Introduction
Interested in starting your own podcast? 3CR Community Radio in Australia has generously shared their comprehensive handbook, complete with checklists, templates, tips and running sheets to guide you through the process.
Since 1976 Melbourne’s Community Radio 3CR has been providing a media space to enable progressive communities to voice ideas and build their power to create social change. As part of their work they provide training in a range of areas related to media and broadcasting.
This handbook was produced by the radio station’s volunteers.
What is Podcasting?
Welcome to the wonderful world of podcasting!
But what is podcasting?
Podcasts are a form of digital audio content made available on the internet for streaming or downloading to a digital device. Podcasting is a different mode of broadcasting compared to traditional radio, allowing listeners to choose the time and place of their listening.
Podcasts can be found in a variety of online spaces but are typically distributed on podcast apps:
- In a complete package, as a podcast series with a limited number of episodes,
- or as a regular, ongoing show (e.g., weekly, or monthly), with new episodes automatically received by subscribers through their apps.
- A “podcast” can also refer to a single audio file, or episode in a podcast series or show.
Podcasts are produced by traditional radio stations, such as 3CR Community Radio, or by independent producers. Previously known as audio-blogs back in the 1980’s, this versatile DIY media form gained traction in the mid-late 2000s. These days the popularity of podcasts is widespread, and pretty much anyone can make a podcast—when you know how.
This 70 page handbook is a support resource for 3CR’s Podcast Training Course, which is the perfect place for new podcasters to begin—whether you’re an individual, an organisation or a community group.
For podcasters looking for a professional-sounding podcast, 3CR also offers Podcast Production Support. To find out more about 3CR’s podcast services visit here.
Contents
Topics covered in the handbook include:
- What is podcasting?
- Planning
- Interviewing
- Production
- Equipment
- Recording and editing with Audacity
- Exporting Your Podcast
- Ethics of spoken word editing
- Sourcing music and sound effects
- Resources and links
Access Full Resource
3CR Podcaster’s Handbook (PDF 70 pgs)
Explore Further
- Making Political Impact through Podcasts, ECDA
- How to Conduct Interviews: Tips and Checklist
- How to Create your own Podcast
- Tips for Conducting Interviews about Sensitive Topics
- Commons Conversations Podcast: Insights into Activism
- Treesits, lock-ons and barricades: Environmental blockading in the 1980s
- Stick Together Podcast: Union News, Workers’ Stories and Social Justice Issues
- Listening to the Artivists: Podcasts about Activism and the Arts
- People’s History of Australia Podcast
- The Paradigm Shift Podcast
- Communications and Media: Start Here
- 3CR Community Radio