The Infinite Dial

With so many radio executives getting their heads around social networking and relationship building with listeners, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at Blog Talk Radio, a content network that was built from the ground up with just that purpose in mind. Using Blog Talk Radio's tools, all a host needs is a telephone and a computer, and boom--they have a talk show. One of the great things about BTR's system is that all of the tools to build true communities of listeners are built in--being the 100th caller is so 1999, after all. Blog Talk Radio shows feature live chat, automatically-created podcasts and other community tools to create a true two-way dialogue between hosts and listeners.

I sat down with John Havens, the VP of Business Development for BTR, to find out more about what they are doing, and how they are making podcasting work for them. Besides being an executive at BTR, John is also a podcaster and host of his own show, New Media Havens, and is a sharp, affable and downright funny guy to boot. Here's what John had to tell me:

What's your elevator pitch?

BlogTalkRadio is a social broadcasting network that allows anyone to create live, call-in, radio style shows using just a phone. Shows are then quickly archived as mp3's and made available as an RSS/Podcast feed. Created in the summer of 2006 by CEO Alan Levy, BTR currently has over 4,600 active hosts who have interviewed guests like Dennis Miller, Brad Pitt, John McCain, David Mamet, Salman Rushdie, Shirley MacClaine and hundreds of New York Times bestselling authors. The network is getting an average of 3.4M listeners a month and also has a white label version of their technology for business currently being used by clients such as Sun Microsystems, Golf.com, Harper Collins, the Pentagon, and more.

Who listens to your programming? How would you describe your audience?

Our media kit is available here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/docs/BTRMediaKit.pdf. The last time we updated, women aged 35-54 are our largest demographic, but we've got a strong presence on MySpace and with a wide range of audiences.

What makes you special? What are some notable successes you have had?

Ease of use makes us pretty unique in the tech world since everyone has a phone (and you can hear live shows on your phone with us as well as use them to create content). We keep up with latest trends (we employ Twitter to announce shows, are building a mobile platform to listen to archived shows, etc.) but in terms of getting clients and folks to create content for us, easy adoption is key.

The caliber of our hosts and content on a repeated basis is what truly makes us stand out, however. I simply don't see other networks (audio and video) regularly feature the celebrities and thought leaders that we do on a regular basis. And we have a Features Editor and team working to cultivate the content on our network to demonstrate we are a media company as well as a technology that allows for democratic creation of media.

We've had a number of successes. One of our hosts/staff, Shaun Daily, led the efforts to bring "Jericho" back on the air to CBS by having executives from the show on his program and coming up with the idea to send nuts to the CBS lot as a sign of how crazy they were to remove the show. Having John McCain on the network three different times was quite notable, along with shows like our recent Big Brother cast call-in programs where we had 17-19,000 live listeners/callers. Client wise, we're honored that The Pentagon uses BTR to create a number of different shows like American Supports You that caters to military families. Sun Microsystems (another client) uses BTR to do innovative communications efforts like audio press releases and Harper Collins is interviewing folks like Paolo Coelho and Carol Alt.

What is the most important thing you have learned through the process of getting your businesses off the ground?

I have been with the company for about 14 months and cannot speak for Alan (our CEO and founder). But I can say what I've learned from him and heartily support in regards to our growth which is the notion that to build a business you always have to focus on ways to monetize your efforts versus just having the latest, coolest bell or whistle that will get the blogosphere buzzing for a few days. We created the Twittergram with Dave Weiner and got a lot of great blog press with our Cinch product and that's great; I don't mean to minimize the importance of positive Blogbuzz. But at the end of the day a viable business means you create demonstrable value that clients/people will pay for which we've done. We had a nice write up in BusinessWeek a few weeks ago ("BlogTalkRadio For Business") that talks about our Station model which has gotten great traction over the past few months. We're also monetizing by inserting ads into shows on our main network and have the collateral/reach that are getting advertisers to take notice and get involved with our network.

So in summation the lesson I've learned is to stay focused on the ways your business can make money in conjunction with/at the same time you're building value for your community. That's a synergy that will always lead to success.

What advice would you give the radio industry about downloadable media? And what can you learn from them?

More than advice I'd make an offer--let's work together! We have an amazing amount of content we can syndicate to radio stations while also syndicating terrestrial shows on our network. Any network, online or off, loves to have the content they've already created distributed to more markets via whatever medium is available. Especially when it means there is more money to be made when we tell our aggregate advertisers we've greatly increased their reach.

In terms of learning from them, I think "traditional" radio, like other mass media, understands the value of quality programming and segmenting shows into easily understandable terms for listeners. So if I want "classic rock" I know how a station sounds within a few minutes of listening. Classical stations are often at the far left of the dial, etc. And when you find stations that eschew play lists in lieu of creating shows and a sound that's unique, all the better. But when there are people working to cultivate talent and orchestrate quality shows around a theme/genre, it means as a listener I understand and appreciate that you've worked to provide me quality entertainment and feature it, which is what we do at BTR as well.

Thanks, John!

Want to know more about making podcasting work for you? Make sure you attend our panel on Thursday at the NAB and bring your questions!