Bloggers make leap to talk radio
Move over, Rush and the rest of you terrestrial radio talk jocks — big-mouth bloggers want a piece of your turf.
Blurring the line between broadcast and online punditry, BlogTalkRadio.com gives bloggers a free and easy way to create streaming Webcasts complete with guests and live listener call-in segments.
After registering on the site and scheduling show times, hosts simply dial a designated number and start yakking. Anyone with access to a phone can launch a program — no producer, sound board, microphone or radio station required. Think of it as podcasting 2.0.
Hosts don’t even need a blog to get started. But unless they like talking to themselves, it’s critical to have some type of online platform to promote their shows to listeners.
Clued-in fans with Windows Media Player can then stream archived episodes at their convenience. But if they listen live they can call in, too. Either way, they don’t have to register to tune in.
In less than two months, more than 200 talkative bloggers from 25 countries have signed on via the service, hosting 750-plus Webcasts. The most popular episodes have snared about 1,000 listeners each, said Alan Levy, CEO of the New Jersey-based service.
Levy also owns two local phone companies, so generating unique numbers for thousands of blog talkers isn’t a problem. He plans to make money by selling ads, splitting proceeds from audio spots with program hosts.
With only three staffers, including Levy, running the service and no venture capital available for a big marketing push, BlogTalkRadio is growing at its own organic pace.
“I spend a good part of my day going through Technorati and e-mailing bloggers” about the service, Levy said. Finding potential hosts through search engines is fine, but the site hopes to reach critical mass by persuading a blogger with millions of readers to create a show.
The 47-year-old entrepreneur seems genuinely excited about BlogTalkRadio. In addition to hosting his own program, “I call into most of the shows,” Levy said. During our half-hour conversation, he kept throwing out potential uses for the service beyond political shoutfests (although one of the site’s most popular shows, “Atlas on the Air,” is hosted by conservative Pajamas Media blogger Pamela Geller Oshry).
Political candidates could host town hall meetings at BlogTalkRadio, he suggested. Comedians might try out new material on interactive audiences. Government agencies could conduct constituent outreach. Podcasters will embrace the new format, he predicted. “It’s the perfect tool for an auction site,” Levy added, enabling potential buyers to chat with sellers.
Some of those moves are already taking place. The Los Angeles Fire Department launched a show on the site. So did New Jersey comedian Mike Trainor, who used to co-host a program on Sirius Satellite Radio.
The platform also will be used to create paid teleconference “rooms” for corporate clients that can accommodate up to 250 callers. “We’re leveraging a lot of the technology we’ve already made investments in” on the telecom side, Levy said.
Judging by a recent episode of Trainor’s show (he said of New York City police, “They won’t catch all the murderers, but they will ticket all the cars”), sound quality on the service is decent — about like a conference call with all participants on land lines.
BlogTalkRadio isn’t playing alone in this space, however. Free Skypecasts offered by voice-over-Internet service provider Skype.com can handle up to 100 callers. But listeners must register and the “preview” Skypecast site doesn’t provide access to archived events, giving the service even more of a conference-call vibe.
But bloggers who want to extend their brands and give readers a chance to talk back in real time should give these live Webcast options a good listen.