Matt Cundill - The 'Sound Off' Podcast

It's been over three years since we had Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media on the show. He has an excellent feel for audio and how it is consumed, whether that is podcast, radio, streaming, voice or smart speakers. In particular, I have been fascinated with the advent of the smart speaker. Is it really a device that will save radio? Can it access those 1.8 million podcasts? How much of a game changer is it?

For the last five years, Matt and Terry Dimonte have gotten together for a podcast chat around Christmas time. Terry loves Christmas and its a chance to talk about radio and a whole lot more.

Jeff Vidler makes his third appearance on the podcast to talk about the Canadian Podcast listener study which does an annual deep dive into the progress and behaviour of podcast listeners in Canada. Over the last year, over 4600 people have contributed their study which brings together advertising insights and podcast listening trends. This is the 4th edition and Jeff has taken the time to tell us about what's new in Canadian Podcast listening.

It's safe to say that Growing up Much is something millennials and Gen Xers have in common. Erica Ehm was one of the first batch of VJs to grace Canadian airwaves back when MuchMusic launched in 1984. Her broadcast journey actually began in Montreal in the late 70's when she entered her College into a contest on CHOM-FM to have Max Webster play in the Marianapolis Cafeteria.

Things got a little weird at a conference a few years ago. There was a Michael Jackson impersonator, then the next conference it was Prince, then Madonna.... what was going on? Turns out those impersonators were a stunt by the people at Throwback Nation, a newly created syndicated show that was going to be targeting Classic hits stations across America.

Paul Kaye is the VP of Music Brands and In House Production at Rogers. When he was hired in July of 2017, it was mentioned that his position is an evolving one. True to that statement - his position remains as fluid as ever given the accelerating change for the medium and for the content creators who work in it.

Kevin Getz (pictured) is the swing announcer at 102.1 The Edge in Toronto. He recently came out with a brand new album. What makes the album unique is that it is a spoken word album full of his radio breaks. The collection of audio is an attempt to make his audio more durable, sustainable, marketable, and less disposable. In this episode, Kevin and I talked a lot about how breaks are put together, but what happens after that break is aired. He admits he is a hoarder and that he keeps everything he airs on hard drives.

Matt is on the road in Quebec this week and explains that the spoken word has more than than music to radio programmers. Canadian radio regulations need to be reviewed and instead of focusing on Cancon for music - maybe the CRTC should be focusing on regulating who is doing the talking and from where.

How did Pete Marier become Bad Pete? He tells us. I spent my teenage years listening to Pete Marier on my clock radio when he was at 980 CKGM and 95.9 CJFM. The next decade Pete was a co-worker and we've been friends since. We are not strangers to Winnipeg and Montreal radio, nor the task of raising three boys, So we always have lots of talk about

Alan Cross loves music. Over the last few months we have done a few episodes discussing radio on a pandemic planet. But what about the music industry? What about the business side of music? It is especially curious given that music's entire business model has been turned on its head since 1999. Income has shifted from selling physical music to subscriptions and live touring; the latter of which is now effectively cancelled for this year, and possibly next year.