How to Start A Hyper Local Podcast

You don't need to be Joe Rogan to make a difference in your community

Thanks for hearing my call for local podcasts!

The response has been close to overwhelming, so I've put together a primer that will get you started.

First make sure you have something to say! It can be as little as giving a rundown of when your local city council or school board is having meetings and the agenda that will be discussed. People know so little about these meetings and they are often announced in the back page of a local paper or on their website.

From here you can have a conversation with a friend or someone who is interested, just make it a conversation, no need to get fancy until you have done a couple of episodes.

Remember that people are always interested in hearing a conversation, make sure you have an email address that people can send feedback to, and read these on the air when applicable or appropriate.

That's literally how No Agenda started 17 years ago, JCD and I just talked on skype (the technology of the time) and recorded it. These early episodes were about 20 minutes and we just discussed what we were reading in the news. Do the same, except keep it local.

Golden rules:

Try to do one show a week and release it on the same day of the week around the same time of the day. People get used to their podcast schedules and will be expecting it. When you miss your window, they may replace that time with something different.

Don't set a length. When you're out of things to say, end it. Your podcast can be as long or short as you have things to talk about.

Collect email addresses and send out a reminder the day before you release a new episode to remind people to be on the lookout. This will be your podcast's most valuable asset.

Technical:

You will need a hosting company. While there are several free options, I strongly recommend against this. Paid for services give you access to live personal help, and you will probably need it as some point. If you are serious, the ~$8 month will be well worth the investment.

There are several hosting companies I can recommend; they make the process easy with use of voice transcription and automatically make recommendations for titles, chapters, summaries and even artwork. This makes your life much easier as you get the hang of things and will want to tweak your descriptions and titles. They are smaller companies and therefore offer more hands-on help when you need it, certainly as you get started. They are there to help you get underway, don't be shy to ask for their help!

I recommend RSS.com and podhome.fm

I strongly advise against doing video! It won't add anything to getting started or building an audience other than additional headaches and work! You also no longer have 'ownership' of your audience if you upload to 'platforms'. Your RSS feed is your direct connection to your listeners, wherever they get their podcasts!

Both of my recommended hosting companies offer you a website that you can point people toward.

If you don't have a microphone or recording gear, rest assured that you can get started with just your smartphone if you don't have any budget, just speak into it closely to remove ambient noise.

But of course you want to get started with a professional sound as soon as you can and this is the minimum gear I can recommend that will achieve outstanding results.

AudioSigma makes a device I have personally tested and helped improve. The PodMobile offers all the processing you will need for two microphones and an external source such as your smartphone or computer. You can play sound files from your computer or even connect it to zoom or any other video or audio conferencing software to talk to remote guests.

There are many recording software applications you can use. By far the most used that also is open source and thus freely available is Audacity

My secret weapon for a GREAT microphone is the FIFINE XLR. It costs $30 but sounds like a $300 mic. You can get it on Amazon:

Headphones are a personal choice, but I like over the ear headphones so there's no feedback. Prices vary wildly. The Sony Studio Headphones are reasonably priced at $95, but again, you can use just about anything that works for you:

This should get you up and running. Of course there is so much more to launching a show and it will depend on many factors. I highly recommend looking at the many lessons Dave Jackson has at his School of Podcasting. It is the perfect resource for beginners.