They are now off the wall answers on the quiz show Jeopardy. What we call, one-hit wonders.
Remember “Take Me On” by A-ha? How about the TV show “Clone High”? (Yeah. Me neither.) And of the 2.2 MILLION books published each year how many are on your shelf?
Media is tuned to find and respond to HITS. Big audience – Rush with 20M radio listeners…Netflix with Mrs. Maisel…or CBS with Big Bang Theory…we have a media ecosystem built on HITS. Big audiences…big ad value…big prestige.
So, let me argue that the value of audience SIZE shifts dramatically with podcasting. And we shouldn’t care! All the buzz about the hits – The Daily, Serial or any of the NPR hit podcasts miss my point entirely. These shows are simply an extension of existing media expectations. They count on large audiences to sell to national advertisers. iHeart, Radio.com, and TuneIn want the ad inventory for their clients.
What if it was reversed? And specifically, I’m talking about LOCAL podcast about businesses and personalities in your market.
Our theory is a good podcast can reach a very LIMITED number of listeners and be fabulously successful.
Ed Ryan, Senior Editor at Radio Ink magazine, has a podcast called Beach Talk Radio (https://beachtalkradio.com/) which he podcasts from a restaurant on the beach in Fort Myers, Florida. I don’t know how many listeners or downloads he has but he claims to get a great response from the residents in Fort Myers and has brought on several prominent sponsors to more than pay the bills. Does he care about his download numbers? Or his ranking in Apple podcast? Not a bit.
Podcasting offers local and regional clients an opportunity to connect with core clients in their market without the need for a mass audience. Suddenly a hit isn’t a hit. It’s just a successful audio program.