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Sept. 3, 2024
From Sound Quality to Recognition: Frank Racioppi's Tips for Independent Podcasters
Ever wondered how independent podcasters can shine in a sea of big networks and celebrity hosts? This episode of "Podcasting Tech" is a must-listen for anyone passionate about podcasting, especially independent creators striving to make their mark.
In today’s episode, we chat with Frank Racioppi, the owner and manager of Ear Worthy Publications and the brain behind the Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards. Frank shares critical insights about how niche podcasts can compete with mainstream media. He explains the Ear Worthy awards selection process, focusing on fair judgment rather than popular voting.
Frank, a prolific author and advocate for independent podcasters, talks about the improvement in audio quality over the years and the significance of good equipment in podcasting. He also discusses the impact of podcast length on listener engagement and the importance of respecting the audience's time with quality content.
Mathew and Frank have a candid discussion on the rise of video podcasts on platforms like YouTube and how this trend changes podcast consumption habits. They also explore the role of AI in podcasting and the balance between AI-produced content and the authentic voice of individual creators.
Tune in for a unique podcast recommendation featuring an ophthalmologist from Toronto, and an engaging discussion on various niche podcasts, including those about tattoos and sewing. Plus, don’t miss the spotlight on a podcast aiming to make Bruce Springsteen a gay icon.
Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or just starting out, this episode will leave you enlightened about the art of podcasting. Get ready for an insightful conversation that champions independent creators, reveals quality content strategies, and explores the tech that elevates podcasting to new heights. Don't miss this episode of "Podcasting Tech!"
In this episode, we cover:
- The motivation behind starting the Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards: Frank discusses the need for recognizing independent podcasters and the competitive dynamics of the podcasting industry.
- Managing listener engagement amidst longer podcast episodes: The hosts talk about why respecting audience time and providing concise, engaging content can lead to higher listener satisfaction.
- The growing significance of video podcasts and their impact on traditional audio podcast consumption.
- Unique podcast discoveries: Frank shares intriguing niche podcasts that stood out, including "Hobo Code" featuring Bill Pullman.
- Insights into maintaining sound quality in podcasts and the importance of good audio equipment, with a nod to Jon Stewart's podcast as an example.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
- Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards: https://podalization.substack.com/p/announcing-the-2024-ear-worthy-indie
- Follow Frank Racioppi: https://www.blogger.com/profile/18349230915758368191
- Ear Worthy Public Blog: https://podcastreports.blogspot.com/
- Audio Technica AT 2020 USB Microphone: https://amzn.to/4bPUARg
- Riverside.fm for virtual interviews: https://riverside.fm/?via=mathew&utm_medium=Captivate&utm_source=Captivate&utm_content=signature
- Ophthalmologist’s Podcast: Preconceived Podcast - https://www.preconceivedpodcast.com/
**As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases of podcasting gear from Amazon.com. We also participate in affiliate programs with many of the software services mentioned on our website. If you purchase something through the links we provide, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The team at Podcasting Tech only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our viewers and readers.**
For additional resources and insights visit podcastingtech.com or follow us on social media:
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EQUIPMENT IN USE:
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Transcript
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Welcome to podcasting tech, a podcast that equips busy
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entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective
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solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance. I'm
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Matthew Passy, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting space.
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We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and hardware that
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can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly for insightful
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interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and strategies for
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podcasting success. Head to podcastingtech.com to subscribe
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to this show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform and join us on this
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exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your podcast.
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Well, this is definitely exciting. Something that I've probably should have done a lot earlier
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in the show and I've wanted to do for a while is interview live in
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person, and I am so excited to be doing it this episode for
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the first time. Not only because I enjoy doing podcasts in person, but I get
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to do it here at Sweet Recording, a studio that I have the pleasure of
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being part of the origination of. And now, happy to support here in South
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Jersey. But more importantly, let's talk to our guest. We are chatting with Frank Rasiop.
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Did Did I say that right, or did I totally butcher it? It's Rasiopi, but
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that's okay. Frank Rasiopi. We are going to get it right. He's the
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owner and manager of Ear Worthy Publications. You can find that at podcastreports.blogspot.com.
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He's also an author of several books. The most notable one you'll probably gonna
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recognize as a podcaster is Earworthy, and he's the man behind the
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Earworthy Independent Podcast Awards. Frank, thank you so much for joining us.
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Matthew, thanks for being being here. Also wanna thank Joe for setting up
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in sweet recording. This is fantastic. So thank you, Joe. Thank you,
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Matthew. Glad to be here. Beautiful setting. Hopefully, the audience recognizes the
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good audio and the nice looking video even though this is what they have to
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look at. So Earworthy is been for a
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while now, it's been kind of noted as this fantastic
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source of independent podcast awards. Right? We have the ones from Iheart and
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these bigger corporations, which usually they're promoting their own
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stuff. So why did you jump in and decide
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to start your own podcast awards, and what was that
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process like? So, first of all, great question.
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As you know, as big companies have
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jumped into podcasting the last 5 years, notably, Spotify,
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Amazon through Wondery, Iheart.
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You have these large companies
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essentially either pushing out independent podcasters
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or just stealing the spotlight. So, for
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example, most of the awards and in the article about the
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podcast awards, there are a lot of awards for
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podcasting. They range from the the signals to the ambies.
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There's a lot of them. The problem is is that
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most of them are for network supported
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podcasts. And if you go back, I believe, Julia Louis
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Dreyfus deservedly so won for best podcast. And
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not that she doesn't deserve it, but there are a lot of independent
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podcasts that don't get that recognition. And what
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that, how that came to me was through a
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podcast I reviewed. It's a British woman. Her name
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is EMM. That's, sometimes with independent
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podcasts. Weirdly, they don't want their last name out there. I'm
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not quite sure why, but you're shaking your head so you've probably seen that. I
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understand. Having worked in radio and worked with people who used, you know, weird nicknames,
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I I get the privacy that they want. So I
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I interview her, one day over Zoom, and we
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start talking. And I said, so what are you up to? Her verbal diorama
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is about it's a movies podcast. So she'll take a movie. She
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doesn't review the the movie itself. She gives you the
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history of the the movie, How it got started, who wrote it, what happened
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during production, post production, so forth. So I said, what are you doing after
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this? She said, oh, well, I'm the head of the British Independent
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Podcasting Awards. And my reaction to that was, that's
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interesting. Do we have an American version of that? And she
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said, no. I don't know why you yanks don't. I can't do a English
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accent, so I won't try. And that got me thinking, gee, I wonder why
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we don't. So coupled with that
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is a change in the focus of
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Earworthy. So the Earworthy, the
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publication, which basically does podcast reviews, recommendations,
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and there are a lot of other people who do the same thing and a
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lot of really good people who do that. Greatpods is a good
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one. Bingeworthy is a good one. There's a lot of them out there. And one
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thing that you know, Matthew, is that the podcasting industry
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is collaborative and co collegial. It's not like other industries
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where it's cutthroat. So we give credit to other people
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basically doing the same thing. So most
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of the reviews I do end up coming from a
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marketing company from a a large company.
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Like, somebody like Beck Media does some Spotify or Iheart Once. They'll
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send me something. Like I got one the other day. Tom Flick is
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a new audio fiction podcast from Iheart and
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Tenderfoot TV. And it's got Owen Wilson and Cissy Spacek in
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it. Terrific. That's that's great. Obviously, they've spent money
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not just on the the sound production, but also on the
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actors themselves. They've spent a lot of money on that. So there's not any
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way that someone who's an indie podcaster can can
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match that. So,
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I just thought about how the field is becoming more and more
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uneven, and it's hard for people to compete in
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the indie podcast. And you know yourself, especially since
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having, the other day you had, Pat Chung on talking
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about Fanlist. And that really is about ways for
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independent podcasters to monetize their
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podcast. And, actually, it was a great episode because I learned
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a lot about all these different methods that I had never even
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thought of as far as monetizing. And he really did have
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some, fabulous ideas. So but
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even if everybody, an indie podcaster, adopted all those
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ideas, they're still they're they're still
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behind monetarily the large
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network podcasts. Well, they're behind in attention. I always used to joke that, you
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know, Shaquille O'Neal could put out a podcast of him farting for 40 minutes and
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he would probably get a 100,000 downloads just because of name recognition
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alone. Sure. And we are in a world where
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oftentimes people think podcasters are competing with podcasters,
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but we're not. We are competing with anything else that consumes
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our time. And so in this world where
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YouTube, Netflix, television, radio, music,
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family, work, right, all these things are competing for our time,
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It's hard for anybody to stand out, let alone anybody who doesn't have
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a preexisting platform. So that's not to say that there aren't independent
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podcasters doing amazing things. There are. Right? It's hard
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to get through the noise when you have a
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Julia Louis Dreyfus. Right? She puts out a podcast and, yes, it is excellent. Like,
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what she's doing is excellent. The concept is that the it's a great show, but
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she has a huge advantage because she is a Emmy award winning
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Julia Louis Dreyfus. And so, yeah, I see where
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anybody starting a podcast feels like they're at a
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disadvantage. Exactly. Well said. And a good exam another good
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example is the Kelsey Brothers. Mhmm. Their podcast, I think, is
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I think it was Joe Rogan, Crime Junkie, and the Kelsey
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Brothers. I forget the name of their podcast. Oh, I know if
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Joe is listening, he's gonna he's gonna pop in and tell us what it is.
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And my wife is gonna be very upset that I don't know this off the
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top of my head because she's a huge, at new heights with the
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Kelsey Brothers. But, yeah, they they right? I pod news would constantly
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show, you know, who are the top podcasters. And for a while there, especially around
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the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift, right, they were right up there in the mix
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all the time. Sure. And it's the it's really the Shaquille O'Neal
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metaphor, which is not it's not that it's not good, they're actually quite
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entertaining, but it's because they're the Kelsey brothers. And so that's all
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you end up needing in order to do that. The one thing
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I will say about that whole concept is that a few
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years ago, these big networks thought, you know what we're
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gonna do? We're gonna take a social media influencer, and we're
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gonna put them on a podcast. And that went on for
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about 3 years. It slowed down a lot now because one of the things
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they discovered is that someone that makes a 30
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second TikTok video or an Instagram reel
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sometimes can't sustain 40 minutes of a podcast. They don't have
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that much in the tank in order to get a dialogue You
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I get something from any one of the marketing media companies,
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at least once a week. This person is starting a
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podcast. Here's a good example is so we have, in the last couple
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weeks, this has rocketed up to the top, is the
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NCIS rewatch podcast, whose name
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escapes me right now. I did write about it. And I listened to it, and
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it's actually quite good. But those and there's
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another one, which is Melrose Place in 90210,
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which just came out. Those kinds of rewatch
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podcasts, end up with a built in audience because everybody
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it doesn't matter, actually, who's the host. So usually, they get people that used to
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be on the show. But even if they don't, you're like, oh, wait a minute.
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I used to love this show. I need to listen to this podcast. Right. You're
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already a fan of the brand. And so it's it's really easy for
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those people to come along. A great example, actually
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so I listen to Conan O'Brien a lot. Which I love. And funny enough, I
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never watched Conan. I just I had some time, and I
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remember saying some you know, somebody said, oh, he's really funny. Check it out. I
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went back and listened the whole thing. Well, recently, he got Ted
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Danson and Woody Harrelson to launch a podcast on
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his network called Everybody Knows Your Name Oh. Which is a reference to Cheers where
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the 2 starred together And that same effect.
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Right? Like, oh, I know these guys. I should listen to it. And I know
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the guests that they're having, I should listen to it. Lovingly, I
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don't love it. It's not it's Interesting. It it it's a very
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calm, dry, slow energy, which just
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doesn't do it for me. That's not to say that there is not a lot
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of people who are going to love it, but I I fell
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victim to that same thing. I said, oh, I recognize the names. You know,
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these are stars and people who I know. I would enjoy the show and
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turned out I really didn't. Interesting. Haven't unsubscribed yet, so you're still getting my
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downloads, which is nice. So so let's go back to what you do. So Earworthy,
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how do you figure out who is going to be in the
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mix? Right? Who is nominating or who gets nominated, and
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who ultimately decides who the winners are gonna be? Great
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question. So, here so
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I'm a South Jersey person like you, Matthew. But I have
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in my travels, I have met some podcast people that are have a
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there's a gentleman I know named Jim Driscoll. He lives in Minneapolis.
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So we communicate. He's a podcast consultant there.
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And another gentleman, George Witt, who's out in San Francisco,
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and a woman I've known for years. I used to work with her,
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LaShay Jones. She does a podcast, and she's in Plano,
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Texas. Plano's right next to that. You're you're shaking your head. You know? I
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had a frat brother who lived in the Plano. Yeah. So,
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I talked to them. We get together. We spent
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on Zoom hours trying to work this
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out. First of all, because, it's hard to
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corral independent podcast. What you I mean, you know there's every time
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somebody reports on a number of podcasts, they're they talk about the 1,000,000.
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But there's there's still even if you look at the number
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of podcasts that are over 50 over 50 episodes,
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there's still 70 or 80,000 of those. Right? Well,
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I saw something, recently. There's only
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330,000, what they're calling, active podcasts. Someone who's spent an
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episode in the last, maybe it's like 50 days or something like that.
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So, yeah. It's it's a broad market, but it really isn't
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as big as it's often advertised as. And
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so this is a technology thing. So when I first started doing
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reviews, and I started that early on in the process.
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I used to have a publication called Podcast Reviews back in 2010.
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Oh, early. Early. And so that failed largely because there just wasn't
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enough people paying attention. But back then when I did
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reviews, if I listened to a independent
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podcast as compared to the few network ones. So
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back early then, TV Guide actually got a podcast.
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PC, PC Magazine had a podcast.
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Leo Laporte's been around forever. He had one.
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You could tell the difference right away between a professional
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podcast and an independent podcast simply because
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the technology their technology generally wasn't very
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good. They didn't have the mics. They didn't have the system. A lot of
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times people were trying to learn Audacity at the same time as they were doing
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their podcast. And so you could tell the difference right away. And I
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went back and looked at some of my old articles. And I used to have
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a section where I would talk about sound quality. Now it's
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rare that I'll do that largely because most of the independents the the
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sound quality, it matches the some of the best
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professional podcasts that are out there. I mean, you can't tell the difference between,
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say, a Jordan Harbinger podcast. He's an big
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time interview guy. And a smaller podcast like,
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Ayesha Khan does every single sci fi film
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ever Oh. From England. You couldn't tell the difference in the sound
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quality. I'll show the technology has come a long way. I remember when
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I first started doing this on my own outside of a media company,
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the first mic I bought was a blue snowball mic. It's
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like $80. It was terrible. And now
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for $60, I can get a Samsung
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Q2U or an ATR 211100 and, right, it's
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it's hard to discern the difference, especially now with the AI tools that are out
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there to improve the audio. But yeah. Back in the day, I used to say
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people sounded like they were podcasting from their mom's basements. Exactly. Yeah.
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Because you could they they sounded, like, really far away. Sometimes,
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2 people or 3 people tried to use one mic, and you could tell
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they'd get the pops. All those things were going on. But that's for a
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pod independent podcast that gets a good amount
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of, listens, that's rare for that to happen now. You can't really
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tell the difference between them. I mean, there's there's a podcast called,
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6, Degrees of, Cats. It it's
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one of the award winners. It's by this woman who's called, she
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calls herself Captain Kitty, but her name is Amanda B.
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She uses do you remember Rick Taylor, the
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old comedian back from the nineties? He would have throw the Yeah.
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And squeeze horns and everything. She throws
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every sound trick and design and device that you have
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at it. There's always something happening there, which for an independent guest,
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she's got a lot going on. You would think, well, I'll just keep it as
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simple as possible. But she's that good that she makes it good. It's
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a deep, rich, sort of resonant tone to the whole
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podcast. You know, it's funny you say that too because now I hear some
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professional podcast and when they don't sound good, I
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think to myself, why the hell can't you sound as good
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as all these other people? I I, notably,
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I listen to Jon Stewart's new podcast every once in a while. And sometimes I
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wonder if he even has a mic. Oh. And I'm like, this is a guy
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who worked in television. He's got, you know, he his quality should not
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be an issue. And sometimes I find that it is, which is
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strange. That's actually funny you should say that because he just started that weekly
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podcast, and I listened to it because I'm a fan. My reaction was actually
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the same way. I'm like, wait. Is he not doing this in in the
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studio, or is he just doing this at home? Or what's going on here? Well,
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he he was doing one when he had the Apple show too. Yeah. Uh-huh.
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And that was similar. He must be doing it from home. And, again, somebody just
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buy him a q 9 u or a a, you know, There are
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mics for less than $300 you could buy that just plug it in work. It
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shouldn't be that simple. But, anyway, so so you you know, there's
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no difference now. Right? Quality is no longer an issue.
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Right. Right. It's not it's it's a leveling factor now. Exactly.
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So, I think one of you were talking about, podcasting
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in relation to all the other activities that people can
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participate in. And it's podcasting's not just competing with
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themselves, but with Netflix and, video games.
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And so one of the strengths of independent podcasting
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that I think, the wonders of the world and Spotify still
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haven't picked up on is that podcasting, right from the
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beginning, was a niche is a niche within a
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niche. So, for example, one of the things I love to
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do is search for unique podcasts.
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So there's a guy who he hasn't done one a little bit.
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He does a podcast about tattoos, which isn't that unusual.
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And he has a audio he has a video part, of course, to show the
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tattoos. But the thing but the difference is he
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does it about tattoos that people have messed up. And so
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it's it's actually pretty hilarious. And so he he goes around,
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apparently, takes pictures of people's tattoos. And he'll say,
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well, somebody will have a misspelling or whatever. But the the whole
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idea I mean, it's kinda quirky, but the whole idea is that you can have
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a podcast in which the topic
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is so arcane that no other format
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would even touch it. They're like, okay. If I write a book on this, how
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many people will read it? 50 people? But with a podcast, I think I
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was telling you earlier, there's a woman that I used to work with.
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She started a sewing podcast called Sew What, which is
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a great name. She ended up with, she passed
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during COVID, of COVID, but she ended up with 5,000 listeners
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before she passed on a sewing podcast. It was amazing. And if
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she didn't do it weekly, she would get people saying, well,
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where's the where's the podcast? It just and so you would think,
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well, who wants to hear about sewing? Well, apparently, at
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least 5,000 people did. She didn't do any marketing, or she
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didn't do any social media, no SEO, 0. And she
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still got 5,000 people. So for a lot of these people that
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are in these awards, these are a lot of them, if you look at
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them, they're you they're unique topics
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or they're topics that everybody does that are they've done
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extremely well. And so a good example of
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that I actually brought my list here so I could look at it so I
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don't mess anybody up. So here's one, here which
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is pretty unique. It's called Because the Boss Belongs to Us.
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This is a pretty recent one. It's, 2 women
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from, England, and their whole
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concept is so they are part of the LGBTQ
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community. Their whole concept is they wanna make Bruce
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Springsteen a gay icon. Yeah. And that was that
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was my reaction too. The state of New Jersey is gonna have some words with
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you about that. And so, they,
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they start out by saying, when you think about gay musical
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icons, who do you think of? Shelton John. Cher. Mariah
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Carey. But we're gonna work hard in order we're going to
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make Bruce Springsteen a gay icon. And it's a
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limited series, and I finished 4 episodes so
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far. But it's terrific in which they do it. They
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they took take some of his songs. They they look at some of the
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lyrics related to their life and their lifestyle. It's a very
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unique and different and quirky podcast. How do you find a
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podcast? Like, are you just searching for podcasts or
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are people submitting them? Sometimes both. Sometimes somebody because
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of, so luckily, and thanks to the
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people who read, I usually get in different formats
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about 5 to 10000 people a week. So I will so people
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will read and obviously podcasters will read. Somebody will send me a message.
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Here's a good example of one of the
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audio fiction podcasts. It's a podcast
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called Hobo Code. So hobo
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is is an older word from the depression. Right.
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People that rode the rails, the hobos. And it
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it was designed by a couple people. It's a Shane
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Portman, a Paul Packler and Ruth Gamble. That's
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Shane's wife. They're Hollywood people. They're not podcasting people.
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They're video people. They're filmed. They have won a couple
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awards in Hollywood. They decided to do on their own an audio
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podcast. And so they I think Shane and Paul wrote
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it, and it's called The Hobo Code. And it's about these 2 hobos
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and this young girl, who her parents have
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left her with this, cruel uncle. And her life is
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so bereft of anything positive that
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her toy is a soup can.
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And, if you go out and look at their great job on the graphic
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design. If you look at it, The hobo code's written inside the soup
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can. But it's just absolutely a terrific audio
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fiction podcast. There's no actors you would know. Oh,
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I think that that actually there is, trying to think there is. They were
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able to get somebody at scale, and I'll have to look it
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up and who it is, but, they got one actor that we would know,
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there. And, oh, it's Bill, Bill
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Pullman. Oh, yeah. I know. That's Not a not a small name.
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I know. I couldn't I couldn't think of his name. I was kept thinking Bill
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Paxton because that's not possible, sadly. But it was Bill
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that got Bill Pullman, to have a small role in there. But, anyway, it's a
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terrific podcast. It, it came
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out about 6 months ago. They sent me a message saying, hey. Can you
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listen to our podcast? And listen to it and absolutely loved
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it. Send it to the other folks that I know and a few other podcasters.
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And I, you know, I
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know a few people who do podcast marketing, send it to them. And
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so now that he sent me a message the other day. So we started
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out on episode 1 with
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25 25 downloads and about
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40% completion rate. And now he's up to
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7,000 and a 70 2,
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74% completion rate. So that's darn good.
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That's pretty good. Yeah. So you're not
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putting these up there and letting people vote? It's you and, like, a committee that's
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kinda making this choice? Yes. We were gonna do it the other way.
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That's actually I'm glad you brought that up. But we just thought that that
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would mean a lot of because of these podcasts are
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indies, so a lot of people have never heard of them before. So it would
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be like, okay, you have to go out and listen to it. And we thought
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that was such a long process. We need we wanted to jump start
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this. I mean, some of these podcasts do get it's not like
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they're they're not getting downloads. There's a podcast called Salad
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with a Side of Fries. Yeah. And one of the things
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I love about that is it's a health and wellness
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podcast by this woman, Jen Trebek. And she's kind of interesting
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because she since you worked for the Wall Street Journal, she worked in New York
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City for a couple of investment firms. That was her background.
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She decided that this isn't fulfilling enough. I'm gonna do something different. And she
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got into fitness training. And from that, she started a podcast
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and and a whole fitness regimen called salad with a side of fries.
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And the whole idea that's, which I love is, which is kind of
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baked into the to the name, is that salad, which
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has this healthy halo effect, and fries,
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which does not, her concept is you don't have
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to you can still have fun, eat, cheat a
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little bit, and still be healthy. And that that's so
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she she'll go on and look at how
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diets sometimes are counterproductive, and they don't work. And you
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don't have to go and do something where if your mouth touches
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a carb, oh my gosh, I have to cleanse myself. So it's it's
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a great podcast. I I think it's interesting that you
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decided not to go the voting route also because what you have often are
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podcasters who will use their audience to and
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not cheat, but, you know, they'll they'll put
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their thumb on the scales. Right? If you have a really
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great podcast but only has a few 1,000 downloads
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and you have a decent podcast but has a few 20,000
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downloads or 40,000 downloads, right, that person's gonna
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probably win because they're gonna get their audience, they're gonna mobilize, they're gonna get the
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votes, and it's gonna take over. So I like the fact that you're, you know,
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you're listening, you're making a judgment, you and a a few others are deciding.
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You know, it's it it almost feels like the difference
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between certain award shows during the movie season. Right? Like the Oscars versus the
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Emmys versus the, you know, the other ones. Right? Where the sag where
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the actors actually vote versus where the, you know, the foreign press votes
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versus this and this. So that that's that's interesting. So as a
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reminder, we are chatting with Frank Raciope. Got it right back.
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Excellent. Owner and manager of Earworthy Publication, podcast reports
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dotblogspot.com, author of a few books, including Earworthy,
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and you can check out we'll have a link, by the way, to the article
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that announced the 2024 Earworthy winners.
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So you can, you know, see some of these shows, listen to some of the
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ones that we're talking about. Now that you've done this, do you
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have plans for what you're gonna do next year? Are you going
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to change things up? Are you gonna do some sort
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of, like, you know, live reveal like we might get for, you know, some of
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these other awards or anything like that, or still gonna keep it,
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tight ship like ever right now? Oh, great question again.
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And the answer is that we are gonna do some things different, largely
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because we did get a lot of attention because of the
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award. So to be honest, we would like to include
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people like you. And
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Matthew's a little if you didn't see that, Matthew's a little suspect on
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that, but a lot of other people into the process.
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Going back to the the voting thing, and you are right about that. But if
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you look at a lot of the major awards, they're they always, generally speaking,
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are by committee. The the committee are bigger names
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than me, like James Crinlin or Ariel Nissenblad or
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Brian Barletta, Bigger names, but it's still the same
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concept. This committee gets together and decides who's gonna win the award.
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So that may not change. It's just that the committee itself
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would would grow and bring some people in, including
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some of These winners. These winners and some of independent
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podcasts. Well, I I think Ariel's on the
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list of somebody who won this past year with her show, Ariel and
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Ned's Daily Tips. Yeah. And Ariel, I believe, is the one
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who drew my attention to. I believe she posted about it and mentioned and
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talked about it. And, you know, she she is
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a huge advocate and champion of independent podcasters. And
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so when she said this was a worthy cause, I said, yep. Yep. I'm gonna
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have to look into this and, check-in with Frank and and see what's going on.
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So I am glad I caught that message from her. I'm glad we got the
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chance to chat. While we have you, we have a couple of questions we like
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to ask for all of our podcasters. Is there
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a place in the podcasting world where you would
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like to see improvement? It could be software, equipment,
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right, anything. It's just is there just something about podcasting and you've you've paid
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attention to it for a lot longer than most? Is there something today that you
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wanna see done better? Oh, great question. I
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I am a faithful listener of your podcast, and I love when
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you ask that question. People have terrific answers. But it's a it's a
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good ending question. There's a couple things. One
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is, I think, just for existing
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podcasters, both network or independent, they
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really need to look at editing their podcast.
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I I think we talked about this when you said a podcast is as long
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as it needs to be. Yep. Right? Which is which is
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excellent. But there's people that somehow because
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of people like Dan Carlin and Joe Rogan, they're thinking, I'm you know
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what? My podcast can go, 2, 2 and a half hours.
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Especially interview podcasts where I've listened to podcasts where
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the interview is excellent, except I listen to points where, well,
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you're kinda saying the same thing again. You probably coulda edited this. And instead of
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90 minutes, it could have been 40 minutes and just as effective. So I see
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that trend where they're going longer. And
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that that doesn't just have an effect on
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that particular podcast. But so think about how most
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podcasts, even with YouTube, are consumed.
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Generally speaking, most people are consuming podcasts and they're
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doing something else. So it's not as if I'm gonna sit down and
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watch Netflix. Okay. I'm just doing that other than probably
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looking at your phone. Right. We all do. But
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podcasting is, hey. You know what? I'm need to go out and garden. You know,
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I'll throw in my, AirPods and I'll listen to the podcast.
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Well, for me, like, I did that the other day because the
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heat broke in South Jersey and other parts of country. I was able to finally
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get out, do my roses and things. So I was out there for about an
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hour and a half. Well, that got me I listened to the
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your episode with the gentleman about trailer, Graham Mhmm. Which I
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thought was fascinating. I listened to 2 other podcasts. I listened to Double Take, which
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is a
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Always Always like, alright. What's coming on Netflix or Paramount Plus? They'll these two
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ladies will tell you. But so I got to listen to all those
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in 90 minutes. Yours was about 20. Hers was
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about 20. So I listened to 4 4 or 5 podcasts in,
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90 minutes. Now somebody decides,
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oh, I'm gonna run 1 an hour and 45 minutes. I guess I could just
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shut it off at one point, but, I'd like to get them to
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completion. So it it kinda crowds out your ability
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to to, do other things and listen to
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multiple podcasts. Yeah. I find myself having
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sometimes the opposite problem, which is I we got a dog
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recently. So a lot of my podcast consumption, I was walking the dog. And so
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I find myself listening to a show, finish walking the dog, and be like,
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oh, I still wanna hear what happens next. I need to find something else to
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listen to. But, yeah, I I I agree with
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you that there are many, many podcasts who are going
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long for the sake of going long, and you really have
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to respect your audience's time. You are typically giving
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this away for free, but we have to invest our
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time. And time is honestly a
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bigger valuable asset than anything else because
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it's fleeting. So don't go long for the sake of going long.
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Don't be short for the sake of being short. Deliver value, avoid being
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repetitive and boring. You'll put out a good podcast. That's
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my thoughts. No. Absolutely. I agree. And the and
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and the other part of that is for the the time is that
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now that video podcasts are a lot more popular and they're on,
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I think YouTube now has become has it become the number one sort
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of landing spot for podcasts? Or am I wrong? I
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There are no. There are articles and there are claims that that may be true,
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and it's it's really hard to measure. But Right. Yes. YouTube is a major player
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in the podcasting world now. Right. So whether it's you can do
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audio podcasts on YouTube. But whether it's audio or
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video, when you put them up there, people can again,
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especially if it's a video, they can only consume one thing at one time. So
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if you have thousands and thousands of
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podcasts, you need to look at, hey. At what
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point here do, even for a person
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who does independent podcasts, most of these people here, and this is
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pretty common in the independent podcasting world, seem to have more than one
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podcast. You're shaking your head. For some reason, I'll talk to somebody. Hey,
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I really like your podcast. Oh, well, you know, I have like 4 more.
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Which one? I have 4 more. And then, you know, like, well,
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okay. I'm I'm gonna come back to my next
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question usually. So the the question I was asking, this is hard because you do
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the awards. But is there a podcast
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in your library that when that one drops,
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you will stop whatever it is you're listening to and go right to that
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one? Great question. I listened to the gentleman the other day. That was a
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that was a good question. The answer to that is I'm I'm cheating because
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I'm looking at my list here. There's a
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this is a different. There's a guy who won the award. His name
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is Zale Mednick. He's a ophthalmologist from
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Toronto, Canada. K. So I know that's you're like, wait, an
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ophthalmologist. Going? Yeah. You worked for UPS, not a you were not a doctor.
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So he is such a great
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interviewer. As soon as his podcast drops, I'll
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right away, they'll listen to it. Because he has the ability
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to conduct an interview in which he draws out the
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person so they can give you their insight.
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And he also is able to address
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conventional wisdom. And a lot of the times, these guests end up being
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people who say whatever most people believe isn't true. That's why it's
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called preconceived notions. But he's he's terrific.
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I am I I never really do this, but I'm actually in my Overcast
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app trying to find this podcast right now because that seems like a
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very strong, recommendation. So,
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Zale, if you are listening to this at some point, you just got a new
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subscriber. There you go. Cool. Alright. And then
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lastly, and I know you don't really produce a
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lot of podcasting content. Right? You just write about it primarily. But is there some
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sort of tech that you wanna see in the podcasting world or some sort of
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device that would improve podcasting either from
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the production or the listening side of things?
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Again, a good question. And you're right. I'm not a technology person. However,
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I did a review of a podcast from the Boston
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Consulting Group. And in the podcast, they did something I thought was kind of
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interesting. They created an AI
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cohost. And yeah. I know. And so
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it was a female, and I've forgotten her name. But, anyway, so there was
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a a BCG, Boston Consulting Group. Had their host.
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He was very good. And he would converse with her, and they
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would talk about AI in the, workplace.
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And then we they would talk. And I'm like, wow. This is, this is
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pretty amazing that they would do that. So by saying that, I'm not
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advocating I'm not an advocate of there's like a Joe Rogan AI podcast and other
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people. So,
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That'd put a lot of people out of business and not be anywhere near as
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good as, people. But
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I I think there are AI tools and listening to your
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podcast and mister Driscoll, who's in Minnesota, there are
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AI tools that can make your podcast so much
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more seamless, flawless, better technically. And
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not just from the technical perspective, but also from the perspective of
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just the content as well. So, yeah, I am an
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advocate for AI when used appropriately and not to
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replace people. Not listening, I don't wanna hear an an
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AI host. It's funny you said that because, yeah, there's a lot more.
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I've seen, just recently, maybe even this morning in Pod News. I
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think James had an article about a software that
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will read a white paper and turn it into, like, a 5 minute
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podcast, which is useful, but, right,
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somebody should be doing that instead of the AI.
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I remember seeing a great quote. It's like, I'd much rather have my AI
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doing my laundry and taking out the trash and not having it
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replace my artists. Like, that would make the world a better place, and we seem
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to be Yeah. On the opposite side of the spectrum. And, of course, one area
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that's related to podcasting that is impacted by that is
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the audiobook narration industry because they're they're scared
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about that. I I did I listened to, an audiobook,
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by an AI. It was it was a short book. So it's only a 49
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page book and by the author. And the idea was you're supposed to
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kind of weigh them to see which one you thought was better.
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The AI was quite good, but there's something there's something,
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sterile and sort of vacant about the AI voice that the the author
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put something into it. And I still would gravitate towards the
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author than the, the AI voice. So I imagine that's
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not too dissimilar to you're you're here with a journal that has the Beatles
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on it. I imagine you're the same kind of person who would say, you
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know, the CD sounds great, but there's just something about the
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record. My gosh. Right? It just has a different warmth. And that's probably a very
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similar thought with, you know, these new AI technologies versus
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the, versus the actual person who is, you know, performing that
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podcast. You must have been looking at my home because I have a great, vinyl
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collection. Absolutely. You you and my uncle would get along very well. He's a
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huge Beatles person. We'll we'll talk about the that is not a
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value to the audience. So we'll take that off there, and we'll we'll wrap it
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up. Got it. But, I this has been fascinating. I'm so glad. 1, I was
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I was pleasantly surprised to see that you're in South Jersey, and so I'm glad
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we got the chance to meet Thank you. And to talk about this. And I
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I look forward to as you prepare for 2025,
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hopefully, we can do this again and get more people involved and get more submissions
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and get more excitement around it. But, we've been chatting with Frank
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Graziope. He's the owner and manager of Earworthy Publication
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podcast reports.blogspot.com, author of several books, including
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Earworthy, and we'll call you the founder. Sounds like you have a few other
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folks with you, but founder of the Earworthy Independent Podcast
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Awards, which, we'll have a link to that article. You can check out all the
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winners. A great list. A few names that you might recognize from this show,
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including our friend, Danny Brown, who at this time, his episode hasn't
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dropped, but it will soon. And so, I'm so glad to see that he,
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he made that list as well. And, before we go, a special thanks to
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Joe Gondjemi at Sweet Recording with Thank you, Joe. Pleasure of hosting us.
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But, Frank, a real pleasure. Thanks for coming in today. Matthew, thank you. I appreciate
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it. It was a it was a good time. Thank you. Thanks for joining us
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today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all the hardware
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and software that help power our guest content
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platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and review while
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you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting
Speaker:
Tech.
Frank Racioppi
Owner and Manager
Frank Racioppi is the dynamic owner and manager of Ear Worthy Publications, celebrated for launching the Earworthy Independent Podcast Awards. With a keen eye for recognizing podcasting excellence, Frank has championed independent voices in a media landscape dominated by large networks. His passion for promoting niche podcasts, like those about unique tattoos or sewing, showcases his dedication to diversity in audio content. A staunch advocate for high-quality production, Frank has significantly contributed to the elevation of sound standards in the podcasting realm. Beyond awards, he is an author and an influencer, continually inspiring the next generation of podcasters. Based in South Jersey, Frank shares a mutual admiration for The Beatles, adding a touch of personal warmth to his professional pursuits. He is the author of the following books: "Stop For My School Bus...Or Else" "Away from Home" "Hit Pause For Life" "A Suburban Prison" "Ear Worthy" "The COVID Hotel" "For The Love Of Books" You can find my books on Amazon.