcast, or maybe they've already started the podcast.

[00:08:45] I know lots of people who are making podcasts now that weren't doing it before. Get them in, get them this show. Tell them about podcasts. Pontifications I'd like to help everybody make a better podcast, which makes better podcasting all around. That's it. Enjoy the rest of your day. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another podcast.

[00:09:05] Pontifications cheers.

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