Podcast appearances and mentions of nathan richie

This podcast episode is a little different than the rest. It's a personal conversation with my good friend Jim Mitchem about some serious topics, ranging from battling cancer to remembering a dear mutual friend, Nathan Richie, who passed away June 16, 2018. Jim is a branding consultant and award-winning senior copywriter who has convinced people to think differently about things for more than two decades. Since 2002, Jim's company Smash Communications has helped drive revenue for his clients via consistent messaging that elicits action across a range of media. As Jim says, “Copywriting is my superpower.” He's the author of several fictional books, including Minor King and Mongoose, as well as a non-fiction tribute to man's best friend, Gone Dogs: Tales of Dogs We've Loved. Jim is one of the most honest and kind people I know. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation. Find out more about Jim at Quick Like Mongoose. RIP, Nathan Richie.

Joe, Nathan & Richie talk through all of the top Wednesday headlines on this evening's Newsround In association w/ Gillette Labs | #EffortlessFlow

Pod-Crashing Episode 47:I once had a program director that constantly reminded us to deal with Radio Reality. He’d begin every conversation saying, “Hey! This is how it really is!” Mike put so much refocus back into my career that I began watching every level of the Broadcast game. Hey! This is how it really is!Conan O’Brien’s conversation with actor Paul Ruben. The creator of Pee Wee Herman is having a difficult time trying to understand the concept of a podcast. The typical question, “What’s the difference between this and radio?” Conan jumps in to explain only to realize that after a year or so of doing podcasting he still can’t figure out why it’s called a podcast.I still remember how pouty I was about the name back in 2012. I hated the term podcast. Especially since the age of iPod listening was quickly disappearing. I had just gone through the death of AM stereo and HD Radio. So much energy put into trying to reinvent the wheel only to watch it fizzle like a firecracker on a rain soaked July 4th holiday. My good friend Nathan Richie was the first to step up and say “If you don’t like calling it a podcast then stop doing it. Start educating your listeners. It’s Listening on Demand.”Too difficult to say. It needs a dictionary definition to go with it. Besides, when I get a phone call from a promoter about doing conversations with Gordon Lightfoot and Dennis DeYoung telling them I host fourteen Listen on Demands… they literally stop. Then ask, “A what? Do you mean a podcast?”Hey! This is how it really is! Radio’s Rodeo Clowns can’t come walking up the dusty path and change the barrel racing rules. When I meet up with new people and tell them I host podcasts it’s pretty much the same act over and over, “Oh! I’ve listened to a podcast once or twice. Was never impressed.” Or the virgin podcast listener’s answer is “I can’t find the time to check into a two hour rant from Joe Rogan. Is Marc Maron really that pissed off at the world?” I’ve heard all the questions! It’s like being a podcaster turns everything into the six degrees of separation. So many listeners think we’re all in touch with each other. You know hang on the weekend. Free food at Denny’s at 3am. Then it’s back to creating new episodes on Monday.Hey! This is how it really is! I keep in touch with a lot of podcasters. Everybody needs to be swapping notes and experiences. It’s only going to raise the bar on quality. I’m not saying we should suddenly jump into a pair of Program Director shoes. Oh hell no! The art of being a great podcaster is doing it your way. I love checking in with new-be’s like Pete Kaliner who’s extremely fresh from the large tower but on fire with podcasting because its keeping his fans and followers locked in on the energy he generated while with a Talk station forced to clean house. It’s not that I’m babysitting or trying to pull off a Stock Market takeover. We need to create a stronger brother and sisterhood during these extremely early steps of digital vocal dancing. How Pete lays out his political conversations fed by a need to keep it local shouldn’t sound like my conversations with Elizabeth Chelan who’s got new research on how the military is struggling with recruiting volunteers. Texture is everything. This is how it really is! Part of growing with your podcast is knowing what to podcast. That’s an extremely tough mountain to climb for many. I mean, here it is! Your own podcast! Got the Zoom L-8, a fancy microphone, sound proofing, great set of cans and and and… so what do you wanna talk about? Just hit record and we can wing it right? Collaborations are a cool thing but know your game. A couple of great friends want to chum it up on a podcast. I’m always ready for any performance. But I’m a show prep junky. I never drop tracks unless I go into the episode fully prepared. Hey! This is how it really is! My conversation with Gordon Lightfoot yesterday needed to be an all-out conversation. To get Gordon into that emotional circle of storytelling I didn’t need to sound like I was pulling questions from thin air. Great talk begins with trust. Those receiving your questions will lower their guard when you build your relationship around the thought of a couple of people that happened to cross paths at Starbucks.Did I invent that? Oh hell no! I study the masters Stern, Rogan, Maron, Ronan Farrow, Bill Burr and the calmest of the smooth talkers Bob Pittman from Math and Magic and iHeart Media. Hey! This is how it really is! In this age of free form thinking and speaking the squeaky wheel isn’t always going to be the bird that gets the first worm. Part of growing your podcast is know what to podcast. Knowing arrives from experiencing. Not stealing ideas but using your own skills to bring forward a sound inspired or influenced by. Conan O’Brien does a brilliant job with long form famous people talk. What kind of nightmare did he go through developing that style? He’s a television guy who was barely given six to eight minutes with his guys. Now he’s getting over and hour with Pee Wee Herman? I’d love to see how Stern would handle a conversation after the producer on the other side says, “You’re out time is 10:09.” And the clock in front of you says its 10:06. I’ve only turned down one interview during a moment like that. I honestly said, “I love and respect this actor so much that being with him for only three minutes shows a disrespect for his presence as an artist. The universe will unite us again a different day.” I’ve done my fair share of itty bitty teeny weanie talks and had to rely on my producing skills to create an episode that wouldn’t make the listener feel like I just wasted their time. I’m not Entertainment Tonight where they billboard that coming up next so and so and he and she and when the story lands it was only 30 seconds in length. Hey! This is how it really is! Alright it’s time for me to reach out to Dennis DeYoung. He’s teamed up with Julian Lennon and Jim Peterik both of whom are huge conversationalists with a solid value at bringing forward the story and experience. Two days of prep has gone into this project. My friend Allan asked if I’d go anywhere near the history of Styx. No… No need. There’s a lot more to talk about than living in the past. So what’s the moral of the story? There’s no greater feeling then watching your analytics grow. When advertisers start researching your episodes the process gets even more exciting. Building an episode is like creating a craft beer. If you ain’t making what the bar can sell… that stack of BBQ’ed ribs are gonna sit on that grill all night. I learned that from a club owner in the 1990’s. He told me to stop playing love songs. It doesn’t sell whiskey. Tired sweaty dancers buy it up.

Pod-Crashing Episode 39: The BeginningBetween 2012 and 2016 I approached the decision makers of Broadcasting Schools and Universities to open their hearts and imaginations to accepting the platform dubbed Podcasting. I was losing the battle on the terrestrial radio side of the performance. Sales people loved it but didn’t know how to sell it and programmers wanted nothing to do with something that looked more like a hobby than a profession. Outside of my daily journals only one person knew of my true drive to bring this medium forward. Nathan Richie. We’d talk for hours about laying out the foundation of a tangible object that very few people wanted to participate with. I thought the adult educational system would leap all over it. They listened but wouldn’t act upon the request. It was always based on money, “Our students come here for career opportunities and at this time it doesn’t seem to be a great place to change our plans to invest in something that honestly has no success story.”One of the nation’s top radio consultants, we’ll call him the D man, he believed so much in my visions as a radio talent and producer that in 1985 he brought me down from Montana to Carolina. Somehow I lost my luster in 2012 when I spoke of this new age of On Demand listening. I tried so hard to convince him of its potential. Interviewing huge musical acts and actors during an annual event with students from across the nation. He wouldn’t bite. Which Nathan Richie and I talked about all the time. Nathan was a visionary that leaped onto the internet approach to growing radio years before the industry hopped on. Every word he spoke was a foreign language and yet I was able to trust the impression he was putting on my path. He knew I was a rule breaker and willing to look at top dog decision makers and call them out for being disconnected. They made sure I knew that they always knew best. They endlessly screamed at me about how radio listeners didn’t mind ten minute commercial stop sets and if you play Maroon 5 six times in a three hour break it’ll grab you more. The building of my podcast presentation between 2012 and 2018 was heavily influenced by Nathan’s attachment to where listeners were growing. We listened to each other. We built on a project based on how a martial artist positions themselves in a process of always reaching toward the community. He was a Master in Tae Kwon Do. I am a 3rd Dan or 3rd degree black belt. Together we had the guts to face an industry that was about to take a huge hit because the world was quickly becoming addicted to getting what they want right now. The night I learned of Nathan’s death was a passing of the torch. To this day I scan every memory bank in my soul seeking every bit of information he gave me about internet airplay. What he planted was a huge seed based on one thing: Don’t just do a podcast. Get your ass on the real streets of where people are and put them inside the performance. I was finally allowed to talk about podcasting in broadcasting schools in mid-2016. The D man has never invited me back to his gatherings. I’m sure I posted something on social media that ended that connection but that’s what you do when you want to make a difference. It kills me that iHeart Media didn’t invest in where I stood in 2012 and yet they brag about being the biggest and best in podcasting today. I won’t complain. Without any type of monetary exchange I’ve busted serious ass to have ten podcasts on their platform. I believed in Bob Pittman’s nationwide address to terrestrial radio people. He asked us to step up and participate. The Production Director who just lost his position on the air due to an all music format leaped at the opportunity. There were no rules. No program directors and no D man. Even if it meant leaving the corporate world of radio I had to believe in Nathan Richie’s empowerment. I can still hear his voice, “You have a product. How are you going to find people? More importantly how are you going to keep what you’re creating alive? It’s too easy to quit.” Yesterday I sat with 13 future Broadcasters in a control room introducing them to podcasting. Asking someone what they want to talk about is far worse than screaming out something the devil said inside a church. People know about it or have heard about it but haven’t a clue as to how they can participate with it. If Eric Nuzum of NPR was told he was too late for the game in 2005 why they hell would someone want to jump into the sport in 2020? Because in 2005 there were no true pioneers to learn from. There truly wasn’t a history or learning tool. I read books and magazines about it today calmly saying, “Bull. Won’t work.” Everybody seems to have the answer in an age where we need to be putting focus on the listener and tomorrows talkers. I get it! Broadcasting student’s don’t get it. I put them in the room and broke the junk down. Starting first with huge groups talking for 15 minutes. They hated it. Nobody really got any air time. Then we shot it down to three then two then one. I get it that they don’t get it. But if you don’t lay out the map of possibility on their worldly connections then the schools are ripping students off. This is podcasting 101. It comes with a kick in the pants. Enjoy the ride! Eric Nuzum said podcasting shouldn’t be controlled by anyone. It’s what you’re bringing to the moment. As much as I want to agree with him is how much I want to stop him in his tracks. There are a ton of horrid podcasts on the platform screaming for some love. The moment I praise an episode for its bad quality is the day I’m picking up a full time job at Circle K. Look… I’m not good at podcasting. I just happen to be incorporating a few messages that Nathan Richie made sure I heard. What’s the moral of the story? Without a doubt I feel sorry for terrestrial radio talent being told how to bring a podcast to life by the likes of people like the D man. Unless you podcast you can’t teach podcasting. No matter how much you trust research we aren’t playing by the same listener rules and expectations. The most recent move by iHeart Media to dismiss a huge collection of their performers from the party will bring thousands to this next level of play. They won’t go to a university or broadcast school to learn how to properly podcast. They’ll use their radio knowledge to reach what could be, might be, should be, hmmm maybe not next level of play. Podcaster’s of past generations aren’t interested in radio people playing the stage. I disagree with that. Probably because I grew up through the ranks of those two speakers. We need radio people to push this platform to the advertisers. They understand quality and performance. They’ve been trained to promote and push the door wide open. Welcome them by teaching them. Unite because Nathan Richie would agree.

This month host Matthew Ablan speaks with classical guitarist Robert Teixeira. The two discuss how Robert got involved with the classical guitar, the guitar programs at Queens University and CPCC, performing with the Bechtler Ensemble and composing. The music heard in this episode is from the cd Shade Grown by Robert and his wife Tanja.  This episode is dedicated to the memory of Nathan Richie. 

Bo Thompson, Vince Coakley, and John Hancock talk about the legacy of Nathan Richie, plus President Trump's zero tolerance policy at the border.

This month Matthew speaks with Charlotte's elder statesman of Jazz Bill Hanna - a staple of the local music scene. Bill discusses how he fell in love with jazz, his journey as a music educator for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, the jazz program at CPCC and the places in town he spreads his music. QCMP voice over intro provided by Nathan Richie. 

In this episode Matthew interviews Jennings Compton regarding tour merchandising, management and the crazy things that have happened out on the road. QCMP intro voice-over courtesy of Nathan Richie. 

This month host Matthew Ablan speaks with Central Piedmont Community College's audio engineering instructor Dan Guerrie. The two discuss the CPCC's continuing education program for audio engineering, the career track and how the music industry has evolved as it pertains to recording. QCMP voice over intro by Nathan Richie.   

This month Matthew returns to Midwood Guitar Studio and speaks with owner Douglas Armstrong about opening the shop, boutique guitars and what lies ahead for MGS. QCMP intro voice-over work by Nathan Richie. 

In this episode Matthew speaks with one of Charlotte's premiere luthier's Craig Landau of Midwood Luthiere - who talks about the craft, famous players who have stopped by and the strange things one will find in vintage guitars. QCMP intro voice-over work by Nathan Richie.