New Show Format

[Talung]

Hi Gene,

I have been an avid listener of the paracast for the past couple of months and it has become one of my favourite podcasts... until the last show.

Is there any chance of you offering the podcast, via a paid subscription even, with less than an hour of commercials? I know you need them to support your income etc, but after 30 minutes in the last show it was becoming ridiculous. Three sentences of talking followed by 5 minutes of commercials, followed by 3 more sentences and then another 5 minutes of conversation.

Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much. I felt it completely stunted the flow of conversation. Listening while driving mean't I couldn't flick past the commercials, frustrating experience and one of the reasons I don't listen to the radio. Also, not being in the States mean't that those commercials for gold traders and happy smiles and other crap completely missed me or other international listeners as an audience.

I am sure I am not the only one that was completely bugged by this massive change. Although the chick from namechief was annoying as hell, it was only twice in the 2 hours, bring her back if it means getting rid of the current avalanche of commercials.

Here's hoping that there can be some sort of solution so that i can begin listening to your top quality podcast.

Thanks
Tal

 

[Gene Steinberg]

The change is nowhere near as drastic. We now break roughly every 9 to 11 minutes. It used to be 14 to 16 minutes.

These are the same break points as just about every network talk show out there in the U.S. on a commercial station.

We added 12 minutes of content over a 2 hour and 37.5 minute episode. The other 25.5 minutes are spots. The news breaks and the ads for those segments are dropped. The total show runs 3 hours in the actual network feed.

This is the price you pay for commercial radio. You either remain ad-driven or paid. If we go paid, we lose 95% of our audience and we'd barely pay the server and electric bills each month.

If you don't like ads use Fast Forward. That's what I do on my TV with the DVR. I'm not trying to be flippant. These are the realities of the business.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Talung]

The change is nowhere near as drastic. We now break roughly every 9 to 11 minutes. It used to be 14 to 16 minutes.

These are the same break points as just about every network talk show out there in the U.S. on a commercial station.

We added 12 minutes of content over a 2 hour and 37.5 minute episode. The other 25.5 minutes are spots. The news breaks and the ads for those segments are dropped. The total show runs 3 hours in the actual network feed.

This is the price you pay for commercial radio. You either remain ad-driven or paid. If we go paid, we lose 95% of our audience and we'd barely pay the server and electric bills each month.

If you don't like ads use Fast Forward. That's what I do on my TV with the DVR. I'm not trying to be flippant. These are the realities of the business.

Thanks for listening.

Hi Gene,

I do understand the commercial realities. That's why I asked about a paid subscription for those of us want to listen to it commercial free. I am not asking to remove the adverts from the podcast available to the the public, but to have an additional one with no or much less commercials.

As I wrote earlier, I listen to the podcast while driving and don't want to be fiddling with my phone skipping past commercials... that's way too dangerous and there are too many terrible drivers out there already to risk the lack of attention on the road.

Thanks
Tal

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Our network agreement requires us to accept their ads as part of the distribution package.

If we get large enough, I suppose we can dictate terms. But not yet.

Meantime I certainly want you to drive safely, and remember that nobody stops you from editing the episodes you download for your own use.

 

[Artyom]

After a bit of a practice I managed to fast forward an episode on my iPod Touch pretty easily. As you fast forward an episode you can hear like 0.5 sec of an episode periodically, with like 3-4 sec period, and so you can spot a moment when you need to stop and if you miss a point where a discussion continues just hit "rewind 30 sec back". I know it's a bit of a hassle but I'm on 100 % with Gene in this question. If you record two versions of each episode you need to double your hosting expenses and you need to find enough amount of listeners to cover these additional expenses. You and me won't be enough.

 

[Jeff Crowell]

I download and listen to several other podcasts. Like Talung, I listen to them while I commute, and don't have the opportunity to fast forward while driving. My life is also busy enough that I simply do not have the time to edit out the commercials of a 3 hour program every week.

We've gone from 1 commercial every break to 5 or 6. Not only is that the annoying part but the show is literally interrupted three times as often, now, and that means cutting off guests and severing train of thought while trying to listen. With SO many commercials I tune out the radio and by the time the program starts back up I simply don't care who's talking or what the topic is. I also, honestly, feel bad for the guests who, while chugging away at a solid thought, are cut off mid-sentence, sitting there talking a few more words before they realize they're being talked right over. Then there's that awkward time when Gene is talking about "We'll have a cliff hanger!" (like the commercial is a good thing or something) and the guest is stewing at being cut off.

It sucks. Every other podcast I listen to either has 0 commercials or only 1 between breaks, and three of them are also syndicated radio shows! Those are among the ones that have no commercials in them. I guess their logic is if you're listening to it live, immediately, you have to listen to the commercials for that benefit, but if you're downloading it in the future then you're getting old information and shouldn't have to choke through (or fast forward through) the commercials.

Of course the standard reply..."If you don't like the new format, stop listening" will be bantered around. Believe me, I barely listened to half of the last episode and it's likely the BS commercials will get me to the point that I will stop. Weighing 8 minutes of information and entertainment with 10 minutes of survivalist BS propaganda isn't really a fair trade to any Paracast listener. I also agree with Talung; I think I'd rather pay a subscription fee than suffer through much more of these lengthy, tedious commercials. We'll see how much longer my tolerance lasts.

My two cents.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

I'm sorry the setup disturbs you, but as I've said, the arrangement is the same as every other networked talk radio show in the US. We use the standard Clear Channel "clock."

We also provide 12 minutes of additional content this way for each episode.

Remember, too, that most podcasts are either hobbies or run very few ads because they can't sell any. There is no viable financial model that allows most of them to cover expenses and pay a few basic bills. Advertisers, with rare exceptions, don't take them seriously even if they have large audiences.

There is also no viable financial model for a pay-only show unless you also have a few million listeners for an ad-supported version.

I've been doing online radio since 2003. I had the tech show going ahead of most everybody, so I've suffered from the school of hard knocks.

With the new format, we actually have many more downloads, even though we've expanded to terrestrial radio. More people are signing up for the forums and we're getting more letters than ever. Someone is listening.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

One more thing: While I realize that many of the GCN advertisers focus on disaster prevention and survival, the truth is that most radio ads cover the same subjects in a less provocative fashion. Have a headache, take a pill. Depressed, take a pill. Get insurance to protect yourself from — disaster! Car wrecks, house fire, floods, etc. And where'd the ad world be without the famous GEICO Gecko?