The Listening Post…..

….Earlier this year I won an iPod in a draw, and started listening to podcasts. I get insomnia quite a lot, so it’s something to listen to in bed that doesn’t disturb my partner. Wanting to do something useful with those hours, I listen mainly to science and web design podcasts.
After listening to maybe a hundred varied podcasts, I think I can give some advice to would-be podcasters – here it is:
1) Decide whether your podcast is going to be strictly informational, or an hour of mucking around with your two bestie mates before a visit to the pub. Please don’t mix the two styles. Just don’t, OK?
2) Never assume that nobody over 45 listens to podcasts; this could lead you into making unfunny, insulting cracks about the “oldie demographic”. Your bestie mates may think this is comic genius, but nobody else will. Especially the oldies in your audience.
3) Invite a few over-45s onto your show for interviews, or even a spot of presenting. If you don’t know any suitably qualified over-45s, you don’t get out enough.
4) Invite a few women onto your show for interviews, or even a spot of presenting. If you don’t know any suitably qualified women, you don’t get out enough.
5) When recording, speak with the 4Cs: clearly, crisply, confidently and conversationally. If you know you have nervous verbal tics such as stuttering, gulping, “umms”, “y’knows” etc, work at getting rid of them for at least the length of a broadcast. Or get somebody else to do most of the speaking.
6) Check the acoustic qualities of the place you’re recording in. Unless you want to sound like you’re recording from your bathroom, or from above Platform 6 of Birmingham New Street station.
7) If you have to talk about something visual in an audio podcast – a diagram, say, or a web page – refrain from saying things like “And as you can see here, where I’m pointing…”
8 ) Jokes are fine – really. So long as they’re both funny and relevant. However, if the percentage of jokes starts outnumbering the informational content, consider marketing your podcast as comedy. That way, listeners won’t risk waking up their partners by giggling.