Several Publicity Hounds have asked my opinion on Voice America Network, the single largest producer of Internet talk radio programming in the world, with more than 100 hosts who broadcast over three branded networks (health, business and VoiceAmerica variety).
One person in my mentor program was “offered” a $5,000 package to have his own show. I’m curious about what other Publicity Hounds have to say about this.
If you have your own show on Voice America, how much did it cost and do you think it’s worth it? If you’ve been a guest on a Voice America show, what kind of response did you get? Do you have any tips or advice for other Publicity Hounds who are considiring doing this?
At this point in time I would recommend everyone run away from Voice America as fast as they can if asked to be a host. I would be extremely selective in who you use as your producer. Many of them sell their shows on pure hype. I was asked to host a show many months ago and I am still not on the air. In my initial contact with the company I was promised many things that were not delivered. It has taken months of battling to try to get things settled. At this point, I’m not sure I would even want to do business with them. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time and money. I still have the option of going on the air with them, but their un-professionalism goes against my higher self and what I believe in.
I would recommend people review Joseph F Dunphy’s comments here. His response is well thought out, informed, and objective. I am a new Host on VA that has already earned about $12,000 from my show in the first month. As in anything, you get out what you put in.
I was asked to be interviewed by Dr. Shirley Watson on “Dr. Shirley, Supporting Your Life,” a couple of months ago. Today VoiceAmerica called asking me if I would like to have my own 60-minute show for 13 weeks for $6,500. I could pay it all myself or find sponsors to foot the bill.
I am disinclined to do it. First, I could not track any response to my interview, which was content-rich and went very smoothly. Second, I have no desire to try to scrounge up sponsors – that is very stressful and time-consuming. Third, I don’t want to spend that kind of money for radio exposure when I believe I can get exposure in similar ways for free.
I would consider exploring other radio avenues. For example, Randy Gilbert, of “The “Inside Success Show” can show you how to get started in Internet radio.
I guess since I love the hunt to find guests, advertisers, and sponsors, I have been able to get out what I have put in. I am a new Host on VA that has already earned about $12,000 from my show in the first month. With Voice America, you OWN your OWN show, which means you work it as your own business. Can you imagine ANY other station or network deciding they just don’t like to find advertisers, sponsors, or guests for their show? They would implode within a month or two…as will any internet talk show host no matter where you choose to place your show. VA has great tracking programs, but you need to use the tools that are given you. If you like the freedom of internet radio, compare it to the standard stations, and anyone who can’t make it on Voce America, can’t make it on AM or FM mediums either. I would recommend scrolling a few commentaries down to review Joseph F Dunphy MBA MFP’s comments. His response is well thought out, informed, and objective.
I had an interview on Voice America Network. It went extremely well.
However, I couldn’t find a link to my interview, or even mention of the show on the site for a couple of months later!
Would I do it again? Sure, it was free and fun. Did it help me at all? Who knows . . .
I just visited the site again. The show I was on, “Poor Richard’s Shoebox” with Joseph Dunphy, still exists, but you can’t find it on the site. Not even through their site search. An old link does work however.
Bizarre
I am a professional Speaker & New Author, I have contacted Voice America and asked for additional information. I was told that their packages start at $5,200 and go up from there. This price seems HIGH to me, but I will review their information and evaluate the possibilities. I would like to know if there are other internet radio networks out there that are available to people wanting to Host their own show! If any Hounds have any suggestions or recommendations, please let me know! Thanks, Brad Richard (Brad Richard Seminars)
You can try Live365.com. They are more affordable and reach a much larger crowd. They were helpful in the early years when building up my own audience.
Joan, I meant to get back to you on the VoiceAmerica.com issue last week, but my old Army unit came home from Iraq in time for Thanksgiving, and so the time schedule was quite upended.
My experience with VoiceAmerica.com has been favorable. I host a show on taxes and personal finance, “Poor Richard’s Shoebox.” Before producing a show, they send you a manual with a suggested timetable, which is quite helpful. If you can stick to it, it aids tremendously in allowing the network to bring all its services to bear.
It may be helpul for people to keep the costs in perspective. I’ve done audiotapes of seminars before, and when I went to record on digital tape (DAT) format, the costs for studio time were between $125/hour for bare bones and $200/hour for some extras. (And you do several takes to get it right). You are paying for their investment in recording equipment and sound engineers. VoiceAmerica.com or any other broadcaster that invests in studio equipment and engineers has to pay those bills. After recording a seminar, you can easily go several thousand dollars for recording a run of professionally-produced, studio-quality CDs.
The other key thing I get with VoiceAmerica.com is measurement services. They provide audience numbers as part of the package. Although I have a background in magazine publishing, radio audiences are measured differently—by the average-quarter-hour (AQH)—the number of people who listen for at least five minutes of every 15-minute period.
If you are going to go to the time and expense of producing a show, you want to have audience numbers to show for it. On some of the other services I have seen, the show price may be lower, but that only means that the host would have to pay extra to an audience measuring service, like Arbitron, etc., which of course drives up the total cost of the production. One way of looking at it is, say, buying a complete dinner, or ordering a-la-carte.
VoiceAmerica also provides me with weekly electronic promotions. I send the copy to them about the show and the guest(s), and they edit, format, and illustrate it. The way I handle these e-promos is to send a copy out to my normal e-mail list, and then separately to guests on the upcoming show. This gives the guests the option of sending it to their own e-mail list for one-time use, and this way I don’t have to worry about spam complaints from those who are only interested in that one show with that guest.
For anyone thinking of being a host, it’s a good idea to follow the handbook. It recommends having at least one other person involved, as either a co-host or back-up. It is also quite a job to try to book guests for a show, as all professionals are quite busy—and—as the show is live, the host has to be ready to fill the air time with interesting material, whether or not the desired guest appears. Thus, a booker is crucial–to get a primary and back-up guest—and if you suddenly have unplanned dead space—that’s when you have to fill it with your sidekick (who now proves crucial) or with material from your back-up script. Which means you write an hour of programming without a guest, which is thrown out/available for use in a book, when the guest is on, which is what you wanted in the first place.
The manual suggests screening guests and rehearsing the show ahead of time, timing segments, breaks, etc. (Thus potential guests might want to post sound clips of previous interviews on their website). As with anything in life, the more prepared you are for a show, the better produced it will sound and feel.
My experience is that it takes me about four days to research, write, and be ready to produce a live one-hour show. As a practical matter, that means all my weekends are gone. Or when I go camping with my son’s Boy Scout troup, on those weeks I do not schedule the usual round of evening appointments, but work on the show instead.
As I understand the Internet broadcasting business, when a show does well, the Internet broadcaster actually incurs additional variable costs, as they are charged for the bandwidth that they use. Last I read, VoiceAmerica.com produces 140 shows, including one with radio legend nutritionist Gary Null. An untried show is essentially the same thing as a new venture, and it seems to me that the initial fees are to cover the broadcaster’s fixed-costs.
The individual host would also be smart to line themselves up with someone who will assist them in selling advertising. The network approaches national advertisers on their whole line-up, but the host and his/her organization can be the best advocate of the program. Which means that it is wise to have a media kit, in print and electronic versions, plus an advertising rate card, for both the program and for your website, assuming you want to sell ads on your website as well.
I see that Ted Demopoulous posted above, so I can address the website issue. I switched http://www.poorrichardsshoebox.com from Register.com to GoDaddy.com, and so Ted’s observations come during our period of upgrade, which we are addressing. And I’ll be happy to put in a plug for him as a guest. He was lively and fun, and we covered the dot.com boom and entrepreneurship. One of the things that we found in measuring audience is that we have listeners in India and China, particularly in provinces that are agricultural, but undergoing industrialization, and it appears that they are interested in skills that involve global trade. So Ted and the others in the segment have found listeners in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Something we would have never known without measuring the audience.
This didn’t exist when this thread was started but you may want to check out http://www.talkshoe.com
It’s a podcasting network that pays YOU!
-Gene Sower
FYI Talkshoe doesn’t exist anymore as a broadcaster, it’s a multi-line phone calling system or something like that now.
Thanks for letting us know this, Chris.
VoiceAmerica is a hosts chance to own the content of the show as well as have total creative freedom to discuss the topics you want. talkshoe.com is not internet radio it is podcasting and you are not paid to do it you get ad revenue splits only if you are a top show on the network. Additionally you do not decide who you endorse. VoiceAmerica has the same sort of opportunity, there is an ad split on VA also and you decide who you endorse. Additionally talkshoe.com is automated VA you have a live engineer with you during the show and you are fully supported. VA helps you market your show, provides you the professional voice over talent for openers, closers and rejoiners as well as a commercial for your show. John Gray author of mars venus books and fitness Guru Jack Lalanne, legendary sportscaster Pat Summerall, Dr DiMartini, NFL greats Ray Ellis and Eddie George……. these are all hosts on VoiceAmerica, such high profile individuals would not host with an unreputable company. If you want a great way to market yourself to a huge audience in a professional manner (not a blog not a podcast) this is the way to go.
Run away. Run far, far away.
Thanks for the information. It is so easy to be duped with this type of thing.
I think the real question here is value. Religion isn’t “free” either, but you can pick up a Bible and have a personal relationship with God, but for some reason we all still like to throw money at something we can “do by ourselves” because it “creates value”.
In the world of the internet, anyone with a connection can be anything they want. The difference between a free WordPress.com website and a professional website is the difference between Twinkies and Creme Brulee (no offense to Twinkies).
The same is true in the world of internet broadcasting. Anyone can “host a show” on Blog Talk Radio and let them keep the revenue, have a crummy connection and no professionals running your show — which BTW will start off with zero wrap around listeners in a world of confusion and too much content to sift through.
Just because you might think you have something to say, or even a decent business model for your own business — doesn’t make it so. Successful businesses surround themselves with successful experts. Successful broadcasters surround themselves with proven experts to show them how to do it right.
I’ve been a guest on several of the networks and some of them are pretty good. Had problems with Blog Talk Radio quality, but that might have changed.
In terms of VoiceAmerica, never had a problem as a guest. In fact I’ve referred clients to them that were interested in having a professionally produced and executed show, and they’ve been quite happy with VoiceAmerica in achieving their goals.
But there goals were different. Some only wanted to run a 13 week show to use it as a platform to reach out to “bigger” people in their industry that might not have been available to them without the lever of “be a guest on my radio show on VoiceAmerica” — which gave them the credibility to book high level guests.
I have one that is pushing her 200th show on VoiceAmerica because it fits her business model.
They have a successful track record since 1999 — if they weren’t worth they money, wouldn’t they be out of business by now?
Thanks for your take on this, Chris. Your problem with Blog Talk Radio quality isn’t unique. I’ve appeared as a guest on many Blog Talk Radio shows and have found the quality to be below average.
Hi guys! Might I also suggest looking at the Doublewide Network? I have had a few shows on terrestrial stations in the Phoenix area (where they are located) and when I was ready to switch to Internet I went straight to Doublewide…however I always say to anyone looking to broker a show to look at ALL of your options and pick the one that is best for you and your budget. I haven’t heard much either way about VoiceAmerica as far as positive or negative experiences. However, I have heard poor Internet shows with great content all over the Internet and I’d suggest anyone taking this route look at all the cards first before signing a 13 week contract. Good luck to you!
Thanks for the tip, Kim. Readers can learn more about the Doublewide Network at http://www.doublewidenetwork.com/index.php/listen/detail/C/about_the_doublewide_network
I just got a call from Voice America. They were asking about my interest in hosting a show, since 3 slots have just opened up. When I mentioned that my time and money was currently being spent on producing my TV show… the gentleman insulted me and then hung up. This was truly a weird experience for me. Now they have lost a potential “host” forever.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Joseph. Let’s hope they find your comment and do something about that salesperson.