Enjoy Non Fiction Feature Type Radio Documentaries Here

My name is Candice Nolan and I run a podcast called spudcaster. I tell non-fiction stories. Typically, I aspire to NPR and This American Life. I produce feature radio documentary type podcasts for people who enjoy non fiction feature type radio documentaries.

I have been in news radio for 15 years. I particularly writing feature type stories. In that sense, I've been consuming and producing podcasts for a long time. I naturally fell into listening to This American Life and other podcasts. I believe that podcasts are the natural evolution of radio. I felt there was a serious lack of South African stories, and I believe that we have many stories to tell. I started my podcast in 2018 as a platform to tell South African stories and try to cultivate a local audience base for podcasts. My very first episode, Ouma Titties and the Dutch bible, took about 3 months to produce. This included research, interviews, scripting and post production.

Typically, it takes about a month to produce a podcast. I use my spare time to work on a podcast. This includes research, preparing for interviews, admin, transcription, scripting, production. It's something that I have a passion for, and I find it deeply meaningful. So it doesn't even feel like I have to make time. My running costs are in the region of 2000 ZAR, which I'm currently funding out of my own pocket.

I was unsuccessful on the sponsorship score. I've had little success with sites like patreon.com and I was recently turned down for funding by a local sponsorship platform. I am a storyteller. Podcasting is a way of being true to myself. I find it a deeply enriching and personally edifying experience.

I use my iPhone. But I also utilise external microphones. I have an iRig condenser microphone (for field interviews)and a rode lavaleir lapel microphone (for my church podcasts). Once I've identified a topic, and because of my news background and extensive contacts, it's more or less easy to track down interviews. For the church podcast that I run for my local church, I arrive early enough to be able to set up the microphone (I also record a backup on my mac using Audacity and an iRig Pre XLR Microphone Interface). I prefer to do in-person interviews but I have experimented with telephonic interviews as well.

My podcast is listed on iTunes and Stitcher (as well as Podbean and a few other platforms). I hire a marketer to help with that aspect of the site.

Things I've learnt: it's definitely not easy trying to set up and market your own podcasting platform. It is an evolutionary process. Anticipate the changes and keep growing and learning.

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