TORONTO – Corus Radio recently became the first radio chain to sell advertising into the increasingly popular podcast format.
On several of the company’s radio station web sites, viewer/listeners can download iPodder in order to listen to short documentary programs most everyone will be familiar with: The Ongoing History of New Music and Legends of Classic Rock.
The difference with these podcasts is that they’re sponsored by Molson’s. Nothing flashy. Nothing expensive. Just a five second intro from the hosts saying it’s sponsored by Molson’s.
The minute to 90-second ‘casts are “just to test the waters” Corus Radio’s executive producer, interactive, Earl Veale, told www.cartt.ca last week. “We’d like to do a full-fledged version of The Ongoing History of New Music, (which is an hour or so long), but we don’t have the rights to the music. We could do the words, but not the music.”
As for the little podcasts, “We just wanted to get them up and see the response,” added Veale. “Sponsorship though is new, and very cool.”
Hosted by Rock 101 Vancouver PD and musicologist, Jeff Woods, Legends of Classic Rock gives listeners the stories behind the music that defined a generation. The Ongoing History of New Music, hosted by leading modern rock music historian Alan Cross, is the longest-running music documentary feature in the country. For over a decade, the show has explored the themes, facts, issues, myths and personalities behind today’s music culture.
(Other Corus content which could also easily fit the web format would be items like Q107 Toronto John Derringer’s Tool of the Day or Dave Rutherford’s daily commentary on 770 CHQR Calgary.)
The advantage for the sponsor, besides getting in near the ground floor on a growing phenomenon, and being at the leading edge of permission-based marketing where they’ve been invited into a listener’s PC or iPod, is that no matter when Molson’s ad campaign ends with Corus’ podcasts, those downloaded vignettes will always say it’s sponsored by Molson’s.
“We are being invited by that person to be part of their personal music experience,” adds Veale, noting that ambitious listeners could program their own shows adding music around the Cross or Woods shows.
While it takes a little work to download the iPodder software, Corus has very straightforward instructions on how to do it, which have since been, um, borrowed, by other radio companies offering podcasts.
The one irritant for Veale? The name that’s now stuck to these audio clips, thanks to the growing ubiquity of Apple’s iPod: the podcast. “This is radio on demand,” he insists. “It burns my thrusters that it’s called ‘podcasting’ but Apple has made the iPod a cultural icon so that’s what it’s called.”
