Audio marketing company CRN International has launched a new division to produce and distribute original podcasts. It’s called Collisions and the first four original podcasts are already being produced.
Distraction, hosted by psychiatrist and leading ADHD authority Dr. Ned Hallowell, is available now. The Car and Driver Podcast, launches later this week with the automotive publisher Car and Driver magazine. The Official Sasquatch! 2016 Festival Podcast, a Live Nation music festival, starts in April. And, Stockton, featuring sports broadcaster Dick Stockton, will be out this summer.
CRN President and Founder Barry Berman said Collisions is a natural extension of CRN’s business, which has produced more than 1,000 radio series and promotions, and marketing campaigns for some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Johnson & Johnson, Hershey, Microsoft, Chrysler, Major League Baseball, Campbell’s, Absolut, and many more.
Wednesday afternoon, Radio Ink spoke to CRN Executive Vice President Dick Kalt about the new podcasting company.
RI: What is Collisions?
Kalt: Collisions is a new division of CRN specifically dedicated to developing, producing, and distributing high-quality podcasts. We launched Collisions this week with our first podcast, Distraction, featuring Dr. Ned Hallowell, one of the nation’s foremost experts in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. It’s a busy and very exciting time for us.
RI: Why did you launch Collisions?
Kalt: We all know the character and consumption of audio has changed. Podcasts play a role in the lives of 90 million people every day, because they can get what they want when they want it and return or repeat as desired. We’ve been in this business for more than 40 years and Collisions allows us to bring our thinking and creative talent to an even higher level as there are no restrictions. Our clients will reach listeners on their terms with brand messaging that is authentic and perfectly matched to feel and tempo. It’s hard work and also potentially native to broadcasters as they work their way in to this space, but it’s different. It’s not repurposing on-air programming, it’s really thinking through the listening experience in a new way.
RI: What is your goal?
Kalt: Our goal is to provide our clients the most effective way to connect with listeners. Radio offers one environment and podcasts a different but related experience. Our clients will develop a relationship in an uncluttered, comfortable atmosphere where the listener relates to the message and is receptive, without feeling pitched. The messaging requires careful thought, and brand equity grows when sensitivity to the experience is exercised. Podcasts are another way to speak to listeners, not a replacement for radio. Change is constant. We want to be ahead of, as well as part of, it.
RI: Tell us about some of your early podcasts?
Kalt: In addition to Distraction which hit the top of the iTunes Health/Self Help category in just our first day, we’re launching The Car and Driver Podcast tomorrow from the New York International Auto Show, with information and perspectives from the editors of Car and Driver magazine. Very soon we’ll launch Sasquatch, for Live Nation, about the inner workings of the huge, live music festival of the same name, featuring John Norris of MTV fame, and Stockton, in collaboration with noted sportscaster Dick Stockton, offering his unique perspective and conversation with his many friends and the stars of the game. We have even more coming soon because it’s all about good, relevant, well-produced content. This is a wonderful time in the evolution of audio and we’re very happy to be playing a role in it.
Reach out to Dick about the new product from CRN at [email protected]
Check out the Collissions website HERE
