Compiled by Grace Gollasch and Tess Connery
Switching gears with the newest LiSTNR and carsales collaboration, The Showroom
Hosted by automotive commentator Greg Rust, LiSTNR and carsales.com.au have launched the second podcast series under their long-term partnership: The Showroom – Car News and Views.
The Showroom features the latest car news and views – from the inside info on new car releases, to what is causing a hike in petrol prices, interesting classifieds listed on carsales, and everything in between.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Mike Sinclair, director of content and editor-in-chief at carsales
Coming off the back of Watts Under the Bonnet: The Electric Vehicle Podcast, Sinclair says that The Showroom really goes to the core of what the carsales team do.
“We are about helping people choose and use their cars and then transact through the platform in whatever way they choose.
“One of the key parts of the carsales ecosystem is our content, and it’s probably an area that the business is not as well known for as it should be. The Showroom was a great way of being able to put all that content out in the news part of our content spectrum.”
This is the second of four podcasts from the partnership between LiSTNR and carsales – the first was Watts Under the Bonnet, exploring the world of electric vehicles. Sinclair says that of the four, The Showroom will be the most broad topic-wise.
“One will be much more focused on the nuts and bolts of cars – almost literally – by helping people buy and sell. The final one is a bit more entertainment, where we’ll actually get celebrities in cars and ask them about automotives.
“The automotive spectrum is pretty exciting, there’s a lot going on and a lot of things to talk about. You need a general podcast to be able to talk about all those aspects of that.”
As for who can listen in, The Showroom is designed for everyone to drop in and out of.
“I wouldn’t say we’re absolutely focusing on an enthusiast audience,” says Sinclair. “We want to make it very approachable to anybody who’s interested in knowing a bit more about what’s happening in the automotive world.”
When asked what it was that made the team at carsales want to get on board with a LiSTNR partnership, Sinclair pointed to both their facilities and knowledge of how to use them.
“It’s really a great partnership with LiSTNR, and that’s because we’ve tapped them as experts in podcasts, and they want to work with us as experts in automobiles. We’d like to think we’re experts in written content and very strong with our video content, but for us to start from scratch in an audio sense would have been a real journey – whereas those guys have done it all before.
“They’ll ask us what we want to talk about and what the key opportunities in automotive are. Then we can tap into their expertise, not only in creating the run of the show, but the technical aspects of producing the show.”
How The Guardian brought the Ben Roberts-Smith trial to life
The newest podcast series from Guardian Australia has officially launched. Hosted by Guardian investigative journalist Ben Doherty, Ben Roberts-Smith v The Media is a 5-episode podcast series about the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial and the events that lead up to it.
The podcast delves into the court case of Australia’s most decorated living soldier, who is suing three of the country’s most-trusted newspapers for defamation over articles he says falsely accused him of war crimes. As well as detailing the history of the case, the series re-enacts key parts of the trial as heard in the federal court of Australia.
With the civil trial wrapped up, but the verdict still not handed down, it’s a particularly interesting point in the timeline of the case.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to The Guardian’s head of audio, Miles Martignoni, about bringing the trial to life outside of the courtroom.
Miles Martignoni
For Martignoni, the decision to cover the trial came in response to the deluge of information that was coming out from all corners of the media.
“It ended up being over 100 days of evidence, and every newspaper in Australia was covering the trial day by day, piece by piece. We felt that it was just such an amazing trial with such astounding allegations running back and forth between Ben Robert Smith’s legal team and the newspaper’s legal teams, and that it was hard to get a handle on what was actually happening.
“That’s why we decided to make a podcast. You’d see all of the separate news stories and occasionally someone would write a big feature, but it was hard to get a feeling for what was actually being argued about and what was actually at stake in this sprawling trial.”
A major part of the series is recreations of what went down in the courtroom. With voice actors taking on the role of the major players – Jason Chong is the voice of Roberts-Smith – Martignoni says that “craft-wise, it’s been the most amazing project I’ve ever worked on.”
“Everything’s based on the evidence in the court. Ben Doherty was in there listening to the evidence, but we can’t record in the court and we can’t release the audio from the court. People can read excerpts, but they’re not really getting a sense of how the evidence has been presented. What we did was we looked at transcripts, and we listened to the trial, and we recreated evidence using voice actors so that people can hear what it was like and what the testimony was like.”
Capturing the emotion of the courtroom, down to the finest detail, was no mean feat. There was one episode in particular though that highlights the team’s dedication to reflecting the reality of the trial.
“Episode three is totally different to the others, because it’s about the breakdown of his marriage and the affair he had,” says Martignoni. “You have Roberts-Smith, his ex wife, and the woman he had an affair with – known as Person 17 – testifying. That testimony is really full on and very emotional, and if you weren’t sitting in court, you could easily believe that we had hammed up for the podcast. But that’s what it was like.
“Every editor here who listened to it was like, ‘Is this really what happened in there?’. We just had to be so careful to make sure it matched, but it was some of the most emotional testimony in the trial.”
Guardian Australia have a successful podcast base with Full Story, a podcast released every weekday that dives into whatever is making headlines. Ben Roberts-Smith v The Media is presented by Full Story, in what Martignoni says was a deliberate choice about the branding.
“A lot of people will launch a series as standalone feed, but we decided not to do that. It’s actually in Full Story, but it doesn’t look quite like Full Story – for the week, we’ve changed the logo. Branding-wise, we’ve kept the Full Story main colour, which is orange, but what you see now is an image of a military uniform and the Ben Roberts-Smith v The Media headline.
“We’ve got digital billboards running at the moment at train stations, we’ve got social media, and we’re running audio ads as well. We’ve got a marketing campaign running all around this series to try and drive interest, and so far, it seems to be working.”
[Listen to Ben Roberts-Smith v The Media here]
Hamish Blake announces new side project: How Other Dads Dad
Hamish Blake has announced the release of a side project, the How Other Dads Dad podcast, about what Blake calls his “favourite thing in the world”.
Announced on Instagram on Wednesday, Blake wrote “Here’s a little podcast series I’ve been working on you might like if you’re a dad (or someone into hearing dads talk about dadding). It’s a little different for me but I really loved making it, and I hope people find something in it.”
The promo video posted alongside the announcement shows Blake chatting to a number of famous dads including Adam Hills, Ben Lee, Nazeem Hussain, and Dave Hughes.
The independent series has 11 episodes, and will be released every Friday from October 21st.
Blake currently co-hosts the country’s #1 podcast, Hamish and Andy, alongside Andy Lee. In the Septmeber Podcast Ranker, the Hamish and Andy pod had 966,714 monthly listeners, and 2,145,919 monthly downloads.
Courtney Act and Vanity talk fans, selfies and Big Brother UK
On the latest episode of Courtney Act and Vanity’s podcast, Brenda Call Me!, Courtney Act shares gossip from her time on Big Brother whilst answering topical questions from fans.
Vanity and Courtney touch on dressing in feminine clothing for the first time and how to go about it, how they feel when fans approach them in public, and Courtney reveals a titbit about Ann Widdecombe.
Courtney revealed Ann Widdecombe had her own bathroom and bedroom on Big Brother. Courtney said, “Ann Widdecombe had her own bathroom. I think she might have had her own bedroom. She definitely had her own bathroom. That was like separate from that. That was part of her agreement for being there.”
Vanity added: “I guess she’s a modest older woman. Yeah, that makes sense. Like I mean, she wouldn’t be showering in front of people.”
[Listen to Brenda, Call Me! here]
Schwartz Media receives five nominations: Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism
Schwartz Media has received five nominations at the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
The Monthly, The Saturday Paper and 7am journalists are finalists across a range of categories, including long-form journalism, commentary, photography and outstanding public service journalism.
The Monthly swept all three nominations in the category of Feature Writing Long with cover stories by Chloe Hooper, Anna Krien and John van Tiggelen. Other finalists include Natalie Grono and Erik Jensen from The Saturday Paper, as well as 7am Podcast in the category Outstanding Public Service Journalism for its April 5, 2022 episode, The Killing of Ann Marie Smith.
Schwartz Media’s editor-in-chief, Erik Jensen, said: “This is an extraordinary endorsement of the journalism we produce at Schwartz Media. To have five nominations – including a clean sweep of the long features category and the first nomination for a daily news podcast – is a real thrill. Schwartz Media remains the leading publisher of quality independent news in Australia.”
Osher Günsberg named as 2022 Chair of Judge for Australian Podcast Awards
The Australian Podcast Awards (APAs), powered by iHeart, have announced Osher Günsberg as Chair of Judge for the APA’s.
2021 APAs winners included Laura Byrne and Brittney Hockley’s Life Uncut, Julia Gillard’s A Podcast of One’s Own, and Brooke Boney and Linda Marigliano’s Brooke and Linda’s Dream Club.
As part of his duties as Chair of Judge, Günsberg has appointed several judges that will form part of the panel of local and international judges that will bring in a range of different perspectives to the awards this year.
Osher Günsberg, Chair of Judges at the Australian Podcast Awards, said: “Podcasts are a form of spoken art, nothing beats the authenticity and intimacy of podcasting. It has been incredible to see the growth of podcasting in Australia and I am honoured to celebrate the top local podcasting talent we have had this year by appointing some of the top industry leaders and podcasting royalty to be part of the panel of judges to bring fresh and diverse perspectives to this year’s Australian Podcast Awards.”
The Chaser Report podcast reveals Bob Katter has never pledged allegiance to the crown
The Chaser Report podcast has revealed that Bob Katter MP has never formally pledged allegiance to the crown.
In an exclusive phone call with Chaser Intern Lachlan Hodson and fellow university student Jono Wakeley, Katter shared his thoughts on the pledge of allegiance all government members sign before joining parliament.
Katter said: “Do you seriously think I’m gonna sign that document?… I write ‘No’ on it, and no one knows!
“I’m getting so old now I can probably reveal that,” Katter added.
Should Katter be telling the truth, this would mean the longstanding Member for Kennedy’s decades in parliament would come under scrutiny for breach of Section 42 of the Australian Constitution.
On the legitimacy of Katter’s statement Lachlan admitted: “Beats me if it’s true or not. I interviewed Bob for two hours and know less about him now than when I started.”
The impacts and potential effects of this reveal from Katter are discussed exclusively on The Chaser Report today, with keen input from Marque Lawyer’s Michael Bradley.
[Listen to The Chaser Report here]
Podcast Ranker September 2022: Hamish and Andy #1, true crime makes a splash
Triton Digital‘s Australian Podcast Ranker has been released for September, giving insight into the Top 100 Podcasts as well as the Top 10 Publishers in Australia. The survey period was from 1 September through 30 September, 2022, as measured by Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service.
Topping the Podcast Ranker once again for September 2022 is LiSTNR’s Hamish and Andy, with monthly listeners just missing the 1 million mark at 966,714.
Rounding out the top three are Audioboom’s Casefile: True Crime and News Corp Australia’s The Teacher’s Trial. The Teacher’s Trial has lifted two spots to crack the top three, after the subject of the podcast, Chris Dawson, was found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette in 1982.
Released as part of The Australian’s podcast suite in 2018, The Teacher’s Pet – hosted by journalist Hedley Thomas – has since recorded 52 million downloads worldwide across 16 episodes.
[The September Podcast Ranker chart can be seen here]
