What’s in My Buds? With Chris from TuneIn

On this month’s edition of “What’s in My Buds?” we chat with Chris Peterson, content partnership manager at TuneIn. Chris has a long, successful career in the audio space.

From Chris:

My love for radio started early, as it did with many in our industry. I was the kid calling into radio stations and annoying the DJs until I got on air, and the kid who argued about which station was the best.

I started my career working at Premiere Networks with numerous talk shows and sports programming: Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, The Glenn Beck Program, Bobby Bones and more. I moved to the digital side of content with the launch of TheBlaze Radio Network, which quickly became one of the most-listened-to networks in the country.

Later, having worked in multiple formats in terrestrial and digital, live and on-demand, I found myself wanting to combine all of that experience; TuneIn was just about the only place to do that. Now I’m helping content creators, from podcasters to live radio hosts, tell their stories and maximize their exposure to our 60 million active monthly users.

Here’s what Chris is listening to now.

What is your go-to podcast and why?

Can I pick more than one? My “must listen on the day they come out” are: WTF with Marc Maron, The Nerdist and The Bill Simmons Podcast. Bill Burr, 99% Invisible, IAMRAPAPORT and StartUp are also in heavy rotation.

What is your favorite listening environment?

I get the majority of my podcast listening done while commuting on BART into San Francisco each day, which is about the only thing that helps me cope with the overcrowding and delays. I also enjoy stacking up a playlist of podcasts for long flights. They really help the time fly by much quicker than staring at SkyMall for hours on end.

What show do you rave to your friends about?

Mike Rowe started a new podcast recently called The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe, and I’ve been telling everyone about it. It’s a really quick five-minute podcast that tells stories in the style of the legendary Paul Harvey. For high consumption podcast listeners, and newbies alike, I think this is a strong candidate to add into your rotation.

If you’re not listening to a podcast, what do you put on to listen to?

Everything from Howard Stern to a punk playlist. I’ve also been really getting more into jazz lately … trying to class it up a bit. We just got an Amazon Echo, which makes my eclectic tastes really easy to satisfy by just saying, “Alexa, play ____ on TuneIn,” while I’m cooking dinner or doing a project around the house.

Also, with my wife and I expecting our first baby any day now, I have tried to have some kind of music on in the background during the last nine months, so there’s always something on in our house.

What do you think makes a great podcast host?

It’s the same as it is with a terrestrial host: be genuine with your audience. Even though I’ve never met Chris Hardwick or Marc Maron (yet), I feel like I know them through the hundreds of interviews I’ve heard them conduct. They aren’t doing anything other than being themselves during their podcasts and doing their best to really get to know their subject in the time they have.

Same thing goes for great radio interviewers, like Elvis Duran and Howard Stern — they aren’t just trying to force an answer to get a headline like so many people do these days. They take their time with a guest, make them feel comfortable and have an honest conversation.

What can the podcast medium achieve that other media forms, like broadcast, cannot?

There are no barriers in podcasting, which makes it one of the most open and available ways for anyone in the world to create content — which is pretty awesome. Anyone with a smartphone or computer can record their story, opinion or whatever idea they have, and make it available for the world to hear by distributing it (for free) on platforms like TuneIn. Pretty amazing.

How do you think podcasts will continue emerge and grow?

I see more and more terrestrial radio companies/stations looking at podcasting as a way to build new audience and, possibly more importantly, new talent. Because of that, I believe they’ll start looking at current podcast creators for content as well.

If I were programming a terrestrial station, why wouldn’t I consider bringing in content from a team like All Things Comedy, or a radio show with the creators of Criminal? It’s great content, and I think both sides would greatly benefit from using each other a little more.

For further listening, check out Radiotopia podcasts on TuneIn, the team’s Editors Picks for Radiotopia or other PRX shows in TuneIn.

Originally published by Maggie Taylor at blog.prx.org on May 2, 2016.