Buzz Knight: Crafting Podcasts That Connect

Buzz Knight  0:00  
Well, it's been a while. Yeah, it's nice to see you, and I appreciate you asking me, yeah,

Matt Cundill  0:05  
it's good for you to be back, because there's been such an evolution with what you've done. When we first connected, I think it was like 2017 2018 and you were still heavily, heavily involved in radio, and were for the next few years. And then it's funny, I was having breakfast with someone today, we were talking about some of the things we really, really disliked from the pandemic. But then I'd look at all the things that I really, really love that came out of, you know, a terrible time in 2020 and your podcast was one of them, and taking a walk became one of my regular listening stops, and has been for a number of years. So tell me a little bit about the evolution of the show and just catch people up on, you know, it started with you taking people, you know, on a walk and recording together. And how has the podcast evolved over the years?

Buzz Knight  0:52  
It's evolved in that at first, I started out, and as you mentioned, I was, I was doing in person, and that was for the first year, although living in an area outside of Boston that was going to hit a wall eventually, with weather conditions with unlikely scenarios that would affect the sonic nature of it, no matter how much software could clean it up. So about a year in, I decided that, well, you know, it's nice to take a walk in person and to have a guest who can kind of bring that to light at a particular place, but people just want to hear a good story. So the virtual aspect opened up for me. And then around the same time Matt, I went from being somewhat of a generalist to really trying to focus it around music related storytelling. I'm still always going to be partial to things that I can do to tip a cap to my radio days. But about that year, year and a few months marker, in addition to the virtual I really focused it more around music storytelling.

Matt Cundill  2:03  
Tell me about your relationship with music. How did you fall in love with it?

Buzz Knight  2:08  
I fell in love with it because I fell in love with the radio. So it was probably, you know, those two things were intertwined. Growing up in Stanford, Connecticut, and listening to that market, whether it was the am radio stations like WABC, or whether it was with the beginnings of FM radio like W any W, F, M, I became fixated on the medium, but also fixated because of older brothers music discovery as well, and that was in my system from the beginning, and is never going to leave.

Matt Cundill  2:46  
Isn't it amazing how, like, we never had the time when we were working in radio to talk to an artist for more than, like, five or eight or 10 or 15 minutes, and maybe, you know, when the album came out, we could get them to sit down for a special, which we would promote and play back at a later time, but then we would only have 48 minutes of audio. Now it's it's limitless.

Buzz Knight  3:05  
Well, I love it, and I love the fact that taking a walk and the other shows can be part of a road map for a music manager, a publicist, a label executive, and as you know, there's less interviews that are coming along through radio platforms. They exist certainly, but one of those things that PPM measurement killed was interviews on the radio, and they did it unfortunately and in the wrong way. It was an overreaction, but to this day, I think that's still a paranoia among folks who are managing radio stations, and that saddens me, because, you know, the notion of No, you can't do bad interviews, is really what came out of that. So I try to exploit that as much as possible with any way to, you know, allow it to be an opportunity for more guests. Who are the people

Matt Cundill  4:06  
you reach out to when you want to have an interview? Is sit the A and R department? Is it the record label? Is it the band's management? Or do you just have a fantastic, you know, Rolodex?

Buzz Knight  4:20  
Well, it's a little bit of everything. And then I'll add one thing too. It's also the help of working with a couple different booking people as well. So after my my first opportunity, after signing on with I heart, which gave me an opportunity to have a reinvestment. I reinvested in the booking side, because this is a nice conversation piece for me to have with a microphone, but it's a heck of a lot better when you have a compelling guest.

Matt Cundill  4:52  
Tell me about the relationship with iHeart, because when you made it, I thought, oh yeah, that's that's gonna work, that that feels right. Well.

Buzz Knight  5:00  
It's it's amazing, and it's amazing for, you know, particular reasons, but the largest is Julie Talbot, who runs the premier network for I heart Julie's a dear friend for a number of years. Did a lot of business with her over the time while I was managing radio stations. And I'm sure I would be doing this, but I wouldn't be doing this to this degree, certainly, if it wasn't for Julie so her support and, you know, ability to just be there for me and to give me the confidence to create more I'm just so incredibly grateful for. And then you add in the power of what I heart can do from a marketing side of the podcast and how they can promote it in various ways through their assets, and then ultimately, to the sales relationship with I heart, it's been, you know, a fantastic win, and I'm really grateful for it.

Matt Cundill  6:00  
So a lot of radio companies didn't pivot all that well into podcasting. I heart still bullish to this day, did a great job and just went after it with volume, but they also realized they've got an app that has music inside it, and the artists that you're talking to and conversing with also happen to have music on the app that seems to be a logical place, and works all the way around. And to your point, the promotion that they can offer is fantastic. They've just got so many there's so many places that a show and your content can be, can be promoted within.

Buzz Knight  6:33  
And I think when you look at it, and I think you laid out an important synergy with the app and being so close in proximity to music, because obviously, like every podcaster, I'd like to have more freedoms with music, you know, inside of a show. But we know what's involved with that, and we know the degree of difficulty with that. And I prefer not to be running up a legal bill. There's enough other bills so. So yeah, I think it's an important distinction the way the app and proximity to music really exists, and how they have embraced that as well.

Matt Cundill  7:11  
What was the second podcast that you added? Because the minute you add a second podcast, now you're a network,

Buzz Knight  7:17  
the second one was music save me, hosted by Lynn Hoffman. Lynn is a dear friend from my time in Boston when she worked on the radio and then would subsequently go to work for A and E and V h1 music save me, was kind of born out of taking a walk in that in talking to artists, this question of what music means to them at a particular point where they're calling upon resilience and and being able to really express that. It occurred to me pretty early on, if I was asking that question, that I was probably short changing a lot of the answers and the depth of the discussion. So it then occurred, well, this can be a podcast as well. So music saved me was the second one.

Matt Cundill  8:02  
And then from that, Lynn says, I want to have another podcast. And then comes it was comedy saved me. And the second podcast to bring that on right afterwards, that's, I mean, that doubles the workload, right?

Buzz Knight  8:15  
Yeah. And I had always envisioned this network kind of idea, and it's funny because Julie Talbot had envisioned it in her own way as well. The network in a network. We had envisioned it in somewhat different times and maybe slightly different ways, but we really had a uniquely shared vision on that. So I started thinking, are there ways to have these little tributaries that can be spawned? So music saved me, spawns the other saved me. Of comedy saved me as a tributary in thinking about it too. Look, I always knew how difficult it was going to be to be one of 3,500,000 podcasts, and how I was going to be able to be represented in the advertiser discussions and have a seat at the table. I was not at all delusional in terms of how that was going to be. So my hope was, well, how to add a second, a third, a fourth, so instead of one podcast being the thing that you're crossing your fingers that you can get with an ad by having four and being able to umbrella it under buzz night Media Productions in terms of celebrating the fine art of storytelling and being able to have more, you know, impressions there, ultimately, in that discussion that was, that was the dream, and also, kind of taking a page from our radio days, the ability to sort of treat it like a, you know, a cluster of a radio station, in that each show can somehow support the other and help the growth. I think that's worked out really nicely.

Matt Cundill  9:57  
Yeah, I love what you said about tributaries and how. So each one of these shows kind of can lay into one another. But what's the sales journey been like?

Buzz Knight  10:06  
Well, it's, it's never easy, as you know, and I always figured I was going to still have to be my best advocate inside the organization, since there's so many, you know, 900 other 1000 other shows inside I heart, so it's a challenge. And one of my priorities for this year 2026 is to better tell that story on my end. So I arm the sales leads there with the information to help that journey along and to, you know, get different opportunities that might be across all four or just on one of them. So it's a continual learning experience. But the whole venture, what I love about it is it's all a learning experience.

Matt Cundill  10:56  
Frankly, what's the workload been like since you started to record these in the home. And we won't talk about the workload. You know, when you were going for a walk and then trying to piece together the audio after a walk. And of course, you know, the wind blows sideways, and the microphones can be a little bit fuzzy, but let's say, since, like 2022 2023 when you started to do the interviews at home, how have you found the workload? Is it better, or is it more?

Buzz Knight  11:22  
There's always something new. There's always something new to prepare for, to become acclimated with. So look, I did pride myself in my days of managing radio stations, of arming the people involved with everything they needed to do the job, and then get out of their way and move on to the next situation. This is a lot more hands on than that ever was. I certainly have people in the form of editors or, you know, outside contractors in the booking side, or, you know, just various people. But there's a lot of it in. The workload is my hands on, and I'm continually trying to scale that and streamline that.

Matt Cundill  12:06  
Yeah, this may be the same question, but a little bit more in depth. But what have you learned since you started doing podcasting? For instance, I learned how to edit, and then I learned how to add a little compression to the audio, and now I'm starting to learn how to do reels for Instagram and video promotion. Those are the things that I've had to pick up. But what have you had to learn in your post Radio Days,

Buzz Knight  12:29  
how to be comfortable in front of a video screen. Even though this is an audio first podcast, there still is video for shorts. There's still when a guest or management allows it for a full episode, but how to have it look reasonable or sound reasonable, or have myself be comfortable? That has been probably the hardest thing, because even when I was on the air, I was a face for radio behind the microphone.

Matt Cundill  13:00  
I haven't been to Nashville. Why do I need to go to Nashville?

Buzz Knight  13:04  
The energy's fantastic. The people are wonderful. It's become more than just a country play in terms of genres. There's a real spirit of collaboration and a spirit of independence that's there, and it has grown so much that there are negatives that go along with this. Take this storm recently that they went through where they're not equipped for storms like that, but Nashville and its and its unique energy and passion for the music and being a fan of music discovery, you know, wonderful place to be.

Matt Cundill  13:43  
I guess Nashville was a natural place to have a another taking a walk tributary, as it were, taking a walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson,

Buzz Knight  13:52  
yeah, it just felt like the place to try to take on because of everything I just said, but I knew I couldn't take it on myself, and I knew the person had to be an embedded correspondent that's there, and Sarah was the first person that I thought about when it came to mind, because she possesses two important qualities that I would look for if I was hiring talent or brand new talent in radio, as somebody who's working her career as a songwriter and a singer and trying to make a go of it in Nashville, she has something to prove, which is an important quality. And then the other aspect is she's coachable, which is also another important quality that that I would look for. So I had met Sarah a few years ago when she wrote to me before the country radio seminar. She had just done a project in honor of her mother, who had just passed away, and wanted to be able to talk about it. I'm taking a walk. So I met her boyfriend then, who is now her husband, and Sarah and I and Andrew. Go walk to the Ryman Auditorium, I said, because you're going to be playing there someday, Sarah. And so I had her on that that episode, and we kind of loosely stayed in touch, but she was the first person, like I said, who I I thought of on it. And then there's another quality she possesses, which I love as well, which I didn't know existed. She's a tremendous self starter, too. So it's been a great beginning. We still got a long way to go, a lot of things to be able to accomplish with it, but my intent is to sort of prove out that we can do these, you know, take the franchise to another market and build another franchise, you know, idea, and I'm excited about trying to add to that, hopefully sometime in 2026 or 2027

Matt Cundill  15:47  
when you listen to music, do you find that you're pre programming your own music to listen to, or do you still love to have it curated for you?

Buzz Knight  15:56  
A little bit of both? Yeah, I would say. I would say both. And that's one of the amazing aspects of it, is doing what I'm doing is as a fan of either way, discovering something new. I hear from so many stories that are these, these independent journeys, and when you start like listening to them or evaluating where they are in the landscape. These are powerful stories with large followings that exist, and it's just wonderful finding an artist like Noah flourish, who breaks out is just this, you know, infectious singer songwriter who is a road warrior when it comes down to it, boy, I can go just on and on, you know, in terms of the kind of artists that I've found who have this independent streak to them. I recently had a guy named Steve Bardwell who was the chief legal counsel for all of Disney, and was playing music, you know, as a sideline, but eventually reached a point where he just wanted to have a music career. Now, of course, I'm sure he did well and had the financial flexibility to be able to pull this off, but what a great story, a guy that was a prime deal maker for one of the biggest companies on the universe, who walks away, leaves it, and now is, I think, in the studio right now for his new release with famed producer Joe Ciccarelli. And it's great music. So the stories that pop up, boy, I'm just so grateful to discover him myself. As a fan of music,

Matt Cundill  17:40  
we talk a lot about discoverability, especially on the podcast side, but music discoverability seems to it feels better than it was. It used to be what was just the radio, and then it might have been MTV, and it might have been some word of mouth, and maybe, you know, a few shared records. But the opportunity for music discovery, it feels deeper than it was back in the 90s,

Buzz Knight  18:03  
I would agree. And I think, you know, the barrier to entry, part of it plays into some degree where it's just a freer space for artists to be able to create their path and find audience. There's a stroke of luck that's certainly involved. There's talent that's necessary. But when I first discovered this story of this independent artist named will pay Quinn, who happens to be, you know, I'm friends with his parents, and knew him when he was four years old. But Will was pursuing music and was discovered, you know, after he had gone to sleep one late night when his song chandelier went viral, and he woke up and was like, Oh my God, what just happened? And then suddenly, now this is his full time career. So yeah, I think discoverability is helped by an artist's need to be independent. And I think obviously there's so many other channels of discovery as well.

Matt Cundill  19:04  
When you see old friends from radio who are still in the business of radio on air and not on air, and they ask you about podcast, and first question they might ask is, how is working in podcasts different than radio? What do you tell them?

Buzz Knight  19:20  
I tell him so much of it has so many of the lessons that I learned from radio. It's about crafting storytelling and being able to understand the best way to try to do that, whether it's the art of anticipation, whether it's the way to promote it and to be seductive on how the word gets out to people. I look at those lessons and so many of those lessons, I'm grateful for that I can still utilize, and I obviously don't want those that are still in the business of radio to forget the importance of those lessons. Lessons, because it serves them still to this day,

Matt Cundill  20:03  
when did you know that you were built for this?

Buzz Knight  20:06  
What time is it? 137

Matt Cundill  20:08  
let's see on Groundhog Day.

Buzz Knight  20:12  
On Groundhog Day, yeah. 114 No, you know, that's a great question. I mean, after digging into it for that first year and having these opportunities to talk to the people that I was talking to, and just sort of pinching myself with gratitude, that seemed to be a reaffirming, important moment that said, Boy, you're pretty lucky in terms of what you're doing or what you're trying to do. I had no idea where it would lead, and some days I still don't, but I do look at it, and when going back to your question about, you know, my radio friends, it's no secret the business is is really difficult out there, and I can't contain the smile on my face when I'm speaking to them, because I'm having a blast.

Matt Cundill  21:03  
When we met nine years ago. Did you have any idea that it would be a podcast network, or did you think it would be a role inside a company?

Buzz Knight  21:12  
Well, I thought that I would be the ultimate sort of hybrid in terms of a little bit of this and a little bit of that, whether it was project oriented or a couple of different things pieced together. I probably thought maybe at that point in my career, I was unemployable, and that it was going to have to come in different in different phases and in different types of, you know, approaches to it. And I thought I would be most satisfied if it was hybrid and mixing in a number of different things. Obviously, covid hit had some projects here and there. Still have some projects here and there, but I'm primarily focused on the podcast network and trying to manage it and put out great content and continuing to grow it.

Matt Cundill  22:00  
In your top right drawer, is there a fifth podcast idea that you are thinking of for your network?

Buzz Knight  22:08  
Yeah, there is a, there is, there is one that is the intersection of music and true crime, actually, wow. Okay, yeah, so we've begun kind of, kind of sculpting that out. So yeah, that one kind of is fascinating, a fascinating one to me. But there's always a couple that come around, whether it's someone else's idea that I can help them with, or they've got the germ of it in the form of something produced. So there's always a few things percolating. And as I think we talked offline, it comes down to the realization that you have to stop and go, all right. Do I focus on three more things, or how to do four of them really well and carefully take the fifth one on. So I'm constantly needing a little bit of

Matt Cundill  22:57  
a governor. When you find one, let me know as well. I could always use some of that a governor, Governor, if a shoe company needs to call up and sponsor your podcasts, where should they reach you?

Buzz Knight  23:11  
Oh, I love you. Matt buzz at buzz night media.com, I'll give the address. They could knock on the door. And we've got pitches already nicely developed that we could share with them that show the audience, and maybe even a couple more than one podcast that they could be part of

Matt Cundill  23:29  
as well. And I'll assume that that email is good for anybody else who just wants to chat with you about podcasting as well. That's right, Buzz. Thanks so much for doing this again. It's great to reconnect.

Buzz Knight  23:40  
Matt, always a pleasure and always here for you in any way, and I appreciate your support and your friendship. Thank you.