Podcast-ing

You don't want to be too infrequent with it, though. There's a lot of crap out there, and another big turn-off is a show that never has new episodes.
If it's once a week, once every two weeks, whatever, it's fine. Just make sure you have some sort of regular release schedule. Like sound quality, it's a little thing that can help separate you from the riffraff.

 

I found 'Serial' very interesting, which is 50 minutes and superbly polished.
I also love Pete Holmes' 'you Made It Weird,' which is very free-from and runs 90-120 minutes pretty often.

Sound has to be good, but the format does not have to be radio-pro quality. It's really a different format.
That said, hackey attempts to be zany and 'different' make me stop listening.

 

If you are at all into nerd culture or the business of comedy, I'd recommend the Nerdist podcast. The host has a lot of great guests, from scientists to comedians to actors.

What I like most about it, and what I think could be applied to your podcast, is that it is purely conversational. The host never has a list of questions he is reading from. They are just talking for about an hour, letting the conversation go where it wants. I listen to it when I drive and because of that format, I feel like I'm part of the convo.

 

We have one with our nerd blog here at the World, tulsaworld.com/prairienerds. It's fun. Usually 3-5 people sitting around talking what we want to talk about. We'll come up with a list of topics and then just go. Sometimes some of us do a little research to get ready, sometimes we just wing it. Either way, I'm told the last few have been really fun to listen to. I think the key is to know what you want to talk about, have a decent opinion and know a few interesting little facts to throw in here and there.

 

I want to do a weekly high school roundtable-type podcast during football, but nobody else is gung-ho about it.

 

My show is only five episodes in, but our download numbers are increasing every week. Not bad considering we're doing it with no money and only in-house promotion.

Any suggestions for getting the show out there beyond house ads innprint and banner ads online? I tweet links often during the week, too. Am I missing an obvious avenue?

 

I know this sounds stupid but go on other podcasts?

I listen to 8-10 movie podcasts on a semi-regular basis and I got into at least two or three because their hosts were guests once on shows I was listening to.

 

As far as I can tell, I'm the only person doing a sports podcast in Idaho. I'm trying to get myself invited on some of the local radio sports talk shows, but nothing so far. Of the three, one is hosted by the sports ed at the Boise paper, so technically a competitor. One of my colleagues is always going on ESPN Boise, a different show from the aforementioned, but he covers Boise State so he's on there all the time. He's trying to talk them into letting me come on radio, but, again, nothing so far.

So, I'm trying.