(Mormon) Radio Open Source

This is good, especially for public radio, who sometimes strays into unappealing tangents. I love public radio, but they make a lot of fairly basic formatting and production mistakes (even a rookie like me sees them) that leaves markets like Salt Lake with 4 stations splitting less than 5% of the market share. The potential is so much greater, but there is no incentive or accountability.

I’ve been doing a looser form of this on my radio show for about a year. We don’t go through as many steps, but we tell our audience the hour belongs to them and if they want a particular show to email us. Then we track down the best experts, most interesting people and the most relevent people to do the show.

What we have here is an amalgam of “old” media and “new” media. The “new” media gives us the ability to increase the level, frequency and depth of interaction with our audience. The “old” media allows us to reach a lot of people, have the credibility to corner the Governor or other big wigs into an interview.

There are a few limitations that I see with “new” media that stands alone. Quality, frequency, consistency, credibility are some of them. Few blogs/podcasts overcome these. Mormon Stories is a rare exception.

I have watched over the past year as about a half dozen earnest folks have attempted Utah political podcasting and pittered out (wasn’t there some attempt at a Mormon Archipelago podcast that died?). The only exception is Jennifer Napier-Pearce’s Inside Utah. Incidentally, Jennifer is the former news director at KUER so she knows what she’s doing in interviews, producion and has personal credibility throughout the state. She, like Mormon Stories, is the rare exception of longevity and success in stand alone new media podcasting.

John, I think this is a fantastic idea for Mormon Stories. Mormon Stories is a podcast, but it is also a community where collective learning takes place. DO IT! :-)

3 Responses

Tom Grover says:

March 3, 2007 at 2:22 pm

This is good, especially for public radio, who sometimes strays into unappealing tangents. I love public radio, but they make a lot of fairly basic formatting and production mistakes (even a rookie like me sees them) that leaves markets like Salt Lake with 4 stations splitting less than 5% of the market share. The potential is so much greater, but there is no incentive or accountability.

I’ve been doing a looser form of this on my radio show for about a year. We don’t go through as many steps, but we tell our audience the hour belongs to them and if they want a particular show to email us. Then we track down the best experts, most interesting people and the most relevent people to do the show.

What we have here is an amalgam of “old” media and “new” media. The “new” media gives us the ability to increase the level, frequency and depth of interaction with our audience. The “old” media allows us to reach a lot of people, have the credibility to corner the Governor or other big wigs into an interview.

There are a few limitations that I see with “new” media that stands alone. Quality, frequency, consistency, credibility are some of them. Few blogs/podcasts overcome these. Mormon Stories is a rare exception.

I have watched over the past year as about a half dozen earnest folks have attempted Utah political podcasting and pittered out (wasn’t there some attempt at a Mormon Archipelago podcast that died?). The only exception is Jennifer Napier-Pearce’s Inside Utah. Incidentally, Jennifer is the former news director at KUER so she knows what she’s doing in interviews, producion and has personal credibility throughout the state. She, like Mormon Stories, is the rare exception of longevity and success in stand alone new media podcasting.

John, I think this is a fantastic idea for Mormon Stories. Mormon Stories is a podcast, but it is also a community where collective learning takes place. DO IT! :-)
Tom Grover says:

March 3, 2007 at 2:26 pm

I should add that in the next 2 weeks, we have 4 shows scheduled that were requests by our audience or people in our audience that were true experts (transportation planning, climate change) offering to come on the show.

The shows that are the most downloaded off our site are the shows that come from our audience. It’s a format that works.
Lissy Bergeson says:

May 24, 2007 at 2:01 pm

Jennifer Napier Pearce was a one time News Director of KCPW, not KUER ( just to be clear on the credibility credentials issue here).