Compiled by Trent Thomas
The Adam & Symon Show goes for gold with LiSTNR
SCA has announced that The Adam & Symon Show is moving to LiSTNR. Adam Densten and Symon Lovett are best-known for their 10 seasons on Network 10 and Foxtel’s Gogglebox Australia.
Following their time on Gogglebox and a stint on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Densten and Lovett went on to self-produce and release their own podcast and now have signed with LiSTNR.
Mediaweek‘s Trent Thomas caught up with the pair to talk about life at LiSTNR and the future of their podcast.
The pair revealed that one of the key reasons that they signed with LiSTNR was due to a prior relationship with Sam Cavanagh the head of entertainment and news content – digital audio at Southern Cross Austereo.
SL: “We were working at SCA and got a really good opportunity to do some Sunday night radio with them. They liked what our podcast was doing and we were looking to take it from an independent to something with more resources.”
AD: “The last couple of years we have just been guessing how to make a podcast and now we have gone to LiSTNR who are experts at guessing.”
The duo said that joining LiSTNR won’t change the content of the show but help refine it into a better product.
AD: “The content is still very much us, the show will still very much be the Adam and Symon, just with the sharp edges smoothed off a little bit. And a bit of production support and help on how to make it look and sound like a professional thing rather than recording it in the local city band room after the orchestra on a Monday night at 10pm. It will be nice to use an actual studio.”
SL: “Our thing with taking it to someone bigger, was that we wanted to maintain the integrity of what we had been doing, and LiSTNR didn’t want to change anything. They went guys we are loving what you are doing, how can we help? And that was always the number one thing.”
The Adam & Symon Show kicks off with The Tokyo Hangover on August 12. The ten-part special will see the guys chatting to some of the champions of the Olympic games, including Ariarne Titmus and gold and bronze medal-winning breaststroker Zac Stubbelty-Cook.
AD: “Everyone loved the Olympics so much. We had the idea to make it go for a week longer and bridge the gap between the Olympics and the Paralympics and just chat to some of the Olympians about their time in Tokyo.
“Everybody loves the Olympics, but we also appreciate that everyone loves the Olympics for a very short period of time. We wanted to get our interviews out as soon as we could so people can jump on board that Gold Medal fever.”
When asked how they approached interviewing people who became overnight sensations, the duo said that they almost used a similar style to the one they used for Gogglebox.
SL: “As much as we try to do everything different we kind of can’t not be fans, so we kind of approach it as the fans watching it. We tell them how we felt when they won and then we just get them to tell us how they felt when they won. We marry up those thoughts and feelings.
“They are all absolute legends because they are, as you would say, overnight sensations, so there has been no media training, so you just ask a question and get an answer.”
Following The Tokyo Hangover, the team have laid out their plan for their two weekly podcasts.
SL: “We will keep doing the Adam and Symon Show which is on a Tuesday which is more of a radio-style setup. Two guys having conversations and making observations about the world and some listener engagement.
“For the Thursday episode, we are doing the interviews.”
When asked what the pair’s goal was for the podcast now that it is on LiSTNR they listed a simple aim.
SL: “We want to be the number one podcast in the whole world really, that is basically it.”
AD: “If you are reading this Joe Rogan we are coming for you!”
SL: “Joe Smogan? Please get out of here.”
[Listen to The Adam & Symon Show here]
Meshel Laurie: How Manu led her to podcasting career
Meshel Laurie’s first podcast was The Nitty Gritty Committee in 2011. “It was my way of exploring longer conversations,” she told Podcast Week’s James Manning.
Laurie was a great radio broadcaster. Not any more. Podcasts are now her primary passion.
“It all started with Manu. Every year on breakfast radio they would offer us Manu or Pete Evans at the start of My Kitchen Rules. I would crack the shits, and ask if we really had to do it. We were told we had to because Seven had bought so many ads.
“We then had Manu on and did the usual three minutes. I was driving home that day and heard him on the ABC. They did 45 minutes with him and it was a revelation. It was a wonderful conversation.”
Laurie’s podcast journey started to draw her toward true crime. She came across writer Emily Webb. The two spoke for an hour before Laurie asked her: “Would you ever think about doing a true crime podcast?”
Webb said “yes”, and the resulting collaboration was Australian True Crime. The weekly podcast has been going since 2017 and they are up to episode 222. Laurie and Matthew Hardy’s company Smart Fella podcast company partners with Acast who sell sponsorships for the title.
Every episode of Australian True Crime features an interview that ranges from victims of crime to investigators. “These days many people contact us and tell us they want to tell their story.”
The audience for Australian True Crime grew organically. “We didn’t know how many listeners we had for a year and a half. We didn’t know how to find out.”
Laurie edits the episodes after the “king of radio editing” Andy Maher taught her how to use Pro Tools. Smart Fella often records at Castaway Studios in Collingwood.
Meshel Laurie likes being an independent. “I don’t have a boss. I am the boss.”
Don’t ask if Australian True Crime, or any of the Smart Fella titles, are part of Podcast Ranker. “No. Why would you, what even is that? It ranks the popularity of what? We don’t need any help commercially.”
Other podcast publishers have approached Laurie about partnering with her. “When we start kicking around numbers it becomes clear they don’t know what we are doing. We are writing a lot of revenue with Acast and we are very happy with them.”
See also: Meshel Laurie’s new book CSI Told You Lies and her radio future
[Listen to Australian True Crime here]
Listen to Mediaweek’s Meshel Laurie podcast here.
July Podcast Ranker sees Hamish and Andy go to #1
The July Australian Podcast Ranker chart was released this week and Hamish & Andy have returned to the top with their LiSTNR podcast not long after they have re-signed to SCA for two more years.
Edging higher too are Kyle and Jackie O with their KIIS breakfast show podcasts up from #4 to #3 month on month. The number of episodes the two podcasts release couldn’t be more different. Hamish & Andy had just four episodes published in July 2021. Kyle and Jackie O content was cut up for 110 separate podcast episodes.
Andy Lee and Hamish Blake with podcast colleague Jack Post
Two new series appearing in the All-Australian Top 100 Ranker are Shameless presents: The Books that Changed My Life (SCA – LiSTNR) and The South Australia Briefing (SCA).
Total downloads of all shows by all participating publishers in the month of July is 48m. The biggest-ever month was 52.2m downloads in May 2021.
ARN/iHeartMedia had the most downloads with 11.07m for the month. SCSA had the most active podcasts with 420.
Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place joins the Acast Creator Network
Acast has signed Fearne Cotton’s podcast, Happy Place, to the Acast Creator Network. Acast will host, distribute and monetise the podcast, which has just kicked off its 11th series
Acast’s partnership with Happy Place will amplify the reach of the podcast and diversify the podcast’s revenue through premium ad products available through the Acast Marketplace — such as sponsored stories and branded content.
The exclusive partnership deal with Acast was delivered by YMU, the integrated representation and management company.
Happy Place will also unlock fan-supported revenue with Acast’s podcast subscriptions service Acast+, creating deeper listener engagement and building on the community Cotton has built.
Cotton’s Happy Place is the most-listened-to wellness podcast in the UK, and one of the country’s biggest independent shows — with more than 40 million total listens to date.
In the podcast, Cotton sits down with guests to converse about life, love, loss, and everything in-between, delving into what happiness means to them. Sam Smith, Hilary Clinton, Alicia Keys and Tom Daley are some of the guests who have appeared on the show.
Fearne Cotton said: “Our commitment to growing the Happy Place podcast and reaching more people has never been more important, as so many people face loneliness and mental health problems. And we chose Acast for this exact reason — we want to reach as many people as we can, all around the world.
“Acast’s position at the heart of the open podcasting ecosystem, and its global footprint, will help us continue to grow the Happy Place brand worldwide, giving us the potential to engage with millions of brand new listeners.”
SCA’s The Lab contest for LiSTNR chooses three winners
SCA Innovation Program, The Lab, received more than 400 entries into its company-wide Lab Contest 2021 to develop innovative ideas for its digital audio platform LiSTNR.
The competition saw a response from many staff with 424 submissions from 40 offices nationwide over a six-week period. All submissions were evaluated by the innovation team and subject matter experts. After a rigorous evaluation process, 10 finalists were selected to pitch their ideas to the Leadership Group at the ‘Lab Contest Pitch Day’.
The contest culminated in three joint winners in the areas of Best Idea – Product, Best Idea – Content and Best Idea – Localism. The winning ideas will be developed and set up for testing before implementation in the coming months. In addition to the winning ideas, there were multiple high-quality submissions that will be developed for trial and implementation.
