By David Farrell
Heimrath launches Podcast Exchange with Slaight Comm backing
The former broadcast executive was supposed to be retired, but radio has been his life and in the last 18 months Jean-Marie Heimrath's fascination with the relatively new medium of podcasting has led him to launch The Podcast Exchange (TPX), a one-stop marketing shop offering tools for podcasters to better their returns.
With the backing of Slaight Communications, Heimrath explains that Podcast Exchange is offering "a set of tools" to better enable show producers to expand their audience and increase revenue "through market research, sales expertise and geo-targeting".
To a great degree he is bringing the same skill set to the table as he did as the longstanding President of Standard Broadcasting’s successful and profitable Sound Source Networks.
“TPX marks the maturing of the industry from its traditional focus on content creation, by working in partnership with advertisers and marketing strategists to harness the full potential of the Canadian podcast audience,” Heimrath explains.
What TPX can offer podcasters is “an opportunity to nurture win-win scenarios, marrying content and branding opportunities with relevance to Canadian listeners”.
TPX can do this by providing measurable Canadian podcast metrics that can then be used to sway brands and agencies that increasingly are recognizing that podcasters are influencers in today’s scrambled media culture.
Joining him at TPX is Jeff Ulster and Bob Kane. Ulster is co-publisher of The Canadian Podcast Listener and recently Director of Digital Talk Content for CBC where he worked with US partners such as NPR, Midroll and PRX/RADIOTOPIA.
Kane joins TPX after six years at CBC, where he helped the Corp generate new revenue and expand its brand to become a global podcast industry leader in both sales and content.
The result is “an enterprise positioned to be a thought-leader in the podcast industry, providing agencies, brands and advertisers access and counsel to maximize the potential of what remains a mostly untapped Canadian market," Heimrath summarizes.
Contact: Jean-Marie Heimrath jm@thepodcastexchange.ca t.416-716-2660
CHUM’s ‘Famous Lost Words’
"Famous Lost Words" is a new podcast series, available through the iHeartRadio app and on iTunes, that mines the extraordinary riches found in the CHUM Radio archives.
The series is co-hosted by Tom Jokic – the longtime producer of the Roger & Marilyn show on CHUM-FM "for the past 31 years and counting” – and celebrity author/musician Christopher Ward.
Highlights from some of the classic interviews mind from the CHUM Radio archives span the gamut of contemporary pop music, from John Lennon in 1972 to Taylor Swift in 2010. There’s also a rare chat with Prince, and a regular feature included that’s called “When Rock Stars Attack”.
The weekly podcast series can be found online here, and heard as a weekly radio show on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD in Montreal.
More content to watch for includes interviews with John Mayer, Tom Petty, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Bryan Adams, Janet Jackson and lively “attacks” from the likes of Meatloaf, Pete Townshend and The Police going after critics and even members of their bands.
