You can still podcast in the Time of Corona
Mmmmm, cheese. Our most recent OnFARM podcast, made with our friends at Scene & Herd, is all about cheese.
Not just any cheese, but award-winning, mouth-watering, organic rounds from Connage Highland Dairy.
The episode is all about how Connage, like most businesses, is doing what it can to cope with the extreme adversity of Coronavirus lockdown.
They’ve put more of their products online, and are doing local doorstep deliveries.
They've also coined the superbly Scottish slogan 'One toot and your order is oot', asking customers to honk their horns to get their order brought out to their car.
So not quite business as usual. But re-thinking, shifting priorities, and innovating brilliantly to make the most of a bad situation.
The way we made this podcast also reflected the new Covid-19 world we live in.
Presenter Anna was in her spare room. I produced the episode from my kitchen table. Jill the contributor did a brilliant recording job, by herself, on site at Connage.
Our aim with OnFARM is always to take the listener with us; to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the farm or rural business we're showcasing.
With Connage, we showed we don't always need to physically be there to achieve this.
Right down to the birdsong as Jill moves around site, to the sound of the roller-doors as she walks into the warehouse, we are right there with her as she's walking around.
All it took was a couple of smart-phones and a bit of production ingenuity.
Bespoken also recently produced Love In the Time of Corona for Bauer Media, a daily entertainment podcast in which Kate and Matt Dyson and their three children shared their locked down family lives with listeners.
Matt is part of the on-air team on Absolute Radio's Breakfast Show, while Kate runs the UK's largest social media community for mums, called The Motherload.
For this one, the Dysons recorded material on smart-phones and a USB mic over the course of their day, then emailed it over to be edited and polished.
It was a top 10 podcast in the 'Kids and Family' chart, and got recommended on ITV's This Morning.
The truth is, it's always been possible - even beneficial - to make radio remotely.
If your podcast format doesn't rely on contributors all being in the same room, it opens up the whole world as your potential guests or co-hosts.
So, if you have been putting off setting up your podcast because of Covid-related concerns, please be reassured.
Right now is as good a time as any to get started on developing your podcast, and Bespoken are here to help.
