Word Balloon's John Siuntres: longest podcast!

09/21/23 • -1 min

John Siuntres (host and creator of the popular Word Balloon livestream and podcast and I often talk on the phone for at least an hour, so we decided to do a livestream conversation, and it ended up being much longer! Topics covered: how entertainment and the media have changed, the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes, creativity and syndication in TV and radio, innovation, digital access and viewpoints, media and cultural nostalgia, podcasting and the radio biz, Instagram and influencers, Gen X, nerd culture, Hollywood and media pay, streaming vs broadcasting, Chicago and national radio, live and recorded broadcasting, job opportunities, working in radio, TV shows and movies, popular music, British vs American actors, vocal fry and people's voices, beauty, and more!

Click the link below to play, or download it by right-clicking (on a PC) or holding down the CTRL key and clicking on it (for Mac).

http://radiogirl.us/audio/RG194.mp3

Watch the Radiogirl livestreams and videos at the Radiogirl FB page and on YouTube (also live-streaming on Radiogirl Twitter, Metrolingua Twitter, and my own Fakebook page).If you like what I'm doing, Buy Me a Coffee...thanks!

Click the link below to play, or download it by right-clicking (on a PC) or holding down the CTRL key and clicking on it (for Mac).

http://radiogirl.us/audio/RG194.mp3

Previous Episode

Ravi Baichwal: from Canada to Chicago

Ravi Baichwal is an anchor at ABC 7 Chicago and talks about his hockey documentary Summit 72; his hometown Toronto and Canadian culture; his radio career at CKNW in Vancouver before he went to CTV National News, then doing CTV and being on the air at CFRB radio in Toronto (where I previously interviewed Jerry Agar and John Moore); filling in at WLS Radio; why he thinks radio is fun and important; doing TV vs radio; his accent; corruption; why fair pay is important; how he got into media; advice for getting into TV news; challenges he faced; why TV news is still important; diversity; perseverance; what makes a good anchor; elements of a story; what is integrity; why he likes working in Chicago; why he loves radio, and much more!

This is from a livestream that we did; watch the full interview here. But there is also extra content that wasn't in the livestream about his radio career (done in a separate follow-up interview specially for the Radiogirl podcast).

Click the link below to play, or download it by right-clicking (on a PC) or holding down the CTRL key and clicking on it (for Mac).

http://radiogirl.us/audio/RG193.mp3

Note: this is the video he didn’t want me to play during the interview: a van crashed into the ABC 7 studio while he was on the air (back in 2007, just one year after he started anchoring there).

Next Episode

InternetFM after more than a decade: Steve Leventhal and Eric Leventhal

A musical discussion: Steve Leventhal, creator of InternetFM, and his son and cofounder Eric Leventhal, talk about their music and broadcasting experience, what is top-shelf radio, paying for songs, why vinyl is popular with some younger music fans, commercials, changing technology and music delivery, how they define oldies, the resurgence of psychedelic music, concerts, rock’s waning popularity, the role of the Internet for radio, the future of music radio, and more. The last time I interviewed Steve was more than 10 years ago.

Click the link below to play, or download it by right-clicking (on a PC) or holding down the CTRL key and clicking on it (for Mac).

http://radiogirl.us/audio/RG195.mp3