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Writer's pictureInside Audio Marketing

It’s Not Just The Podcast Biz That’s Evolving. So Is The Technology That Powers It.

Radio and podcast companies, both large and small, are devoting more resources to podcasting as the channel continues to capture more ears, eyes, and ad dollars. While content is king and distribution is queen, none of it happens without technology. Having a backend that can consistently generate high-quality audio and video is paramount, a panel of production and tech execs said at NAB Show New York.


When plying your trade in news, a backend that enables speed and efficiency is essential, said Matt DeGroot, VP of Production at Crooked Media/Pod Save America. “It’s really important for us to make that back-end production flow as quick and seamless as possible,” he said during the show’s first-ever Radio and Podcast Interactive Forum.


Since the news has an ever-shorter shelf life, tech that enables a quick turnaround is crucial. DeGroot said the goal is to turn around and distribute a 90-minute podcast in a couple of hours. “We just can’t be caught up with really laborious processes or tech, so we’re constantly looking for shortcuts to make things more efficient and get things live as soon as we can.”


Dan Hirschl, VP of Engineering at Red Apple Media and Chief Engineer for talk WABC New York (770), said the ability to turn around quality content on a dime is vital when people are ingesting content on the fly on their phones, on trains, at the airport or wherever they are. “There is a time stamp of how quickly that [content] needs to come out,” he said.


Evolving with the technology that powers the channel is essential. Yervant Keshishian, Sales Engineer, Trainer & Technical Director at Varto Technologies, said the media production company focuses on reliability when building environments for radio, podcasting, or video production. “We want to have the best equipment complement possible that will hold up and allow the creatives to be creative so that they can efficiently produce that content.”


While once a luxury, video is increasingly viewed as table stakes in the podcast arena. “They have to have video these days because it allows you to get the message out and spread it around in so many different channels and mediums,” said Keshishian. “Video has truly become the kind of pinnacle of our communication now, the best way that we, as humans, can communicate with one another.”


Crooked Media’s bigger pivot to video was driven by a desire to tap into the searchability and serveability of YouTube’s platform, DeGroot confided. For some listeners, downloading a podcast app to seek out a show is cumbersome. But seemingly everyone uses YouTube, whose algorithm directs them to the content they like. “We can put something there and as long as we’re naming it strategically to make sure it’s clear what it’s about, the algorithm may serve it up to someone who could be interested in that show,” DeGroot said.


That logic served as a springboard for Crooked Media’s video expansion. Starting with just one channel that spewed a potpourri of American politics, foreign policy, pop culture, sports, and legal content, the company eventually gave each topic its own channel and environment. “They started growing exponentially faster than when they were all together,” DeGroot noted. “And it’s grown really fast, and it’s been really successful.”


Remote Tech To The Rescue


Although high-quality audio and video are crucial, that’s not always possible in certain live environments, like interviewing someone in a war zone or in a basement where the internet connection is weak. Technology can help make otherwise unusable audio or video serviceable, DeGroot said. For example, shortly after the war in Ukraine began, Crooked Media was interviewing a source in Kyiv, using Riverside.fm, which provides tech for recording remote podcasts and video interviews. “Sirens were going off, and the connection was really unstable,” DeGroot recalls. “We were like, ‘Oh, is this even going to be usable?’” Using Riverside technology — downloading the interview to their computer locally and then uploading afterward — what we ended up getting back almost instantly was a perfect camera feed. That’s just a lifesaver.”


While AM radio may not be at the forefront of technology, news and talk radio are content-generating machines. Because most of the programming at New York’s WABC is live and local, owner Red Apple Media can tap into a goldmine of content for podcasts and other channels. “If we’re generating 24/7 live content, we need to have a team that can go in and identify the moments within that content that are going to have the most impact and turn that around,” Hirschl said. “Is it a podcast? A TikTok post? An Instagram post? It’s going to get all sorts of different flavors to it once that content is produced and sent out into all the distribution channels that we have.” Podcasting has become a large part of Red Apple Media’s business, which also includes a syndication network with hundreds of affiliations, an ad agency and an FM station.


The panel — moderated by John Clark, Senior VP of Emerging Technology and Executive Director of PILOT at the National Association of Broadcasters — also highlighted the use of AI for transcription, captioning, and content optimization. The balance between in-studio and remote production was also emphasized.

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