Pat Holiday has spent 9 years away from the daily regiment of a radio station. In that time he has seen that its issues remain the same and there is both good and bad in that. He moderated the Broadcast Leadership panel "Like a Boss" at Canadian Music Week and did not serve up any softballs, but he did admit to leaving a few fast balls on the table. From his iconic beginnings at the Big 8 at CKLW in Detroit, to working in three Canadian cities in management, Pat has a knack for taking a market's temperature and reflecting it in the radio station he champions. He readily admits that radio has changed but things are not as bad as they seem, and suggests that radio is perhaps fixing the product at the wrong end. My thanks to Karen Steele at Virgin Radio in Kitchener for the show idea. Other notable credits include Matt Abra from Red River College who edited the episode, and Lauren Siddall who heads up the Social Media and Digital side of things here at the podcast. (See below) If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review it. Pat has now started a Program Directors course! During this Episode, we made reference to a movie that was made in 2004 called Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8. You can order it online. We also spent a moment on Rosalie Tromblay's impact on the station. More about here can be viewed here. I also made reference to an article Pat wrote in FYI Music News called, "Do You Have A Math Problem Or A Programming Problem?". It remains a relevant read nearly two years after its publishing. We are growing! ​The Sound Off Podcast welcomes Lauren Siddall to the show. Lauren will oversee all things social media and digital. In time we will be making a few changes to the website and getting an ongoing newsletter going. For those radio stations who use Matt for radio consulting, Lauren will be analyzing your station social media on a regular basis. You can reach her here if you would like to welcome her to the podcast!

I met Perry Michael Simon twice a week this summer. At the Podcast Movement in Chicago, and again the next week at Conclave in Minneapolis. He proved to be the person who was not afraid to identify the elephant in the room. If you want to solve what ails you in this life, you need to identify the elephant in the room and either loves it or learn to live with it. You can't always get rid of it because... it's an elephant. We spent our time talking about his year-end column from AllAccess.com which sums up 2016 as being a year without much change for news/talk radio. Which is shocking considering what happened. We also spent some time talking about podcasting and what it holds for 2017. This podcast was made possible with the support of Pepper Prep. With the new year upon us, now is a great time to get your radio show or podcast off to a good start with a free trial of Pepper Prep. We had Shika Rebecca on for Episode 5 of our podcast series, and she does a great job in getting the right material for your show. You can hear her segment by clicking here. So 2016? Why all the celebrity deaths? Here’s my theory. The ’80s are to blame. we are entering into a period when most of our Generation X cultural icons are inching close to Freedom 55. Not everyone in the ’40s sees 50, even more, don’t see 60, and if you get to your 70’s and 80’s – that's a bonus! We express shock and amazement over our icon's passing because we fell in love with them through repeated media exposure. In the ’80s, there was an explosion of media choices as we moved from 3 and a half networks to 30. Everyone became a star, there were more stars to love and MORE of those stars. Remember that celebrity tabloid culture also took off. We could watch and listen to music together with the same way – experience events like Live Aid, and we all bought the albums and listened to them the same way. Shared experiences for everyone! Consider Michael Jackson. No one was bigger than him. 40 million albums sold. Given the way media has evolved, there will never be a celebrity as big as him ever again. Most of the passing of icons in 2016 featured two notable quotients: Fame in the ’80s when shows like Entertainment Tonight accelerated celebrity stardom into the stratosphere, and EXPOSURE in the billions. George Michael, Glen Frey, Muhammed Ali, Carrie Fisher, and Prince certainly fit that category. Then there are those who fit into the hundreds of millions category: Garry Shandling, Natalie Cole, Gene Wilder, Alan Thicke. As crazy as it sounds, let's take the time to thank the living. Betty White, Jimmy Carter, Keith Richards; and those 80’s icons like Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, even Duran Duran, whose fame rivalled that of Wham. If 2016 has taught us anything, when you listen to your favourite song on the radio or watch your favourite icon on your tv or tablet, do it with gratitude. By the way, if you think that's hoaky, silly or impossible - there was THIS.

​Todd Hancock was a fixture on Vancouver radio for 14 years before being restructured out of his job in June 2014. Todd was offered a few jobs across the country but realized that rather than trying to re-establish his personal brand on-air in another market, it was more lucrative to carry forward with what he had already established. And do it through podcasting. His podcast features three guests: One from Sports, Music, and another from Entertainment. You can forgive Todd for the Vancouver-centric feeling of the podcast; after all, that's where his sponsors and the biggest chunk of his audience reside. However, the podcast has allowed him to stretch his brand across the country and around the world. My fast and bold prediction is that when a Podcast Network gets started in Canada, Todd will be one of the first sign-ups. Click on the ToddCast Podcast Logo and subscribe to his podcast.

Andrew Wilcox is the program director at Cruz 100.5 in Fort McMurray. He tells the story of what it is was like to run the station while the mandatory evacuation order was being ordered. Andrew was a rockstar while the staff relocated to their Edmonton headquarters. Here is with Harvard Edmonton General Manager Tamara Konrad. UPDATE! Andrew is back in Fort McMurray and on the air as radio is truly an essential service. A story that ran nationally states Andrew is on the air, but not back in his home as the story's running on June 8. As you can see from the satellite image, Andrew's home was not destroyed but sustained damage during the fires. Remedial Media: Cindy Day from CTV Atlantic Canada seems unaware of what was going on in Fort McMurray. The typical result for any broadcaster that does not adequately prepare for going on the air; let alone paying attention to the broadcast of which you are part. You can see the disaster in the video to the right.

Jeff Woods, who has long been the voice of classic rock in Canada, has released a brand new book called Radio, Records, & Rockstars. I had the pleasure of working with Jeff at 100.3 The Bear in Edmonton in 1994 for about eight or nine months. We also worked at Corus Entertainment for a number of years; albeit in different provinces so we would only see one another occasionally. I am a big fan of his interviews, probably because he taught me how to do an interview with artists. So it felt odd preparing for an interview with someone who taught me how to prepare for interviews. Jeff and I had dinner last September when he was riding his motorcycle across Canada and setting off to write his book. It was one of those great meals you have catching up and owning luggage and then ordering another bottle of wine so you can tell an even nuttier story. The book contains enough for both classic rock aficionados and those who acquired their taste for it through the radio. Jeff pulls no punches on summarizing the current state of media today: Maybe you’ve noticed, too: the sound-bite culture, reinforced by early evening so-called entertainment television, focused mostly on what’s “coming up,” when the answer to that is “not very much of anything.” The keepers of the keys of too many traditional media outlets, including radio and television, have in their overly corporatized culture become curators of insignificance. The mandate seems to be hell-bent on little beyond scratching the surface, intended to be inoffensive but titillating enough to keep you around to hear more advertisements necessary to keep the idiot box or the jukebox that radio has become chugging along." Jeff has a podcast on iTunes. His website can be found here. Buy the Book here. (The Book is nearly sold out) Jeff has found his way back to Toronto and I spoke with him about the efforts that go into compiling a book, interviewing rock stars and the future of radio.

Bob Willette got his start in commercial radio working alongside Humble and Fred at 102.1 The Edge back in the late 90's. He started as an intern but later produced the show and followed them over to the Mix 99.9 in the 2000's. After Humble and Fred had this very strange separation, he was "excused" from his position as producer and went on to work at Proud-FM for nearly 9 years, serving as the program director for the planet's first commercially licensed radio station to serve the LGBTQ Community. This part alone is worth the listen as Bob talks fondly of the radio that was made and said he could easily write a book about it. There were further opportunities at 94.9 The Rock in Oshawa, Bell in Toronto and Kitchener, and now Corus radio in Kingston, Ontario. In this episode, I wanted to know how he continues to persevere in one of the world's most volatile business' which is adversely affect by a pandemic. I also wanted to hear all about "Bob's Basement" which is his new podcast. You can connect to the show below. There are a few ways to connect to Bob's Show - you know like through Apple and Google. But you can also click FOLLOW on Spotify because everyone seems they are set to take over the world soon.

Sports is fast becoming the format of choice for graduating media students. With the commodity value of music at an all time low, and news becoming polarizing and at time "fake", Sports broadcasting attracting aspiring millennial broadcasters. Alex Rawnsley is the owner and creator of Sportscasterlife.com - a website designed to help Sportscasters get better at their craft. He has made available all the things he wished he had when he was developing as a sportscaster. After spending a few minutes on the site, having access to score sheets and quick tips on building storyboards was interesting. There are many other resources on the site. Alex recently has been working as the News Director for various radio shows such as 1067 The Wolf, 1023 The Wave, 999 The Lounge, 88.5 The Beach, and Nanaimo News Now. He directs all these radio stations he has been working as the News Director for Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. He has been working at the company since 2019 and while still operating the sportscasterlife.com. You can reach Alex through his Twitter.

The last time we spoke to Dahlia - she was on her way out of Winnipeg and on her way east. She landed at CJAD for a time and then to CFRA in Ottawa where she hosted "The Goods". You see, she is a social good advocate, talk show host, actor, producer, and more. Dahlia has never paid attention to silly rules. When she interned at the CBC she was told that CBC never hires interns. She later broke a story about police brutality, they were impressed and hired her on the spot. She then travelled the world for TV hosting opportunities, through this she felt the pressures of body image from being an on-screen talent. So she decided to create Canada's first body image awareness program for girls. She called it 'Bye-Bye, Barbie!'. Unfortunately, she was recently laid off just a few weeks ago, and her show "The Goods" cancelled. And that's too bad because broadcast radio needs this show. In this episode, you will hear Dahlia talk about her experience getting laid off from her job and the outpouring of support from her listeners. She shares a profoundly touching story from when she tried to help a little girl at this school who was getting bullied. Dahlia further talks about her use of social media networks to market the content she creates. She talks about how she got closure with her talk show 'The Goods' as doing her final episode was a very satisfying experience for her. You can reach Dahlia through her website, Instagram, and Twitter. Here is a tweet showcasing a short audio clip from one of Dahlia's shows. She invited one of her listeners in and he had something very profound to say. Ray who is a 74-year-old man talks about how what truly matters in life is the people you love and the people who love you. The audio clip is only 1 minute long and I would give it a listen as it really stuck with me.

You only need to refer to her by her first name: Dahlia. From 2013 to 2016, she graced the airwaves of 680 CJOB with her unique perspective on life, issues and creating social good. Unlike traditional talk show hosts who approach topics with an aggressive "tear it down" approach. Dahlia would choose a different route that involved empathy, emotion and engagement. Throughout my years in broadcasting, I have learned to reserve judgement until later before decreeing something as "good" or "bad". As she readily admits, even Dahlia's first few weeks on the air, weren't good. But as the leftover listeners from Charles Adler's old timeslot gravitated to the 9a-Noon timeslot where Charles had recently taken up residence, Dahlia slowly began building an audience through word of mouth and "social good". Audiences that included more 35 plus females than the station was accustomed to. Only in the final year of the show did I start to have an appreciation for the type of radio she was creating daily, and made a point of listening. In her last two ratings books on CJOB, the station finished #1 for females 35 plus. And then she was gone... Dahlia can be e-mailed here Here DEMO is here. And her WEBSITE is here. Last week, the Sound Off Media Company spent the week at the Conclave in Minneapolis learning about radio, and sharing what we know about the podcast space. I was honoured to speak at the event and although we did not get through all the things we had planned, that doesn't mean you cannot reach out anytime to ask questions and talk about radio or podcast with us. You are welcome to book time using our online booking system, or just call the studio. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about becoming a better broadcaster or podcaster.

Steve Goldstein is the Founder/CEO of Amplifi Media; an audio innovation firm that offers services such as counselling, production, and marketing of podcasts. Amplifi Media is an advisor to many companies such as ABC News, NBC Television, Skyview Networks, and Dave Ramsey Media. Steve is a recognized leader in audio programming, marketing, and management. He has been building up Amplifi Media since 2015. Steve speaks at major conferences including our favourites like Canadian Music Week, RAIN Summits, Podcast Movement. Steve gives regular advice on how to improve monetizing audio content on Blogstein; Amplifi Media's Blog. In this episode, Steve Goldstein talks about how the podcast industry has excelled over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People have more time on their hands since they are spending more time at home. He notes there are 1.8 million podcasts around the world, only half of which are active. He talks about podcast marketing and how it can be used to have a successful launch Steve further talks about how smart speakers are now being used for podcast and radio consumption. Spoiler alert: Results May Vary. You can connect with Steve through his Twitter and his company's website. Here is a tweet from Steve that talks about how the podcast business is booming but few are making money. If you would like to learn more about HVAC School, here is a link to their podcast and a YouTube video about 'What it Takes to be an Excellent Residential Service Tech'. Steve also referenced Bryan Orr who has the highly successful HVAC School of Podcast. Matt also voices the Building HVAC Science podcast hosted by HVAC Measurement and Building Performance Expert Bill Spohn. Bryan spoke at Podcast Movement in 2019 in a room that was overflowing with attendees. Canadians will appreciate this episode which is handy to keep hockey rinks frozen.