Luke Burbank sent us passes to TBTL’s fund-raising Summer Slam, Friday night at Columbia City Theater’s newly-refurbed digs.
The joint was sold-out with hundreds of TBTL’s “10’s of listeners.” We weren’t the only geezers at hand, though we’d judge the crowd might have had any average age of 35-40, all paying $35 a head.
(photo: Luke and Mix)
On Friday, though, Sir Mix-A-Lot, alt-rocker John Roderick (from The Long Winters) Ben Huh, creator of Failblog and icanhascheezburger.com; punk-pop singer Rachel Flotard; and comedian Andy Haynes did what they do, then joined Burbank on the couch in a late-night talk format.
With other VIPs, we lounged á coucher in Roman postures watching the show in a green room motif on a balcone over the hoi polloi, sucking on adult beverages. Cold pizza covered every available surface like shag rug in a double-wide… as it should in a green room.
Buy Friday and Saturday’s shows here: Did we say ‘buy?’ Yup. They're for sale (99c each) it was a funder, remember?
Burbank repeatedly refers to his little audio ensemble and its avid audience as “a fake radio show,” and its “10’s of listeners.”
It’s actually more than that: it’s a business plan, that, as it figures itself out, hopes to supplant the one in place on the airwaves. The one that delivers product that’s only about 1 to 3 parts content to ads and services a steadily diminishing demographic.
Luke did two shows in New York a few months ago, and made a year’s wages.
And those 10’s of listeners? Kind of understated — TBTL, The Podcast has more than 50,000 dedicated listeners with a million downloads a month. KIRO's mynorthwest site still hosts TBTL’s podcasts on its website because of the traffic it attracts.
When TBTL was cancelled on KIRO, the podcast was getting 100-200,000 downloads a month. Luke says, “We’ve had a tenfold increase in listenership since we started just doing the podcast.”
The cash outlay for the hardware to get 50k earballs a day was less than a grand, he said, and most of that ($700) was for a new Mac that records everything. “I have a Shure SM-70 microphone, a little Mackie mixing board, a couple of little microphones, and my personal laptop. That’s it. If you tune in I defy you tell a huge difference in what it sounds like now and what it did on KIRO in the studio.”
Certain BlatherWatch readers (some hanging by their cuticles at their cubicles at their radio jobs) have never wished TBTL well, scoffed heartily at the first installment, and will take this opportunity to re-scoff. (see below)
(This while they kiss the same old middle management asses, and keep their grips on the risk-averse stasis of an old technology, aging audience and fading business model).
Predictions of the TBTL’s demise keep proving premature. Meanwhile, he's growing a national audience, making a decent living at it and a little more.
You can’t be around TBTL — on the podcast or at an event — without grokking the upward motion of it. Doubt that feeling is that prevalent in many spots in radio today.
What should be enviable to anyone in the business is that Burbank owns and is in charge of every moment and inch of his product -- and it’s paid-for!
That not only means he can say fuck on the “air,” and broadcast in his underwear from his own house, it guarantees an artistic and entrepreneurial independence regular talkers can only blab about in the abstract.
What these people shared is the ability to carry on verbally when the entertainin’ was done. They seemed also to be regular listeners (10’s), in on the jokes and the lingo of the show. The ensuing conversations were ironic, smart and hilarious for anyone without a stick up their ass or who harbors no petty jealousies for the likes of Luke Burbank.
(photo: Ms Flotard)
With other VIPs, we lounged á coucher in Roman postures watching the show in a green room motif on a balcone over the hoi polloi, sucking on adult beverages. Cold pizza covered every available surface like shag rug in a double-wide… as it should in a green room.
Buy Friday and Saturday’s shows here: Did we say ‘buy?’ Yup. They're for sale (99c each) it was a funder, remember?
Burbank repeatedly refers to his little audio ensemble and its avid audience as “a fake radio show,” and its “10’s of listeners.”
It’s actually more than that: it’s a business plan, that, as it figures itself out, hopes to supplant the one in place on the airwaves. The one that delivers product that’s only about 1 to 3 parts content to ads and services a steadily diminishing demographic.
Luke did two shows in New York a few months ago, and made a year’s wages.
And those 10’s of listeners? Kind of understated — TBTL, The Podcast has more than 50,000 dedicated listeners with a million downloads a month. KIRO's mynorthwest site still hosts TBTL’s podcasts on its website because of the traffic it attracts.
When TBTL was cancelled on KIRO, the podcast was getting 100-200,000 downloads a month. Luke says, “We’ve had a tenfold increase in listenership since we started just doing the podcast.”
The cash outlay for the hardware to get 50k earballs a day was less than a grand, he said, and most of that ($700) was for a new Mac that records everything. “I have a Shure SM-70 microphone, a little Mackie mixing board, a couple of little microphones, and my personal laptop. That’s it. If you tune in I defy you tell a huge difference in what it sounds like now and what it did on KIRO in the studio.”
He's making good radio, “Principles of good radio," he says, "still apply.”
As critical as we are of everything, and as infrequently as we listen in, we gotta say, we're still digging what’s going on here. (We're political and TBTL is apolitical) Luke Burbank has an ear that’s fined-tuned to the absurd and is smart and funny in an off-beat, good-natured way. (Self-effacement is his schtick and sure, he’s a self-involved blabbermouth, but since when hasn’t that been anything but a plus in radio?)Certain BlatherWatch readers (some hanging by their cuticles at their cubicles at their radio jobs) have never wished TBTL well, scoffed heartily at the first installment, and will take this opportunity to re-scoff. (see below)
(This while they kiss the same old middle management asses, and keep their grips on the risk-averse stasis of an old technology, aging audience and fading business model).
Predictions of the TBTL’s demise keep proving premature. Meanwhile, he's growing a national audience, making a decent living at it and a little more.
You can’t be around TBTL — on the podcast or at an event — without grokking the upward motion of it. Doubt that feeling is that prevalent in many spots in radio today.
What should be enviable to anyone in the business is that Burbank owns and is in charge of every moment and inch of his product -- and it’s paid-for!
That not only means he can say fuck on the “air,” and broadcast in his underwear from his own house, it guarantees an artistic and entrepreneurial independence regular talkers can only blab about in the abstract.
Plus, he doesn't ever have to break for traffic, or talk about the weather.
I've seen some other ventures beg customers for money after their product was originally intended to be free, and fail, but LB is pretty smooth about it. I wonder if he didn't learn the tricks of the trade during his time with NPR. Having said that, if he ever becomes "successful", it will be a lot harder to ask for money. The tens will be like "uh, why don't you give us money?" I've learned in business that customers are forgiving of small, struggling businesses, and openly hostile towards big established ones. In order for his "pay what you can" business model to work, he has to always play the underdog and never let on that he's succeeding. I respect that he puts limits on what listeners can give, for fear that a super 10 might really buy into it and give their whole paycheck. That's ethical. Makes me wonder what NPR's policy on absurdly large contributions is.
Posted by: Andrew | July 13, 2010 at 02:07 AM
Good post Andrew!
Posted by: Seiamoo | July 13, 2010 at 05:52 AM
No traffic checks or news spots means Luke is talking for three hours straight. He's earning his money! This is one I wouldn't have predicted - that he could earn a living on it.
Podcasts are great except who's got time to listen? That's the obstacle for me. And I've tried to return to KUOW for less ranting but it's boring. I keep hearing SNL's NPR parody.
Posted by: joanie | July 13, 2010 at 09:40 AM
I can listen because I work at a computer, but yeah, even if I have to drive somewhere I can't be bothered to transfer his show to my iphone. To be honest I don't even really know how you're supposed to go about doing that.
Also his show is between 60 and 90 minutes per day. It's no three hours, and it would where pretty thin if it was.
Posted by: Andrew | July 13, 2010 at 09:58 AM
we’d judge the crowd might have had any average age of 35-40
That sounds right. The show never quite had the youthful sound everyone claimed it was intended to have. Burbank is an older fellow and, when he tries to sound "hip", it comes out as a little tortured. If he's playing to a more middle-aged audience now, though, I can imagine he's finding greater success.
When TBTL was cancelled on KIRO, the podcast was getting 100-200,000 downloads a month. Luke says, “We’ve had a tenfold increase in listenership since we started just doing the podcast.”
This is not true.
I don't mean that I "think" it's not true, I'm stating that - objectively - it is false.
Two million downloads per month means 90,000 or so listeners (2M divided by number of shows).
That would make him, for all intents, one of the singularly most successful podcasts in history. It would mean he was getting 1/3 the numbers of Adam Carolla, who is a celebrity and established national figure, or about 1/3 the number of Rocketboom, which is charging $15K for ads.
The fact is independent auditing of podcast numbers is not really available. He could say he was having 1,000 or a billion downloads and it would be just as realistic in the absence of an audit.
He probably has a nice little audience of loyal listeners and has sketched out a nice little corner niche for himself in the vastness of the web. But let's not do crazy-talk just because he happens to live out here in the provinces with the rest of us ...
Posted by: Aldrin B | July 13, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Sixty to ninety minutes a day? That's a pretty good gig if you can get it.
Posted by: joanie | July 13, 2010 at 10:12 AM
TBTL is going to be the subject of a Harvard Business School study before the decade is out. Its relationship to traditional radio is analogous to iTunes :: Tower Records.
The cynics who didn't like the show when it was on KIRO and made fun of Luke for retreating to his basement in his shorts kind of remind me of GM and Ford execs circa 1974, making fun of Toyota and Datsun and dismissing their rivals' customers as eccentric fringe dwellers. Then one day you wake up and the whole dominant paradigm has left you behind. Radio is doing a pretty good job of committing suicide, especially in Seattle, but as more and more content delivery models migrate away from broadcast and cars start coming with those little Sprint USB wifi sticks as standard equipment, it's difficult to see how to resist the shift. The first casualty will be satellite radio, but broadcast is next in the hospice.
In this regard Luke Burbank may be remembered as the Neil Armstrong of this exploratory wave.
Posted by: TomF | July 13, 2010 at 10:16 AM
While I utilize ITunes, I have to admit, I really miss going to Tower Records near Seattle Center and spending a couple of hours browsing..ITunes is faster, but the atmosphere in that record store was great.
Posted by: sparky | July 13, 2010 at 10:35 AM
"Listening to Luke Burbank makes me happy." ~~ Bill Radke
Posted by: oatmeal | July 13, 2010 at 10:42 AM
joanie, you have to account for the show prep and that fact that he's producing and engineering his show. I don't know how much time he's puting into it, but production values have been better as of late.
TomF, you can't compare a podcast to a radio station. KIRO is a full service radio station operating 24/7. LB has a hard time showing up to work on time and chooses on a whim when to end his show. Not knocking it, just point at that it's apples and oranges.
The best way to envision TBTL scaling to the size of KIRO is imaging a KUOW-like station with nothing but TBTL style shows all day long. Do you think that would work? The correct answer is "no".
Posted by: Andrew | July 13, 2010 at 10:45 AM
" the atmosphere in that record store was great"
I really miss finding bootlegs. You could go to a place like Easy Street Records and find unoffical live DC's of popular bands, demo tracks and other gems. I used to drive all over the region hunting for them and I met lots of independent proprietors in the process. Now you can find all of it on bittorrent. I'm grateful for the access but I miss the hunt.
Posted by: Andrew | July 13, 2010 at 10:53 AM
Wish they'd podcast the news in the morning so I wouldn't have to sit through endless home improvement and Shick Shadel commercials. Any one know what they're doing with the morning news anyway? Is Tony Minor in there for good now?
Posted by: NoBS | July 13, 2010 at 01:42 PM
sparky, go to silver platters, it's in the new old tower space. I find it better than tower was.
Posted by: Rich | July 13, 2010 at 03:19 PM
Thanks! next time Im up in Seattle, I will try to do that.
Posted by: sparky | July 13, 2010 at 04:13 PM
I lived on Queen Anne and loved Tower Records but I liked Tower Books better which replaced Tower Records if I recall correctly.
New technology may be efficient but it sure ain't as much fun.
Posted by: joanie | July 13, 2010 at 05:11 PM