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In my last article we talked about some of the different kinds ofpodcasts your church may want to consider. The sermon and Bible classpodcasts are pretty straight forward in terms of content and how to dothem (though Ill give some tips in a future post Podcasts TechyStuff for Geeks), but studio podcasts are a little less obvious. So, Ithought Id give some tips for how to plan and produce a good studiopodcast. In this article Ill focus on the planning and next articleIll look at some production tips.As I start to discuss theplanning, producing and technical aspects of podcasting, I wanted togive some credit to Rob and Matt from the former Geeks and God podcast.I got a lot of useful info from them about podcasting at theInteractive Church Conference. Thanks guys!Despite the factthat studio podcast sounds somewhat professional, they actually tendto be quite casual. The idea of studio podcast is to create a podcastthat is similar to a radio show, not the highly produced radio shows ofthe 1940s and 50s, but rather the talk radio shows of today. Thetarget audio is usually a casual audience usually listing to thepodcast in the car during their commute.Planning:Planningis very important for a studio podcast. Just as you would prepare asermon, you must prepare your podcast; however, studio podcasts have afew additional variables to address.Why are you podcasting?Are you trying to inform people, evangelize, teach, or just createsomething fun (and clean)? It is important to decide your purpose forthe podcast as it will determine many of the other decisions about thepodcast.Who is your audience? Are you targeting men,women, or both? Do you want to reach the youth, college kids, youngmarried couples, or older folks? Are you targeting the inner city,country folks, or suburbanites?Is the point of the podcast in-reach or outreach?In other words is the podcast intended primarily for church members orprimarily for non-church members? Is it internal or church marketing?What is the topic or style of the podcast?Some podcasts may have the same topic each week (church doctrine, popculture, etc.) and others may have different topics each week. Even ifyou have different topics each week, there should probably be a generaloverriding topic and a style that you have decided on. People want newcontent each week, but they also tend to want to get the same formatand general topic.Who will do the podcast? In most cases Iwould suggest the pastor not do the podcast, they have enough to do andif youre already podcasting their sermon, it might be good to haveanother voice out there. The one exception is if youre doing somethinglike an Ask the Pastor podcast. In most cases, Id also recommendhaving more than one person involved to allow a conversation in thepodcast. Even solo talk radio hosts have guests and calls.How long with the show be?The podcast doesnt have to be very long. In fact, its probably a goodidea to keep it between 15-30 minutes. This is good both for keepingpeoples attention and making the podcast fit within the typicalcommute time.How often will you do the podcast? You donthave to do a podcast everyday, but I recommend doing one at least oncea week. Regardless of the how often you do it, be consistent. Peoplelike to know that every Monday (or Tues, or Wed, etc.) morning they canknow that the church podcast will be waiting for them.Focus, Focus, Focus:Itsimportant to choose a specific focus for a studio podcast. You canttarget everyone, you cant discuss every topic, and you cant have adifferent format every week. You may think that being broader willallow you to reach a much bigger audience, but what you really end updoing is creating a product that doesnt really appeal to anyone. Ilike political talk radio. My wife, a third grade teacher, couldprobably listen to someone talking about teaching methods. If youcreate a good podcast about politics, I may become an avid listener. Ifyou create a podcast about teaching and education, my wife may becomean avid listener. If you create a show that sometimes talks aboutpolitics and sometimes talks about education, neither of us wouldlisten. Im not that interested in methods of education and my wifealways falls asleep 5 minutes after I turn on talk radio.If youhave a couple of topics you want to discuss or a couple of audiencesyou want to target, do more than one podcast. Its more work, but amore focused podcast has a much better chance of getting andmaintaining an audience. Its better to have 10 different podcasts,than one podcast that tries to be ten different podcasts.