Matty Staudt has been in broadcasting since he cracked a mic at the age of 16 in his hometown of Keyser in West Virginia. During his radio career, he has been an on-air host, morning show lead and Executive Producer at such legendary stations as WJFK in DC, WNEW in NYC, Alice Radio and Live 105 in San Francisco. In 2007, he left his radio career to become a podcast pioneer at Stitcher where he served as its first Director of Content. You can also hear Matty’s voice in the Pixar movie “Cars” where he plays a reporter named, “Matti” Matty has been consulting top companies to create branded content podcasts, coach hosts and producers, and formulate dynamic podcast strategies for the past 8 years. He’s hosted several podcasts including the syndicated hit “Your Straight Male Friend” that was one of the first podcasts to become a radio show and his current show “Access Podcast” where he interviews some of the best podcasters in the business and is a professor at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he started one of the nation’s first collegiate podcast programs in 2012.
In 2017 Matty has thrilled to come back to radio by joining iHeartRadio and was named radio’s first VP of Podcast Programming in 2018. In that job he developed the companies podcast strategy for its radio talent and helped create over 300 podcasts that drive millions of downloads a month for the company. In his role he developed shows, did talent coaching, and helped craft the overall podcast strategy for the company.
In July of this year, Matty left iHeart to form Jam Street Media in Los Angeles, a company focused on creating podcasts for brands and consulting podcasting startups.
Questions now closed.
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Hi Matty, from your perspective, what’s the key to a successful podcast?
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Any tips on promotion given all your experience?
replied 4 years ago
Find where you audience is and tell them about your show. Reddit and Facebook groups are a good start. Also, find podcasts that people who might listen to yours listen to and try to do promo time on them. You can swap promos with other shows or buy spots. Promoting your show on other podcasts is still the best way we have found to gain an audience.
Matty
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Thanks for doing this AMA. Do you think ad revenue from podcasting will ever rival radio?
replied 4 years ago
It will get close…but…I don’t think it will happen for a few years. Podcasting listening in the US is still at about 26% of population and although that is a huge jump in a few years, it will still take more to time to get it to the point of mass consumption. I think once more people have connected cars we will see that number rise. Also, advertisers are SLOW to move into new technologies, especially big brands. It will take time for them to see the power we all know exists with podcast advertising.
Matty
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Hi Matty if you are a independant podcaster and you cant spend time on everything were would you spend most of your time and were would you spend lest in order to be most successful?
replied 4 years ago
Producing good content should always be priority one. Then it’s all about promotion. I think you should spend as much time promoting as producing. That being said, if you are spending 10 hours editing, maybe see how you can streamline that or hire an editor.
Matty
replied 4 years ago
Producing good content should always be priority one. Then it’s all about promotion. I think you should spend as much time promoting as producing. That being said, if you are spending 10 hours editing, maybe see how you can streamline that or hire an editor.
Matty
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Any power tips for streamlining production?
replied 4 years ago
Have a formula and be prepared to spend time perfecting it. Also, know your weaknesses and be prepared to enlist help when you need it. I also don’t start doing any editing until I have a transcript of the interview. It’s easier to see what you want to cut on the transcript before you get into the actual audio editing.
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
What are your thoughts/ideas regarding social media giveaways as promotion? What requested actions have you found most successful? Thanks!
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Hi Matty, thanks for doing this AMA. I’d love to know what indicators you look for to tell that a show just isn’t working and when you make the call to move on from the project.
replied 4 years ago
I think if we know we have done a good job producing and promoting and we are still not getting the audience after 50 episodes then it’s time to move on. I always say to give it 50 because you are probably not a master of what you are doing until you hit that mark. That’s if you are doing a podcast to make money. If you are doing one from passion and it makes you happy, then keep doing it!
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
Hello Matty, I’d love to know more about your experience starting Jam Street Media – what was the reasoning behind the move, what were the challenges, some early wins, etc.?
replied 4 years ago
This has been the scariest thing I have ever done. I started it because I wanted to a chance to be independent and control all aspects of my productions. I also used to travel a lot for work and it’s great to be in LA full time. I started with the idea of just doing branded but have found early success doing development deals for bigger-name clients looking to start a podcast or that have gotten deals from big companies to do one. This has been VERY hard, but nothing great comes easy.
Matty
Staff asked this question
4 years ago
People go into podcasting for a whole range of reasons… what do you think the best reason is to start a podcast?
replied 4 years ago
Passion, passion, passion. Podcasting is an art of passion. There is no more honest medium than podcasting. Listeners can detect when a host is not feeling it or calling it in. I have heard a lot of podcasts done by folks who you can tell are doing it because it’s what they think they should be doing and not what they want to do. I teach my students to smile when they talk (SMALK) because listeners pick up on that. Make sure you are doing a podcast because you are passionate about the subject matter and your listeners.
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A great podcast comes down to three things for me: Empathy, Education, and Entertainment. You must connect to the audience in a way that touches them emotionally as well as lets them feel like the they learned something. At the end of the day if the show is only entertaining to the people doing it, then it’s not good. You must always think about how you entertaining your audience. There’s more on that here: https://www.jamstreetmedia.com/post/the-three-e-s-of-podcasting
A great podcast comes down to three things for me: Empathy, Education, and Entertainment. You must connect to the audience in a way that touches them emotionally as well as lets them feel like the they learned something. At the end of the day if the show is only entertaining to the people doing it, then it’s not good. You must always think about how you entertaining your audience. There’s more on that here: https://www.jamstreetmedia.com/post/the-three-e-s-of-podcasting