Out on a limb: Dahl views podcasting as ‘perfect medium’

Steve Dahl

It hasn’t been easy to convince people to pay for something they were getting for free. But nearly two months into his subscription podcast venture, Steve Dahl reports that it’s “going really well” and insists that he’s determined as ever to succeed.

“It’s something that I’ve decided that I’m going to just live through,” he said. “I know that I’m right, and I’ll just come out the other side.”

A media trailblazer throughout his career, Dahl, 56, talked candidly about his controversial decision to launch a listener-supported podcast during a public appearance Friday. As part of Social Media Week in Chicago, he was on a panel of media professionals who’d made career shifts to “alternative platforms,” including Richard Roeper, Nancy Loo and me. (Here is a link to video of the event.)

Dahl, who left terrestrial radio in December 2008 when CBS took him off the air (but continued to honor his $2 million-a-year contract), told panel moderator Bill Adee that he began podcasting as a way to maintain his sanity while getting paid not to work.

“I was kind of going stir crazy,” he said. “So I just started podcasting as something to do . . . and then started to realize that it was sort of the perfect medium for me. I just kind of stumbled into it out of boredom — and not wanting to start drinking again — because I had nothing else to do.”

By the time his CBS deal was up, Dahl decided he loved the freedom of podcasting an unrestricted, commercial-free daily show from his home, and rolled the dice that listeners would be willing to pay $9.95 a month to hear him. Without disclosing how many subscribers he’s signed since his launch August 1, Dahl says he’s off to a good start — after facing an initially harsh backlash.

“People were very angry because I said I had an announcement . . . [and they thought that meant I was] going to go with WGN [or] WLS. Then I said I was going to charge, and people got really pissed off initially. I think that a lot of people have rethought that. But I’m asking them to pay for something that they always got for free, sort of. Except, as I like to try to point to them, the podcast now is an hour and a half, two hours [with] virtually no commercials, no interruptions. . . . ‘What’s your time worth?’ is what I say to people at some point. I can deliver my show — I can deliver the essence of what I do — in 90 minutes or two hours . . . for less than 50 cents a day with no commercials, and they can listen to it when they want, where they want and how they want. So for me, it’s the perfect medium.”

Seeking advertising instead of charging subscribers was not an option, Dahl said, because advertisers still don’t understand the medium, and listeners expect to hear podcasts without commercials. “The podcast model does not support advertising," he said.

I asked Dahl whether he might have had an easier time selling his podcast now if he hadn’t been giving it away for free before. “No. Well, I don’t know,” he said. “But I wouldn’t know as much as I know now. And I know an awful lot about it. I think I know more about it than just about anybody. For me, it was worth the education, and quite honestly, I needed something to do. I mean, I really do. That’s just the way I am.

“So, yeah, probably marketing-wise there were better ways to do it . . . CBS, actually, up until my contract ended, had the right to cancel the podcast within 10 days. And they were charging me 7500 bucks a month, a fee, to do my own podcast. So I’m in deep.”

Dahl said the most positive response he’s received has come from listeners outside of Chicago. “For me, I find that people who are out of this market who used to listen to my show, they are more than happy to pay for it. Those are the people I’m trying to learn how to target better. They don’t take it for granted that they can get it anymore. I got a lot of response from markets like Arizona and Florida and places where people have moved to. That’s something I’m trying to learn how to target better.”

When I asked Dahl if he’d be willing to pay for a subscription to his own podcast, he paused a moment before giving what I thought was a surprising answer:

“For me? Uh, yes. I pay for Sirius. I mean, if it was something I wanted to listen to, I’d pay for it. You’re talking to a guy who has DirecTV and Comcast. Yeah, if it was something that I liked, I’d pay for it. I don’t personally like myself, nor do I like my own show, so I know that I wouldn’t pay for my show as me. But if it were Rich [Roeper] or somebody like that, I’d pay for it.”