Compiled by Tess Connery and Grace Gollasch
How LiSTNR is delivering bite-sized astrology tips with It’s A Sign
LiSTNR has officially launched the new original podcast, It’s a Sign: Your Daily Astrology Tip. Hosted by astrologer Katherine Gillies, It’s a Sign is only 90 seconds long, with the short and sharp guide to life delving into the complexities of the Zodiac.
Gillies charts moon and planetary transits and explains to listeners how these changes translate to their day-to-day lives – in language that makes sense. New daily episodes of Your Daily Astrology Tip drop Monday to Friday at 6am.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Gillies about making astrology accessible from our unique position in the globe.
How did It’s A Sign come to be?
“I was actually on my way back from a beautiful wedding in Byron when I received an email from LiSTNR. Dee (Deirdre Fogarty, LiSTNR content director – shortcasts) had found me on TikTok (@moon__muse__) which is my main platform and invited me to meet with her about a potential astrology podcast! After several meetings and a few months down the line we are finally here at launch and I’m so excited and proud of the product we’ve created.”
Katherine Gillies
A lot of people’s experiences with astrology would be the sun sign based horoscopes in the back of magazines that you pick your birthdate from. How personalised will the information on It’s A Sign be, considering how broad the audience is?
“It’s A Sign is an extension of the content I already create which is based around the cosmic weather. We’ll be talking about lunar phases and what sign the moon is in; this flavours our day and we can harness these energies when we know what they are. I’ll speak to planets changing signs and touch on transits that impact us all! It’s less about magazine horoscopes, and more about educating the listeners about the benefits of understanding astrological information, and then implementing it in their lives if they choose.”
90 seconds isn’t a long time. Is it difficult making sure that you get all the relevant information across in that timeframe?
“I always joke that I could study astrology all day every day for the rest of my life and still have so much more to learn. So, like any new subject we’re starting from scratch, and whatever is most relevant for that day is what we’ll be covering. People are busy so I’m hoping to add 90 seconds of value to their morning ritual, setting them up for an intentional day ahead.”
How much of an impact does Australia being in the Southern Hemisphere have on your daily readings?
“It’s less about being in the Southern Hemisphere and more about where Australia is located (ahead in time). Most of my favourite astrologers growing up were American or from the UK. I’d always be hanging out for their week ahead readings or daily horoscopes but they were always a day behind because of where I was based. It’s A Sign provides on time, digestible astrological info without having to wait for the rest of the world to catch up to us!”
What do you think is behind astrology’s resurgence over the last few years?
“In 2020 we experienced a Saturn-Pluto conjunction which shifted the way we experience the world and each other. Collectively we’ve moved through huge global change that is also reflected on an individual level. Old, outdated structures in our lives have crumbled and we’ve witnessed a huge wave of people become more open minded, to not only astrology but a variety of topics.
“As someone who grew up not believing in astrology, it wasn’t until I educated myself on the topic that I moved through my own ignorance into acceptance and eventually awe. I am personally thrilled that this well of universal wisdom is slowly but surely becoming more accepted and used in widespread society.”
What do you hope people get out of It’s A Sign?
“Intention is everything in life. And my biggest intention in creating this podcast is for people to feel more connected to themselves and to each other. Every one of us is incredibly unique yet we are all impacted, whether we accept it or not, by the tides of the cosmos. It’s A Sign is designed to help people begin to consciously create their days in alignment with nature, and by tuning into the rhythms of the cosmos, we can learn to run our life instead of letting our life run us. The power is always within, and my work is to empower the listener to access their power and inspire them to harness it in the direction of their desires.”
[Listen to It’s a Sign: Your Daily Astrology Tip here]
DM Podcasts release Inside The Tribe about the Twelve Tribes
DM Podcasts has released Inside The Tribe, a nine-part true crime original podcast that goes inside the world of a secretive and bizarre cult called the Twelve Tribes.
Hosted by award winning journalist and author Tim Elliott and co-written by Camille Bianchi of award-winning podcast, The Nurse, Inside The Tribe follows former Twelve Tribes members, Mark and Rose through their 15-year ordeal with the group and how they finally staged their escape.
The Twelve Tribes is a fundamentalist Judeo-Christian sect with communities worldwide, including in Australia. The group has been at the centre of allegations of child abuse, underage labour, medical negligence and slavery, and has a history of sinister incidents around the globe.
Follow Mark and Rose’s journey, which started as a promise of utopia and devolved into a world of bizarre rituals and extreme beliefs. Tim unpacks who the Twelve Tribes are and how a charismatic leader managed to build a global empire, which has run virtually unchecked for 50 years.
The first two episodes of Inside The Tribe are out now, with episodes released weekly.
[Listen to Inside The Tribe here]
LiSTNR and carsales launch Along for the Ride featuring car conversations with well-known Australians
carsales.com.au’s new podcast, Along for the Ride, on LISTNR, offers a fly on the wall insight into notable Australians.
Along for the Ride is the third podcast collaboration with carsales.com.au and LiSTNR. In the series, host Anthony Madaffari, lifestyle editor at carsales, is in the passenger seat of cars owned by well-known Australians and driven around while chatting.
These conversations look at the relationship guests have with their car, or cars of their past, which could be as simple as recounting the time they were taught how to drive or remembering what road trips they used to take with their parents – a raw look at what makes them unique and who they are as a person.
Some of Along for the Ride’s guests across 10 episodes include FOX FM Breakfast announcer Brendan Fevola, former Australian sprinter and host of Better for It Katie Williams, Triple M Sydney’s The Rush Hour announcer Wendell Sailor, former Triple M presenter and horse racing commentator Emma Freedman, and Australia Today host Steve Price.
Along for the Ride launched November 30 and will be released fortnightly on Wednesdays on the LiSTNR app.
[Listen to Along for the Ride here]
Steve ‘Pricey’ Price OAM shares excerpt from new book, The Price of Paradise
Steve Price OAM, better known as Pricey, has been involved in radio since he was 17 and has been in Townsville since 1982, hosting breakfast for three decades.
The Townsville Triple M 102.3 breakfast host has now written a book about it all, titled, The Price of Paradise. The 200-page book is also a love letter to NQ and will be officially launched this Sunday, December 4.
To celebrate The Price of Paradise, Pricey has recorded four ‘Priceless Moments’ from the book in audio form, available on LiSTNR. These will release from Monday December 5. In the first Podcast, Pricey reminisces on some of the stunts he undertook as a “young, fit, gung-ho Aussie” broadcaster, all of which could go very wrong.
Pricey lists a few of the things he’s had a go at, from tandem jumping to getting dunked by a US helicopter in the harbour to lion taming. He also shares the story of the helicopter stunt at Alma Bay designed to promote local search and rescue. He was dropped in the in the bay and left treading water for a bit longer than expected when the rescue chopper was a bit late.
[Listen to an audio excerpt of The Price of Paradise here]
“Captivating the imagination”: Ainslee O’Brien on what 2023 sounds like for News Corp audio
If you love hitting play on a podcast whilst commuting to work, doing the dishes, or going for a run, there’s a good chance you’ve listened to a News Corp podcast. From I’ve Got News For You, to Healthy-ish, to I Catch Killers – and the acclaimed The Teacher’s Trial – News Corp has something for everyone.
Mediaweek spoke to Ainslee O’Brien, general manager commercial networks, about what 2022 has looked like for the audio team and what comes next.
In a long list of successful podcasts, one in particular captured the imagination of people across the globe. With The Teacher’s Pet being suppressed for two years due to the ongoing trial of Chris Dawson, News Corp found a new way to bring audiences the information they were looking for.
“There have been exceptional success stories when you look at the programming that’s come out of The Australian through Hedley Thomas with Shandee’s Story, and more recently, The Teacher’s Trial.
“The Teacher’s Trial was a new model and not in its essence a traditional true crime podcast, because it wasn’t following or trying to unravel a crime – it was actually following the trial. But equally, it had such an incredible amount of interest in it. That podcast went exceptionally well.”
True crime will be an even bigger deal for News Corp in 2023, recently announcing a new audio-only product that bundles News Corp’s collection of true crime podcasts into a single channel on Apple Podcasts, called Crime X. Subscribers to the premium offer, Crime X+, receive access to exclusive, early and ad-free audio journalism.
Managing radio and podcast superstars: Biggest backroom operators revealed
This week marks the end of the radio survey year for 2022. It is also the time of year podcasters put away their headphones as they too take a summer break.
It is also the time of year that the people managing Australia’s top radio and podcast talent gets a break.
There was less talent movement in the radio market this year than this time in 2021. The biggest changes were the revelation of new 2023 breakfast shows coming for Nova 100 in Melbourne and Triple M in Sydney.
In the podcasting world, the size of audiences is starting to count for more. Initially, podcast platforms wanted to build audiences and almost anyone with a microphone and an idea had a chance to get a tryout. These days number of listeners is more important than ever and has led to a rationalisation of podcast catalogues. That doesn’t mean there’s been a drop in the number of podcasts though.
The latest estimate we have seen is that there are 2.4m podcasts globally.
The growth of podcasting hasn’t harmed the radio business though. Quite the contrary, it seems to have helped secure the future of audio, locking in big audiences.
Just earlier this month Commercial Radio and Audio reported:
The latest GfK Survey 7 revealed 12.14 million people listened to commercial radio each week, beating the all-time high of 12.1 million recorded in GfK Survey 6 released at the end of September. This was the eighth consecutive rise in cumulative audience growth.
LiSTNR locks in Hamish and Andy, signing an early long term contract
SCA chief content officer, Dave Cameron, has announced that Hamish Blake and Andy Lee have signed an early long term, multi-year extension to their contract with SCA.
Consistently topping the Triton Podcast Ranker, the relationship between Hamish & Andy and SCA is heading into its third decade.
In addition, Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project, now in its fourth season as an exclusive first run on LiSTNR, sees the pair delve into their archives from 2,500 radio shows across two decades to see if they can recall what was going on behind the scenes at that exact time.
Also on LiSTNR is Andy Lee’s popular children’s book series, Do Not Open This Book, as an interactive children’s podcast series, voiced by Lee.
The pair began their radio careers with SCA, and once they hung up their headphones, were pioneers of transforming their connection with fans through podcasting. The Hamish & Andy podcast has been a regular no.1 podcast for 2022 with an audience of almost one million listeners.
[Listen to Hamish & Andy here]
