Compiled by Trent Thomas
Those Two Girls loving the podcast life
Last Month, SCA announced that the Hit Network’s early breakfast radio hosts Lise Carlaw and Sarah Wills would be transitioning from their national show to a new daily podcast, Halfternoons with Those Two Girls, from 31 May on LiSTNR.
Released at 2pm weekdays, Halfternoons with Those Two Girls is 30 minutes of the duo helping listeners get through the mid-afternoon with their relatable stories around what’s caught their attention that day.
Mediaweek‘s Trent Thomas spoke to the pair about their new life in podcasting.
When asked why the pair made the move from a radio show to a podcast, there was two main answers the first being the schedule and the second being their own listening habits.
Wills: “We were sick of the hours honestly. We had done early breakfast for three and a half years and were getting up at 3 am in the morning, and with daylight savings because we are in Brisbane that varied by an hour six months of the year.
“And also we just feel like the audio landscape is changing and while we were in radio we started independently producing our 40 podcast and that got so much traction that it really demonstrated that we were on the right path with thinking podcasts are where we wanna be in the future.”
Carlaw: “Selfishly as audio consumers, we had to really get honest with ourselves and realise that we were listening to podcasts and we weren’t listening to the radio and we have always set out to create content that we wanted to listen to. There was a real wakeup call there of realising that we should be creating the podcasts that want to listen too.”
Talking to management about the move
Carlaw said that the pair discussed the move between themselves before taking it to SCA management.
Carlaw: “When you work in a duo, you have got to be firmly on the same page, or it just won’t work. It was many months of me and Sarah just tossing and turning the idea in our heads.
“We had really open conversations with SCA as well and our daily afternoon podcast was an idea that we had sat on for a while.”
Wills: “We have always had a really good relationship with [head of Hit Network] Gemma Fordham and SCA and it was a very natural conversation to have.
“Afternoons are for us, we just felt like there was a huge gap in the market for a 2pm show, because that is where Lise and I found ourselves driving around looking for something to listen to.
“And also, when we are not distracted by kids and commutes, that was kind of our hour of alone time. And we thought, well, there is nowhere in radio for that to live because that goes against the radio rule book, but as far as podcasts go it could be something that really fills a gap in the market.
Their new schedules
Carlaw described the pair’s schedule as a dream now compared to alarm clocks of early breakfast radio.
“We generally come into work around 10am and we prepare for Halfternoons and get our interviews, source our content and have a production meeting. It takes three hours even though it’s a half an hour show!”
Wills: “We like to relax and take our time.”
Carlaw: “The idea is that it is uploaded and ready for people to listen to around the 2pm mark.”
Carlaw said that they have been flawed by the response to Halfternoons.
Carlaw: “Not only are we getting our listeners from our early breakfast show who have followed us god bless them, on top of that we are getting the afternoon people which is a perfect fit for us.”
Wills also described the timeslot and lifestyle again as another key reasons for the move.
Wills “We had been in the early breakfast slot for three and a half years and we were looking down the barrel of what else we want to do in radio.
“We tried breakfast for a year and that didn’t really float our boat and I guess we looked at those other slots which were considered the holy grail of radio and ones that we had always aspired to which was afternoon radio.
“Again we had a really honest conversation with each other and said do we actually want that for our lifestyle and careers, and that is where podcasting seemed like a better fit for ourselves.”
Carlaw: “We are just making a Lise and Sarah shaped hole and just creating stuff for ourselves and so far it is working out for us.
Wills: “We are very selfish.”
The Forty podcast
Halfternoons isn’t the pairs only podcast for SCA after the company also acquired Carlaw and Wills’ successful podcast, Forty, a weekly podcast series celebrating the life lessons and stories of popular Australian women in their forties, including Ada Nicodemou, Sarah Wilson, Yumi Stynes, Mia Freedman, and Julie Goodwin.
Since its launch in October of 2020, Forty has achieved more than 200,000 downloads and a 185% increase in listenership from 31 December – 31 March 2021.
Carlaw: “It is pretty insane. We get flooded with messages every time we release an episode.”
Wills: “Harking back to what Lise said about creating things that we want to listen to, we created Forty because we both turned 40 last year and felt their was an opportunity to talk to women 40+ about what they have learnt in their life, and what they wish they knew before they turned 40.
“There is a lot out there for women in their 20s and 30s but not a lot beyond. And we always just feel very validated and happy that our gut instincts end up being right.”
Would they go back to radio?
They both said that they think they are done with radio for now.
Carlaw: “It is difficult to answer that. We are really comfortable right now and feel like we have found a home for quite some time.
“Never say never but this format suites us far better and we are not limited to ad breaks, music, time and we can follow our instincts.”
Wills: “I think radio would need to change more than we would to go back. Radio is very formulaic, the freedom of podcasts is what excites us.”
[Listen to Halfternoons with Those Two Girls here]
Nova launches new original Where Are All The Baby Pigeons?
Where Are All The Baby Pigeons?’ with Lucinda Price is the latest original Nova Podcast to launch on the Nova Entertainment Podcast Network.
Every Thursday, Price will be joined by leading experts in their field, as well as sharing her own personal experience, to get to the bottom of some of life’s biggest mysteries in short, sharp episodes.
Price is a writer, presenter, recording artist and comedian and is one of Australia’s most exciting entertainers. Best-known by her online moniker @frooomes, Lucinda is also the CEO of FroomesWorld, a one-woman business specialising in scripting, producing, presenting and editing original content.
Lucinda has created original podcasts including Waiting for a D8, No Chill and now Nova’s Where Are All and was previously ‘the face’ of Pedestrian.TV.
[Listen to Where Are All The Baby Pigeons? here]
Come Out Wherever You Are arrives on LiSTNR for pride month
Sean Szeps is a gay father and a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community whose new podcast, Come Out Wherever You Are, will feature guests across Australia’s gender and sexual spectrum.
In the podcast series, Szeps seeks to better understand the unique aspects of each identity, the personal experience each guest had of embracing their own identity, what their own coming out experience has been like and what people can learn from the guests’ experiences, and how society can better support people in the LGBTIQIA+ community.
In series one Sean will explore with his guests their experience of identifying as a non-binary, gay, lesbian, queer, pansexual, or bisexual person.
Guests throughout the series include queer activist and content creator Deni Todorovic, businesswoman Sophie Cachia, radio presenter and current affairs journalist Patricia Karvelas, Just The Gist podcast host Jacob Stanley and ABC Heywire winner and content creator Kirra Hampson.
Developed over a number of months with LiSTNR Original Podcasts Head of Content, Jennifer Goggin, Come Out Wherever You Are offers Australians a deeper insight into the personal experiences of those living across the spectrum of gender and sexual identities.
[Listen to Come Out Wherever You Are here]
New LiSTNR exclusive: The Books That Changed My Life
Shameless Media’s Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald’s latest podcast, The Books That Changed My Life, launched exclusively on LiSTNR on Tuesday, 15 June.
Throughout the series Michelle and Zara will talk with guests including Kevin Kwan, Laura Henshaw, Jock Zonfrillo, Susan Carland, Hamish Blake and Delta Goodrem about the books that have had a profound impact on them, giving audiences a rare insight into some of their favourite media personalities, entrepreneurs and entertainers through the books and literature they love, old and new.
Michelle and Zara’s Shameless Media has enjoyed impressive growth since its inception in 2018. The pair has since produced their Shameless and Book Club podcasts as well as released their first book, The Space Between, with Penguin in 2020.
Check out next week’s column for Mediaweek’s interview with Andrews and McDonald.
[Listen to The Books That Changed My Life here]
Annabel Crabb’s Ms Represented to have a podcast companion piece
One hundred years after Australia elected its very first female parliamentarian, Annabel Crabb presents Ms Represented, a raw and honest account of politics from the female perspective.
The four-part series will premiere on Tuesday 13 July at 8pm on ABC TV, with all episodes available to binge on ABC iview. Accompanying the series is a companion podcast hosted by Crabb and comedian Steph Tisdell, with all six episodes available in the ABC listen app on Tues 13 July.
In the podcast, Crabb and Tisdell lift the lid on the untold stories of women in Australian politics, just in time for the centenary of Edith Cowan’s historic election in 1921. With access to a wealth of interviews with trailblazers like Cheryl Kernot and Kate Sullivan to current figures like Anne Aly and Penny Wong, this series will steer from the shocking to the inspirational, using humour to help Australians to engage with a part of our history that deserves more attention.
You can find all six episodes of this accompanying podcast on the ABC listen app, or wherever you hear podcasts.
Ms Represented is a podcast production of the ABC’s Audio News and Current Affairs unit. Produced and mixed by Madeleine Genner.
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions launches with LiSTNR, ABC and SBS on board
After a short delay, Apple has launched Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, the global marketplace for premium podcast subscriptions, announced earlier this year.
Starting today, listeners in more than 170 countries and regions can purchase subscriptions for individual shows and groups of shows through channels, making it easier to support the creators, listen to new content, and unlock additional benefits such as ad-free listening and early access, directly via Apple Podcasts.
Many media companies have signed up to the platform. In Australia, companies on board at launch are LiSTNR, ABC and SBS.
Listeners can discover thousands of subscriptions and channels featuring brand new shows that span many genres and formats, including news, comedy, sports, and true crime, offering listeners premium experiences.
This month, listeners can also find subscriptions from Bloomberg Media, Los Angeles Times, Politico, and Vox Media, plus channels from other leading newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, radio stations, and digital publishers, including ABC News, Axios, Billboard, Bravo, CNBC, CNN, Crooked Media, Dateline, Entertainment Weekly, Futuro Media, The Hollywood Reporter, LAist Studios, National Geographic, MSNBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, New York Magazine, The New York Times, SiriusXM, SB Nation, Southern Living, The Verge, TODAY, VICE, Vogue, Vox, and WBUR.
Government partners with Nova Entertainment on ‘Project ARI’ podcast
Nova Entertainment has created a new podcast in partnership with the Australian Government’s Stop it at the Start campaign to positively influence young people around acceptable behaviour and respectful relationships.
The project launched on Monday 14 June. Project ARI is a fictional storytelling series, designed as a useful tool to help parents and caregivers have more meaningful conversations with kids about respectful behaviour, focused on topics that can seem challenging to tackle.
Project ARI is a branded podcast that follows the story of a fully functioning Artificial Intelligence prototype, affectionately known as ARI. Appearing as a 10-year-old boy, ARI has access to all the information you can Google but couldn’t be programmed with human experience. Placed with a normal everyday family, they take ARI under their wing to educate him the ways of our world, namely, how to be human. Along the way Ari uncovers everyday circumstances where disrespectful behaviours are normalised.
