Compiled by Trent Thomas
Feed Play Love’s Shevonne Hunt talks life at LiSTNR
Late last year SCA announced the acquisition of the Australian kids’ radio and podcast company, Kinderling, adding it to its LiSTNR stable. Since its inception in 2014, Kinderling grew to become the country’s most popular and multi-award-winning kids’ radio and podcast company.
One of the most popular programs from Kinderling that now features on LiSTNR is Feed Play Love which is hosted by Shevonne Hunt. The show is a bite-sized parenting podcast that provides expert advice and real-life stories and aims to help parents and carers look after small children.
Podcast Week‘s Trent Thomas caught up with Hunt to discuss life at LiSTNR and why she thinks her content resonates with her audience.
Hun said that moving to LiSTNR from Kinnderling was an interesting experience due to the difference in the size of the two companies.
“We were such a little outfit. In the end, we had maybe 20 staff. Moving from that to over 300 here in the Sydney office has not been that overwhelming though because people are still working from home. It’s been really exciting. I didn’t really know what to expect but there’s so much happening here that it’s amazing just to be surrounded by all these podcasters and producers.”
Hunt said that after seven years, that part of her success is being able to relate to her listeners and supply experts with compassion.
“My podcast has now been going for seven years. In that time I have learnt a lot about the different people and the different topics that are out there. I’m a parent myself so I can relate to what other parents are going through. I also feel that over that time, the most amazing experts keep bobbing to the top. There are so many people out there that have advice about parenting but I’ve managed to form great relationships with people like Maggie Dent, or like the psychologist, I’m speaking to tomorrow, Dr Rebecca Ray. People that give quality advice and are also compassionate.”
“Parents need a lot of compassion and understanding and when you know you are all in it together it’s a lot easier to connect to whoever’s talking. Part of the success of the podcast has been finding those people and being able to speak in a way that shows we’re all in it together.”
Hunt said that one thing that has surprised her about the podcast is how long it has lasted with Feed Play Love now doing daily episodes.
“The thing about the podcast that’s really interesting for me is that when I started seven years ago, my youngest was four months old. I remember thinking, this probably has a finite time frame, how much can you talk about parenting? Fast forward to now and I do a new episode every day and I still don’t run out of content. It touches on so many different parts of your life in so many different ways.”
Feed Play Love talks about helping parents thrive, not just survive. When asked about the difference Hunt said that she experienced it first-hand in her early years of child-rearing.
“It’s where you are literally just getting through the day. I’m trying to give parents perspective. The first thing that I want them to feel is that they’re not alone and that this can be hard. There’s a reason why it can be hard, and you’re feeling like you’re just getting through the day. I want to be getting them people and voices that can help. The idea is that you can dip into it with short mostly 15-minute interviews. If it resonates people can take that little bit and use it in their life and hopefully make things easier.”
[Listen to Feed Play Love here]
Australia Today named finalist for Best Digital Talk Program at New York Festivals
Australia Today, the national news program hosted by Steve Price and Natarsha Belling, has been awarded a Finalist certificate for Best Digital Talk Program at the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards, held last night in Las Vegas.
The New York Festivals Radio Awards honours radio content in all lengths and formats and across all platforms from radio stations, networks, and independent producers from around the globe. Embracing all aspects of the radio and audio industries, categories mirror today’s global trends and recognise innovators in 14 categories.
Launched one year ago, Australia Today is a daily, live streamed morning news show, exclusive to LiSTNR and broadcast on nine Triple M regional stations. It is the country’s first truly digital audio live to air conversation, with national talk back, debate, and news updates.
SCA head of news and information, Melanie Withnall, said: “I’m so proud of the Australia Today team for the work they do every day and their focus on regional Australia. To see them get this recognition on the world stage is fantastic and a testament to the chemistry between Steve and Natarsha and the interesting news and views that they share.”
Australia Today is available daily on LiSTNR and from 9am to 11am on Triple M in Coffs Harbour, Griffith, Orange, Port Macquarie, Wagga, Dubbo, Mt Gambier, Toowoomba, and Maryborough.
[Listen to Australia Today here]
The Chaser hits #1 on Australian iTunes charts
The Chaser has enjoyed a boost thanks to the federal election with the show hitting number one in the Australian iTunes charts with a song parodying Scott Morrison.
The explicitly titled song ‘Coal Makes Me Cum’ hit the number one spot late Tuesday following a viral social media campaign by the comedy group, which saw the hashtag #CumToNumberOne trend on Twitter overnight.
“The whole thing started out as just a silly joke video where we cut up Scott Morrison’s words to make him say some dumb things,” explained one of the Chaser Intern team Caz Smith. “But when we uploaded that video to Reddit, one of the users on the site challenged us to remix that video into a song, and we stupidly took up the dare.”
“It took an all-nighter, but we got the track out by midday the next day before crashing in bed. By the time we woke up, it had already gathered almost a million plays. It was going completely wild.”
Following the song’s popularity on Reddit, the comedy group took to social media, calling on their fans to try and stream the song into the charts. “We did the maths and figured if we can get a million plays on Reddit, we can almost certainly get enough streams to enter the ARIA Top 40,” explained The Chaser’s managing editor Charles Firth. “However, we were thinking it would take at least a week to get to that point. Turns out thanks to our fans we only needed about 48 hours to top the charts. We don’t know if that says more about how great our fans are or how useless the Australian music industry is.”
“It’s amazing,” he continued. “At this rate, pretty soon we’ll have enough Spotify streams to afford a loaf of bread.”
As the 2022 federal election closes in, The Chaser Report Election Edition will sift through the distractions of policy promises and identifying the un-beating heart behind every political party. The Chaser Report Election Edition daily episodes will beam direct to a podcast streaming device near you. The first episode is out now featuring original Chasers Charles Firth, Dom Knight and Craig Reucassel with all episodes released at 4pm daily
[Listen to Coal Makes Me Cum here]
[Listen to The Chaser Report Election Edition here]
Raise Foundation launches new podcast The Power of Showing Up
Raise Foundation has announced it is launching a new wellbeing podcast on Thursday, 28th April, 2022. The Power of Showing Up is a podcast hosted by Raise Program Counsellor, Dan Davis with a focus on youth matters. As well as sharing Raise’s own story and wisdom about mentoring, Dan and special guest host and Raise Ambassador, Georgie Gardner talk to a broad range of experts to bring insight, tips, advice, knowledge and guidance for everyone that wants to better understand, support and mentor the teenagers in their lives.
The show is a podcast features experts in youth mental health support such as Danni Rowland from Butterfly Foundation and Paul Dillon from DARTA. The podcast is about the power of showing up.
The first three episodes launch on Thursday, 28th April, followed by a new episode every fortnight. Each episode will be 20-30 minutes per episode.
iHeartPodcast Network and KIIS launch Yumi’s Food Fix
ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia and KIIS Network have launched a new podcast series that answers the question of ‘What’s for dinner?’. 5 Minute Food Fix is hosted by food enthusiast, and one-third of KIIS FM’s 3PM Pick Up, Yumi Stynes and cookbook editor, Simon Davis. Episodes will be served up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The show aims to give listeners fun meal inspiration for even the most time-poor cooks. From easy pasta sauces to stress-three-ingredient meals, Aussies will be given ideas that won’t break the bank or soak up free time.
Yumi Stynes said: “As a busy working mum, I’m always looking for meal inspiration. I don’t need to do anything too fussy or with hard-to-find ingredients. But I do want it to be delicious! With the new KIIS podcast 5 Minute Food Fix, Simon and I deliver bite-size inspiration that won’t break the bank but will taste amazing! Give us 5 minutes of your time? We’ll help you sort tonight’s dinner.”
ARN’s podcast content & partnerships director, Stephanie Coombes, added: ” 5 Minute Food Fix is a welcome addition to our stable of fun and entertaining podcasts. Simon and Yumi first met when they worked together on Yumi’s cookbook, and you can tell they’re great friends. They have wonderful chemistry, a passion for good food, and they sincerely want to help people take the stress out of cooking dinner.”
[Listen to 5 Minute Food Fix here]
Black T-Shirts features Allan Johnston returning to jingles
Advertising royalty, Allan Johnston, better known as the ‘Jo’ in ‘Mojo’ has created his first jingle in many years, singing ‘Black T-shirts’, co-written by Jim Ingram, to help promote the Black T-Shirts podcast.
Mojo was known for their extraordinary run of creating iconic Australian brand platforms such as ‘I feel like Tooheys’ for Tooheys, ‘You ought to be Congratulated’ for Meadow Lea, and ‘Hit em with the ol Pea-Beu’ for Pea-Beu.
After the recording of the ‘Black T-Shirts’ jingle, Jo hung around to feature on the latest episode of Black T-Shirts, giving several insights into his inspiration and what made Mojo so successful, and also why the jingle is no longer popular in advertising today.
To find out what consumers think of jingles one of Mojo’s classic jingles were put to a focus group, with very mixed results.
[Listen to The Black T-Shirts here]
Mushroom and US Embassy partner for Graduate In The U.S.A.
The US Embassy Australia, in collaboration with the Mushroom Group podcast division Mushroom Studios, has announced the Graduate In The U.S.A. podcast, a six-part series that provides Australian students, parents, and school staff with exclusive insights on how to navigate the U.S. college admissions process. The first episode, out next Wednesday 27 April, will feature an interview with Australian American AFL ruckman Mason Cox.
Each 30-minute episode in the six-part series will feature an interview with an expert on American universities, including admission personnel, a sports coach, college athletes, and a former U.S. Ambassador. The series will give listeners the inside word on the university admission process as well as on what life is like as a college student in the United States.
As the US Embassy’s Head of Public Engagement Samantha Juster said, “Every year a number of Australian students consider studying at a U.S. college. This podcast will give both students and their parents the information they need before they go. A U.S. college degree opens the door to a world of opportunities.”
The first episode will feature an interview with American Australian Mason Cox who, before becoming an AFL ruckman for the Collingwood Football Club, graduated with an engineering degree from Oklahoma State University in 2014. Interviewed by Melbourne’s US Consul General Kathleen Lively, Mason Cox shares what it’s like living and studying on a U.S. college campus, how opportunities students are exposed to can change their lives dramatically, and how a hobby of playing basketball led him to living and working in Melbourne.
Later episodes will discuss how international students can find their best fit university amongst the vast diversity of U.S. higher education options, differences between the US and Australian university experiences, and tips on how to compile a competitive admissions application.
The series will feature interviews with former US Ambassador Jeff Bleich; Australian political scientist and Dean of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Dr Geoffrey Garrett; New York University (NYU) Associate Director of Customer Service Admissions Operations, Australian Liam Dean-Johnson; Senior Associate Dean of the Office of Undergraduate Admission at University of Pennsylvania, Liz O’Connell; and Heather Marini, an Australian quarterback coach at Brown University.
EducationUSA Australia brought Mushroom Studios on to co-produce the new podcast series Graduate In the U.S.A. EducationUSA Australia is part of the US State Department.
[Listen to Graduate In The U.S.A. here]
