With almost a dozen episodes under her belt, Avisure principal consultant, Kylie Patrick, says producing Avisure’s new podcast series, AVICAST has certainly opened her eyes to what’s involved in producing a quality podcast.
‘I don’t mind the process, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes editing the interviews to make sure everything flows smoothly.’ With a busy day job as Avisure’s principal consultant, it’s a matter of finding some uninterrupted time to do it. Sound quality is critical, and given Patrick interviews wildlife hazard management specialists from around the world, so the majority of the recordings are done remotely, sometimes that can be tricky. However, she says the sound quality is improving with each episode, especially since adopting her improvised, ‘high-tech’ recording studio—a walk-in wardrobe! Thanks to this cost-effective solution to eliminating echo, and continuing to learn and tweak as she goes, she has had very positive comments from interviewees and listeners alike not only about the quality of content, but also about the professional production values.
The most popular episodes, Patrick says, have focused on specific species, such as the masked lapwing; using dogs on airports for wildlife management; wildlife hazard management for pilots; and an interview with British wildlife hazard management expert, Nick Yearwood. Coming up is an episode featuring US wildlife biologist, John Weller, an advisor to the US Federal Aviation Administration, which promises to be a very interesting listen.
Podcast subscribers come from around the world, 25–30 countries in fact, with 50 per cent from Australia, and listeners from the US, Canada, Europe, South America and the UK. Patrick says she is spoiled for choice when it comes to future topics and guests, with a very full spreadsheet of potential interviewees. ‘I have a list of possible aviation-specific guests, but I’d also like to cover off-airport topics, such as wildlife and landfill management. If you have any topics you would like to see covered, or guests you would like AVICAST to interview, please let me know, and I’ll add them to the list.’
You can download the AVICAST episodes from the Avisure website, or subscribe via iTunes or Apple Podcasts (for iPhones), Google Podcasts (for Android phones), Stitcher or Spotify. New episodes are released monthly, and there is a growing library of episodes to choose from.
