The BlogTalkRadio Blog

As we ring out 2006 and ring in 2007 I have been looking back upon the past few months at BlogTalkRadio. When I first came onto BlogTalkRadio I was in awe of the platform, and for good reason. Here was a website that allowed people to have a voice on the internet in real time. A website that takes all of the work and expense out of podcasting and also adding a live element to each and every show. Listeners interacting with hosts via callins, hosts interviewing guests and being able to post these shows to their websites or blog, and the average joe being able to come onto BlogTalkRadio and host a live show about something they have always wanted to talk about.

I have gotten to know quite a few hosts on BlogTalkRadio and I must say it has been a pleasure dealing with every single one of them. I have gone out onto the web and read countless blogs and looked at countless websites, and contacted many people who I feel BlogTalkRadio would be a good compliment to their website or blog, “You” as Time Magazine calls you, have seen the utility on BlogTalkRadio and come on and created a show that has flourished and become something quite special. That my friends at the end of the day is what keeps me going.

Here are a few examples of these:

Shawn Collins from The Affiliate Summit and Lisa Picarille from Revenue News Magazine have created The Affiliate Thing. Shawn and Lisa have had on guests such as Lily Shen from Ebay, and the Infamous Mr X. Jim Kukral from ReveNews who is a marketing marvel has created the show Free Marketing Idea’s, Jim is not only a wealth of internet marketing knowledge he a super nice guy, and it was a pleasure bringing him onto BlogTalkRadio. Scott Baradell from Idea Grove hosts Media Orchard Live. I will forever get a smile on my face every time I think back to the night Scott had Steve Rubel on, the banter that ensued that night was something to behold, and then of course his interview with Rachal Sklar from The Huffington Post.

While I am on these types of show’s I of course have to mention Wayne Hurlbert, Wayne has been with BlogTalkRadio since the beginning and Wayne has stuck with the tried and true methods of being a successful BlogTalkRadio host by following a simple format that we give you the hosts the tools to do, Wayne uses his BlogTalkRadio buttons on his blog, his embedded media player, and then of course he implements the one thing that I always push and that is consistency, Wayne never misses a week and always has a very informative show with some pretty awesome guests.

The political platform is really picking up speed as we zoom into 2007, Pamela from the popular blog Atlas Shrugs will always leave you wanting to hear more, as she is as opinionated as she is funny. Lets not leave out her blogging partner on The Infidel Blog Pastorious who hosts the show “The Infidel Show“, who is one of the few people I have heard that can keep up with Pamela’s endless energy on the air.

We are also very proud to be bringing on Taylor Marsh from TaylorMarsh.com who did her very first show before the holidays, Taylor Marsh is a radio talk show host, blog reporter, and author. Taylor has a long political resume under her belt and was even John Kerry’s web stratagist for PAC.

But that isn’t all Taylor talks about, Taylor can also be found talking about social issues that effect our world today. We are very excited to have Taylor on BlogTalkRadio and look forward to her show on Fridays at 3 pm.

Then we have some of our earliest and successful hosts, Idalyze Nahisha Rose, the funny husband and wife team of Baker Media, and Michael Bell “Celebrity Artist To The Stars”.

With all of that plus too much more to mention in 2006, the mind boggles to think what 2007 will bring to BlogTalkRadio.

Happy New Year everyone at BlogTalkRadio and thanks for making my 2006 so much fun, I cant wait till 2007, can you?

Amy Domestico

Tech Tags: 

As I see the level of activity picking up dramatically on Blogtalkradio, I am very often asked the question, “Is BTR a radio network or a podcaster?”  

Let me be perfectly clear, we do not consider ourselves “podcasters”.  While all of our live shows are archived and subscribable with RSS feeds, etc, the easiest part of our job is the recording, storing and archiving of our shows. In fact, just recently a journalist asked me this very question and I told him I would never had created Blogtalkradio if all we were was a podcasting platform. 

The podcast space is a fairly new industry and in my opinion is not heading in the right direction.  Blogging is open to everyone, inexpensive to create, flexible and viral. Podcastng, in the traditional sense of the word is expensive to create, complicated, canned, edited and certainly not viral. By viral I don’t mean that podcasts are not listened to in large numbers, they are. I am suggesting that thousands if not millions of individuals would create podcasts if the dynamics were different.  Our live format which does not require mixers or digital recording equipment is certainly differentiated in the marketplace. 

More on this topic to follow. So, if someone asks you , “Is Blogtalkradio a radio network or a podcaster?”, you know what to tell them.

I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and I look forward to an exciting 2007.

Alan

CEO

I want to congratulate, Pamela from Atlas Shrugs for dislodging the pesky Baker Media folks from the top spot on on Blogtalkradio’s most popular show listing.

In less than one week, Pamela’s show with Caroline Glick, the Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post, which aired live this past Tuesday night, was downloaded close to 40,000 times. That’s right, in three days, 40,000 individuals listened to an engaging, enlightening and important conversation.

Pamela is incredibly passionate about her work, her blog and her ideals.  She is also, at least from what I can tell, a terrific mom.  When I first saw one of Pamela’s VLOGS and dug into her blog, I knew she would be a perfect host for Blogtalkradio. Congrats again!!

I would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season. We are excited by how far we have come these past five months and we are thrilled about our prospects going forward.

Alan Levy

CEO

On December 11, 2006 BlogTalkRadio CEO Alan Levy got the news from Afghanistan with embedded reporter Scott Kesterson live from the front lines. Click here to listen

– or simply follow orders? The gripping story of a mother’s battle to save her son, exclusively on BlogTalkRadio

Read the rest of this entry »