True Crime Investigation, Law Enforcement Officer's, and Human Interest interviews. Podcast that became a syndicated radio show.
True Crime Investigation, Law Enforcement Officer's, and Human Interest interviews. Podcast that became a syndicated radio show.
"Get started and be consistent in your content quality and publishing."
Today ohn Jay Wiley, the creator of Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories shares his story of True Crime podcast.
► Tell us about you and your podcast
I'm a retired Police Sergeant that was hurt and permanently disabled during an act of violence. I eventually started pursuing the audio broadcasting space in 1999 with an audio blog. After attending night school I became an FM Radio DJ. In 2017 I took what I learned from radio and started the podcast. Within a few months the show was recruited by a radio station in New York. I self syndicated to my first 13 terrestrial radio stations, then got my first radio syndicator. We are now syndicated by Talk Media Network and have 116 affiliate US Commercial AM-FM radio stations broadcasting the show to about 44 million combined population.
The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and podcast combines True Crime, Law Enforcement Officer's, and Human Interest interviews. The experience of our guests. From investigations of crimes and the violence encountered on the front lines. Unfiltered stories from law enforcement officers, first responders, military veterans, and victims of crimes and their families.
My listeners on the radio are traditional radio listeners. The podcast version leans a little younger and more female listeners. The audience ranges from those interested in true crime investigations, police procedures, and trauma from law enforcement careers. The other guests are police, other first responders, military, victims of crime talking about trauma they endured, How that trauma affected them and most importantly how they built their lives after. That trauma isn't always crime based.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
I started the podcast with a narrow focus of recovering and life after PTS. That has since expanded, especially after being added to terrestrial radio.
My initial goal was to tell stories of those who found light at the end of the tunnel and created some success in their lives after the trauma of police work.
I started the podcast version of my show in March of 2017. It was recruited by radio and subsequently syndicated in October of 2017.
My first episode was released within 2 weeks of its inception.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
I release podcast versions of my show twice a week, and they are about 40 minutes in length.
At first it was a steep learning curve on how to do the podcast alongside my career. However there came a point where what I was learning and experiencing in podcasting carried over to my full time radio day job.
I work on my podcast - radio show virtually everyday of the week, with the vast majority of the time being dedicated to promotion, SEO, Social Media, writing articles etc. The show has multiple streams of revenue from sponsorship - advertising, and social media payment for reach. About 95% of my time is devoted to promotion and marketing, especially building the social media community with the primary emphasis on Facebook.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
I do take sponsorship and offer multiple options. At this time the show generates 6 figures in income per year and has become my sole business.
Our first sponsor was obtained by contacting companies that were adjacent to our primary niche. Our offer combined not just the reach of the podcast, but also radio reach and most importantly social media reach, with the primary emphasis on Facebook. At the time of our first sponsor we were averaging 300 downloads per episode in the first month.
Most of the sponsors now are from relationships with Media Buyers. Currently we are averaging 1,750 downloads per episode in the first 30 days. Total for all 630+ episodes comes to about 75,000 downloads per month.
Podcasting, and all that goes along with that and the radio show has provided me with a business that I can work from home, with the exception of the times that I use a radio studio to conduct interviews for the show.
Listen411.com: Lightning-fast, Cost-effective Podcast Transcription and Summarization - Crafted with Passion by Listen Notes.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
A couple of extremely helpful platforms for my growth have been Facebook, Linkedin and writing articles for Newsbreak.com and Medium.com.
What my process looks like is not easy to explain. First I use a radio studio to do my interviews and save them as a .wav file. The guests on my show approach me and we develop an email correspondence first. We also have one short phone discovery call to make sure they understand the format of the show and to explain how it will be conducted. I also get a very short description about what they will be discussing from their experience. I have a rough idea of the conversation and bullet points of things that I need to promote, i.e. websites, books etc. I deliberately do not spend much time researching them or their stories, because I want to have a real, relatable conversation with them. Then I edit each segment of the show and mix them down with a radio version and then a podcast version. The radio version is sent to my radio syndicators on Thursdays to be loaded onto radio station satellites and also an internet delivery platform. The podcast versions are published about 1 week after airing on radio. I do not and will not use Skype or Zoom, as it can degrade the audio quality and the finished product is usually not suitable for radio broadcast. I use a radio studio and their board to call the guest.
► How do you market your show?
I focus a lot of my time on Facebook postings everyday, SEO and adding more terrestrial affiliate radio stations. The overwhelming majority of the podcast listeners from my show are on Apple products. I'd say more than 85% of consumers come from the Apple Podcasting platforms. Then Spotify is a distant 2nd.
The channels that have been most successful for me is Facebook, in particular the mobile facebook app, although there are 4 total facebook urls that refer listeners. Google and other web searches are usually 2nd and then there is a toss up between Linkedin and Nextdoor. The affiliate terrestrial radio stations have been a huge part of my success.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Get started and be consistent in your content quality and publishing. Get started developing your email newsletter list from the very beginning. Don't break the bank to finance getting started. However, learn that one of the most important aspects of podcasting is working on discoverability for your show and episodes. It will quickly become a major time suck.
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
You can learn more about the show at www.Letradio.com and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LawEnforcementTalkRadioShow, also https://www.newsbreak.com/law-enforcement-talk-radio-show-and-podcast-1760983?s=01 and https://medium.com/@letradioshow
Listen411.com: Lightning-fast, Cost-effective Podcast Transcription and Summarization - Crafted with Passion by Listen Notes.
Lightning-fast: Transcribe a 1-hour audio file in 1 minute.
Pay-as-you-go: USD $0.06 per minute + $1 per file. No subscription required.