3 things to know in podcasting today: Tuesday, January 7
The Heart: “We're f*cking back.”
Via The Heart’s email newsletter:
Hi friends. It’s me KP. [Kaitlin Prest.] I'm here in your inbox with some big news. The Heart will go on. The Heart: The Next Generation is upon us. The next chapter of a book that began many chapters ago on a community radio station in Montreal…. Now, re-starting this podcast, I want to recreate a version of the community radio station that gave us the freedom to be our radical-ass selves. I want to usher in emerging artists who are hungry for a platform to make their work, develop their voice and push artistic and political limits. Two artists in particular.
~ My hot take ~
The Heart is one of my favorite podcasts of all time, and I’m stoked to see it come back. The show started at Canadian community radio station CKUT back in 2008, when it was called Audio Smut. Then, Kaitlin Prest and Mitra Kaboli turned it into a podcast, joined Radiotopia and renamed itself The Heart, and went away for a bit. Now, with the recent launch of Mermaid Palace, the show is back and I can’t wait to hear the reinvoked mission to be their “radical-ass selves.” (Note: I can’t figure out how to link to the announcement from The Heart’s newsletter but you can see a version but for more information you can visit the Mermaid Palace website.)
Another Fired Radio Host Turns To Podcasting
The trend continues. Another fired radio host has turned to podcasting with hopes of bringing his radio listeners over to podcasting. The Chuck and Julie Show launches this Wednesday. Chuck Bonniwell cost him and his wofe [sic] Julie Hayden their jobs last month when they were fired by Salem after Bonniwell said, “you wish for a nice school shooting” to interrupt the impeachment proceedings.” Bonniwell made the podcast announcement on Twitter.
~ My hot take ~
Before I dig into it, here’s some more context, via the New York Times:
“All right, Chuck Bonniwell, Julie Hayden here, a little after 1:30, talking about the never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump,” Mr. Bonniwell said on the air. “Yeah, you wish for a nice school shooting to interrupt the monopoly—” Ms. Hayden quickly interjected. “No, no, not even,” she said, according to a recording of the show that was later posted by 9 News, a local television station. “Don’t even say that. No, don’t even say that. Don’t call us. Chuck didn’t say that.”
More context via the Times article, but obviously joking about a school shooting as a political solution isn’t great, and who knows what other awful stuff he’s said on air during his career. I want to side-step the whole cancel culture thing and think about how democratization in the audio world has allowed this. Anyone with a platform can self-distribute, and that’s what’s happening with Bonniwell and Hayden. We’ll see if their audience follows.
How to encode your audio: MP3 or AAC / M4A?
Via Podnews:
Should you use AAC or MP3? We think the answer to this question is “no”. You shouldn’t use one or the other; you should use both. It’s very clear that AAC produces nicer-sounding audio than MP3. So if you care about your audio, you should be producing a nice AAC version…. However, you should also produce an MP3 version for products that need it - most notably, Spotify.
~ My hot take ~
Technical stuff makes my head spin. I dig this guide from James Cridland because it just gets to the point and tells you what to do. (He also explains his reasoning if you wanna dive deeper.) That said, I wonder how many people would actually be able to hear the difference in the two — especially with iPhone earbuds.
A bonus tweet from @mermaid__palace ↓
Do you have dreams of making art this year?
1. Find a friend who also has a creative dream
2. Get together (virtual counts)
3. Dedicate one hour to your project
4. The next hour on your friend's project
This is how Sharon and Kaitlin get it done! Sha/Ka method 2020 🖤
(Twitter)
3 things to know in podcasting today is a daily newsletter from Alex Kapelman. Follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my *original* Podcast Love newsletter, or hire me to consult for you.