Know Your Ending Before You Start with Charlotte Foster

James Bishop [00:00:05]:

Dear listeners, we are gathered here today to reflect on a podcast that is no longer with us, Cultural Quarter of an Hour. It was the podcast to that explored the culture of Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire. Haunting us today is its host, Charlotte Foster. Launched in July 2017, 99 episodes were published in total. The show ran for three and a half years before it was finally left to perish. Episode. We'll learn what caused Cultural Quarter of an Hour to be yet another headstone in the podcast graveyard. We'll celebrate The highs, lament the lows, and discuss whether it should be laid to rest forever, or be brought back to life.

James Bishop [00:01:01]:

From One Fine Play, This is Podcast Graveyard. Welcome to this service. I'm your host James Bishop, and and I've been producing podcasts for years. What I've learned is that one of the hardest things to do is Keep Your Podcast Alive. There's nearly 4,000,000 podcasts available today, but fewer than 8% are alive and kicking. I'm curious to learn and more about these lost shows. Why did they start? What led them to stop? And what can we learn from their untimely demise? Who knows? Perhaps we'll even bring some back from the podcast graveyard. Let's begin proceedings.

James Bishop [00:01:50]:

Hi, Charlotte. Thanks for haunting the show today.

Charlotte Foster [00:01:52]:

Thank you very much for having me. I feel quite ghostly now.

James Bishop [00:01:56]:

So tell me, What is the

Charlotte Foster [00:01:58]:

podcast all about? It's about culture in Stoke on Trent, which my idea of culture for the podcast was Actually, talking to the people of Stoke on Trent. It was the stories of the city that you didn't normally hear. You can't have culture without people. So it was about the community of Stoke on Trent, really.

James Bishop [00:02:15]:

For the international listeners amongst us, maybe we should just give context to Stoke on Trent.

Charlotte Foster [00:02:20]:

Oh, blimey. Context to Stoke on Trent. That's a question. It is an in a post industrial city. It was really famous for the potteries. Quite often, if you're on holiday somewhere and you're in a in a How if you turn over your plate, it'll say made in England, made in Stoke on Trent. The late sort of seventies, eighties onwards, there was the decline in the pottery industry as everyone moved abroad, Which meant that a city that was historically high employment became very quickly low employment. And that's just had a knock on effect for such a long time.

Charlotte Foster [00:02:53]:

2 football clubs, 1 Premier League, 1 not Premier League, a couple of the famous Sons of, Stoke on Trent, Robbie Williams, and Lemmy from Motorhead was, also, Stoke on Trent born.

James Bishop [00:03:04]:

Let's Talk about the format of the podcast because I think that's super interesting. You've made a show about the people in a city and the stories and the happenings in a fairly kind of timely manner, I guess, when the podcast episodes were coming out. Like you were talking about local events or something that was being celebrated in the local area. How did you come upon the format and decide to make a show about a place because it's not a particularly common thing to do.

Charlotte Foster [00:03:38]:

So again, it was the whole I wanted to make A a podcast that I knew I could do. And my background in local radio was all about talking to local people about what they do. And I knew that I didn't have a huge amount of time. So I I said, alright. It'll be a 15 minute episode, and then I could play on. The title came first, clearly. It's one of those ones. In radio, there's quite a few.

Charlotte Foster [00:04:04]:

If you listen to the radio a lot, I play a game of what Came first, the concept or the title. And with this one, the title absolutely came first with my with my podcast. Because I was there's a little part of the city called the cultural quarter. And when I thought, oh, that'd be really funny. I can call it cultural quarter Of an hour, and it'll be 15 minutes long. And it tells people what they're going to get. And it was quite easy in that sense that, you know, it's gonna be 15 minutes. Not gonna take up a lot of your time.

Charlotte Foster [00:04:31]:

You know what you're gonna get from it.

James Bishop [00:04:33]:

Why did you want to make the podcast?

Charlotte Foster [00:04:35]:

So I started the podcast in 2017, as you said, Because there was a real kind of unsettledness in the city. 2016, we'd had the Brexit referendum, And the city had voted quite highly for leaving the EU. Very highly indeed. I think it was, like, one of the top 5 cities. So it got branded in the national media as Brexit capital. And I lived in the city at the time, and I'd been one of the Champions of working of of the the city going for the city of culture bid for 2021, which Coventry got eventually. So the city didn't get it, but there was this first first time in ages, there was a feel of positivity from within the city, from the people within the city. And then other people came in and went, oh, yeah.

Charlotte Foster [00:05:22]:

Everyone's poor. All the pot banks have shut down. All the shops are shut. Oh, yeah. They'll vote for UKIP and Left again is what it felt like. And I was really angry that that was a narrative being put out there when actually there was some real Positivity just beginning to grow from people that hadn't really felt positive before. This whole thing of going for the city of culture bid was just like, I know. We can do alright in this city.

Charlotte Foster [00:05:44]:

We are alright. And then to just have this sort of flung on us, I was just really angry. And I'd previously worked in radio, previously Local radio in in Stoke on Trent. And I knew that if I was back on that radio station, what I'd be doing is actually shouting very loudly about all the good stuff that's that's going on in the city. But I wasn't on the radio then. So what could I do? Well, I could shout very loudly, or I could record Pause my shouting very loudly and get and get it out there was was my was my sort of idea about it. So that's what I did. I got I I got going on it and just thought, no.

Charlotte Foster [00:06:19]:

I'm gonna do my bit for getting the city back up again where it should be.

James Bishop [00:06:24]:

What other shows are your inspiration?

Charlotte Foster [00:06:27]:

I used to joke about this. I used to say it was the stokey version of this American life, which in 2016, 16 2017 was everyone's gateway into podcasting, I think. So I wanted to hear those stories, those fun things that you wouldn't necessarily hear elsewhere that were everyday people, not celebrities. So that was what I was after. It's got kind of this American life feel to it.

James Bishop [00:06:51]:

Did you consider calling it this stoke life?

Charlotte Foster [00:06:53]:

I did consider recalling it that, but I was worried that I was gonna get sued.

James Bishop [00:06:58]:

I see. So when you started out, what were your expectations?

Charlotte Foster [00:07:01]:

In all honesty, I was desperate to get back into radio. I hadn't had a presenting gig for a good while. And I thought, do you know what? I need a way to get myself back on the radio or have a demo at least to send to people. But that very quickly stopped when I realized That the podcast was much more fun, and I had all the control. I didn't have to ask an editor if I could do audio to get this interview. I just rang someone up and said I'd like to talk to you.

James Bishop [00:07:28]:

Was it a passion project?

Charlotte Foster [00:07:29]:

Absolutely. It cost me money. It cost me time. It cost me energy that I loved every second.

James Bishop [00:07:35]:

So let's talk about that. How much time do you think you put into it?

Charlotte Foster [00:07:39]:

At least a day a week. That was the researching, finding people to talk to when you found people, doing a bit of research On going to visit them, editing, and then promoting it as well. I had a I had a Twitter handle for it Because at the time, Twitter was big, and you were having the Twitter conversations, you know, like the Twitter hours you would have. So every Wednesday at 8 o'clock, it was Staffordshire Hour on Twitter. So I would be in there on Twitter from the Cultural Quarter Now podcast Twitter handle, commenting on all the staff and Hashtag SOT 2021 and just and that was a really good way for me to build up the podcast and to get it known. And Then I started getting people asking if they could come on the podcast, which was my favorite thing ever. It's like I wasn't the one putting the calls out there. Like, actually, Charlotte, we're doing something here.

Charlotte Foster [00:08:26]:

We'd love to be part of the podcast, please.

James Bishop [00:08:28]:

You feel this sense of accomplishment, don't you? The first time that someone contacts you and says, oh, I'd love to be on your show, or I don't nearly always frame it as, I don't know if I'm good enough to be a guest, but would you consider me?

Charlotte Foster [00:08:42]:

Yeah. Yes.

James Bishop [00:08:42]:

And from your side, Oh my god. Someone that's amazing. Like, I'm so flattered.

Charlotte Foster [00:08:49]:

Yeah. And my other sort of moment I had, I was at an event, And someone said, oh, I know your voice. And I was waiting to go, oh, yeah. I used to be on on the radio. Yeah. And they went, you do the podcast, don't you? And I was I was a complete stranger. And I was like, get in. Yes.

Charlotte Foster [00:09:04]:

I do the podcast. You've heard of the podcast, and you clearly listen enough to know my voice. It that was Just outstanding for me.

James Bishop [00:09:11]:

Such a sense of achievement. So what about money? How much do you think you spent on it?

Charlotte Foster [00:09:16]:

Oh, don't. Well, I bought my 1st microphone for the podcast because I was started off back in the day just using my phone to do the the interviews, and then I bought a microphone. So About £80 on the microphone. Cost of getting to places, so driving costs, Cost of editing, cost of putting it online.

James Bishop [00:09:38]:

Did you edit it yourself?

Charlotte Foster [00:09:39]:

Yeah.

James Bishop [00:09:40]:

And using a tool that you paid for.

Charlotte Foster [00:09:43]:

Yeah. I used, Adobe Audition because that was what I was used to with work working previously. I had tried Audacity a couple of times and realized that the money I paid to Adobe was well worth every penny because just because I it wasn't something I was used to. You you get used to a tool, and you're gonna use it. And I knew the shortcuts, and I just didn't have the energy to relearn.

James Bishop [00:10:03]:

I totally relate to that because there are some great new tools out there that do all sorts of things, but the learning curve in using them is a hurdle I can't bring myself to get over, so I just still do things the antiquated way.

Charlotte Foster [00:10:17]:

Yeah. No. I I hear you with that as well. There's there's loads of really good stuff, and I just go, nah. It's not for me. Not now.

James Bishop [00:10:23]:

And you pay for your podcast hosting?

Charlotte Foster [00:10:25]:

Yep. Pay for my podcast hosting. Audio boom is what I started with Back in the day, and it was important to me to pay for it because I wanted to make sure that I had all the analytics And stuff from it. And I thought that for me, at that point with my price point it was at, it was better for me to have those. And I loved being able to see who was listening and where they were listening from and Those sorts of details and and the age range as well. And you could so tell my local radio background because I hit the forty five to 55 year olds really well, which at the time was really weird for podcasting because it was seen as a young male sort of a thing, wasn't it? Whereas I had 55 year old women.

James Bishop [00:11:05]:

Amazing. I

Charlotte Foster [00:11:06]:

was like, well, at least I know how to target well still.

James Bishop [00:11:08]:

What was the biggest obstacle you faced when making the podcast?

Charlotte Foster [00:11:11]:

Me, I was the biggest obstacle. To start with, I'd had the idea for this podcast. So we launched in was it the June or July of 2017? I'd had the idea since about February, March to do the podcast, but I over planned it. I I've never worked for Radio 4. I imagine if I was gonna do a Radio 4 documentary, that was the level of planning I did for the podcast. It was gonna be, ah, Just beautiful. All of it was gonna be just constructed amazingly. And then I realized that that was never going to work For me because I didn't have the kits, I didn't have the time, and I didn't have any of the, you know, the resources that a Radio four documentary would have.

Charlotte Foster [00:11:55]:

So I basically threw all that out the window and just turned up at an event that I had a really good idea that I could get some conversations with people with, then Did it that way. The other thing that was difficult was whilst I had planned too much to start with, I then went to no plan whatsoever and just woke up and hoped for the best. So trying to maintain a weekly episode when There was just me doing it on my own around freelancing full freelance work is never full time. It's beyond full time. Basically, I was working all the days of the week. I think I planned at most, I had 3 episodes planned ahead, and that wasn't a huge amount. And it was on a week hours. You know, I'd be editing sometimes midnight of the night that it was, you know, before it was meant to be due published because I'd been left at the last minute or I hadn't got anything sorted, And I was just running around doing stuff.

Charlotte Foster [00:12:52]:

Once I found a a better workflow, that was it got a bit better. But the the difficulty was a weekly podcast every single week.

James Bishop [00:13:04]:

Something that we hear so many times on Podcast Graveyard is about the challenge of the consistency and the weekly grind. You did 99 episodes over three and a half years, which means that my math says you didn't post 1 every week. I guess you did them in seasons or blocks. What was your publishing schedule?

Charlotte Foster [00:13:23]:

It started out weekly. It then went a bit chaotic, No. Which which is not a great way to do it. And then, obviously, we had a big pause during the lockdowns because Nothing was happening. And then stuff started happening again. And the other difficulty he had was Stoke on Trent didn't get the city of culture bid. You know, Coventry got it. So the issue then became the focus on the city sort of moved away from this whole cultural conversation.

Charlotte Foster [00:13:52]:

Fewer events were going on. Fewer things were going on. The city stopped funding a lot of stuff because, well, money was ridiculous, and and difficulties were coming along. And so there was only a certain amount of people I could talk to. And I ended up thinking about, oh god. I'm talking to the same people about the same things over and over again, which I didn't want to do. I wanted to talk to as many different people and get there. It was about me, the unheard voices.

Charlotte Foster [00:14:19]:

So that's where the, sort of, the chaotic schedule came along. So it's alright. I'll do something series instead. And then life took over, Unfortunately. And that's how it also got a bit chaotic.

James Bishop [00:14:30]:

And on that journey, you must have had some embarrassing or cringeworthy stories. Anything you can

Charlotte Foster [00:14:36]:

share with me? My whole life is an embarrassing and cringeworthy story. I'm

James Bishop [00:14:41]:

sure it's not.

Charlotte Foster [00:14:42]:

Oh, I did a lovely half hour interview interview someone and deleted it rather than press save.

James Bishop [00:14:47]:

Oh, wow. So you pressed record and then pressed delete.

Charlotte Foster [00:14:50]:

Pressed record? So I was watching it. You know, that's the thing you do. You watch all the The the the sound waves going, I was like, brilliant. It's all going. And then on the on my iPad, which is what I was recording on at the time, It was like you can either save it or delete it. And I just pressed delete. And I watched my finger do it kind of thing. I was like, No.

Charlotte Foster [00:15:12]:

No. No.

James Bishop [00:15:12]:

What did you do?

Charlotte Foster [00:15:14]:

I took a moment. Luckily, it was someone I knew. It wasn't a complete stranger. I'd spoken to this person a few times in, in my previous life on the radio. And I said, so you know that really good interview We've just done a lovely conversation. He said, yeah. Yeah. I went, it was so good.

Charlotte Foster [00:15:30]:

We need to do it again. I just had to explain what happened. And he's off. He's like, what? Sorry. I know. I was thinking that's the dry run. That was the pilot. So we're going to go ahead and do it again.

Charlotte Foster [00:15:43]:

He was very good about it, very charming about it, made another cup of tea, and we we cracked on, but I do know the first interview was better.

James Bishop [00:15:51]:

Oh, don't say that.

Charlotte Foster [00:15:52]:

But it was.

James Bishop [00:15:53]:

These things happen every morning. It's just one of those things. I know exactly what you mean as well about that slow motion feeling of pressing delete, like you're doing it. You don't know why you're doing it and you know exactly what's going to happen as you do it, but it's sort of happened for some unknown reason and then You know, in your half hearts, there's no there's only one way out of the hole.

Charlotte Foster [00:16:15]:

You have to fess up. That links

James Bishop [00:16:18]:

one bit of the whole process.

Charlotte Foster [00:16:20]:

Yeah, absolutely. But I

James Bishop [00:16:22]:

think the moral of the story is that it happens, and people just nod along, and say absolutely no problem. Do it again. I've never ever seen someone say, nope. I'm not helping you out.

Charlotte Foster [00:16:33]:

No. Yeah. No. It does happen to Every single person, I think.

James Bishop [00:16:39]:

Quick interruption from today's service to remind you that you're listening to Podcast Graveyard from One Fine Play with me, your host, James Bishop. Coming up, we get into some of the worst decisions Charlotte made. And as always, we reveal whether the podcast should be brought back from the dead or forever lay to rest. But first, I want to find out why the podcast died. Let's hear what Charlotte has to say.

Charlotte Foster [00:17:06]:

The the brutal honesty is I left Stoke on Trent. So I say not because I wanted to, but I kinda did want to because my husband was moving away. So I Followed followed my husband to to Shropshire. He got a job in Shropshire. And How inconsiderate. I know. Rude. Right? It was just Terrible decision of his, and it was a really good decision of his.

Charlotte Foster [00:17:27]:

And I am now hour and 20, hour and 30 minutes away from Stoke. I thought I cannot be the champion of the city and the stuff that goes on in the city if I'm not part of the city in the same way. So, January 2021 was when we sold the house. And I thought, do you know what? That's the right time to just Stop it. I can't keep doing it from Shropshire. I can't be like, yeah. Stoke on Trent's the best. She says from Oswestry On the Welsh border.

James Bishop [00:17:57]:

I guess if you're the local legend, you do need to be around.

Charlotte Foster [00:18:01]:

Yeah. I mean, I'm still involved in the city. I'm still doing stuff In The City, thanks to the podcast, has all turned up to do stuff. But I was like, I can't be at every single cultural event or the cultural stuff that's going on in the city and the community events and Stuff like that. Just not just to be seen there, but actually to find out to hear from people, to find new people, to keep knowing what's going on in the city. You've got To have your ear to the ground. If you're going to claim to do some really sort of hyper local stuff, you need to be hyper local in the place.

James Bishop [00:18:30]:

I guess that's the case for any niche, but particularly if you're doing a location based show.

Charlotte Foster [00:18:35]:

Yeah. And I'm really sad about it, genuinely.

James Bishop [00:18:38]:

I can tell. Were you motivated by The opportunities that it sounds like the podcast created by doing something in such a in such a nuclear location sounds like You I joke I sort of half joked earlier on about being a local legend, but it sounds like it created opportunities outside of the podcast.

Charlotte Foster [00:19:00]:

It absolutely did create opportunities. I think that's what I loved about it. It it gave me that growth. So Anyone who knew me at school will know that arts and crafts were not my thing. I I I'm not the arty person. I'm no way talented in any way, shape, or form. I can draw stickman ish, basically. I did a bit of singing, but That was more shouting.

Charlotte Foster [00:19:25]:

You know, I'm not that artistic person. I am now a non exec director of an arts based CIC because Because of the podcast, I was part of the city's cultural forum because of the podcast. I got to see things and got to places because of the podcast. People would invite me along and say, Charlotte, we'd like you to be part of this Because we've heard you on the podcast, and we think, you know and it wasn't necessarily art and culturally stuff. It was stuff championing the city. And I like to have a positive I like everything to be positive because there's so much negativity out there. Actually, what I liked about it was we Could it was a little place for positivity at a time when there wasn't a huge amount of positivity always. And sometimes, yes, that does become Hard work.

Charlotte Foster [00:20:17]:

But I think if it began again now or I was doing it now, knowing everything I know from 2017 onwards, Actually, I would have a better plan in place to to to manage it, and it would work better.

James Bishop [00:20:29]:

What are some of the worst decisions you made when making your podcast.

Charlotte Foster [00:20:35]:

To do it weekly without a series. I find out that if I did have my time again, I'd do little series or seasons if you must. I would rather than a continual weekly one.

James Bishop [00:20:46]:

What about good decisions that you made? And ones I'm really interested in are ones that you made too late.

Charlotte Foster [00:20:51]:

I wish I didn't think I had to have a website to go with it because that was just extra effort. I eventually got business cards made up with a little, I'm so I'm so old. I had a QR code printed on them as well. Before QR Before QR code. I paid for a QR code back Back in the days when you had to pay for it and you couldn't just get it online kind of thing or generate it yourself. I then had to explain to people what a QR code was, and they were, oh, I don't know if that's how it works. So maybe rather than trying to be too clever, I think I just kept trying to be too clever all the time to try and prove I was doing it right.

James Bishop [00:21:23]:

But what about good decisions?

Charlotte Foster [00:21:24]:

Good decisions. Did really well.

James Bishop [00:21:26]:

What really worked?

Charlotte Foster [00:21:28]:

Just rocking up to places as though I belonged there rather than waiting for Permission. I think that got me there eventually. You know? I should have just done that a bit more.

James Bishop [00:21:38]:

It sounds like you had an amazing experience with perception as well, that your confidence grew, but people also saw you as this person of influence way before you maybe accepted it.

Charlotte Foster [00:21:51]:

Yeah. I think that's true. I think that's that is absolutely true. It was hugely part of personal development, personal growth. And I'm very grateful to it for for that. But I think also, I think that, yeah, maybe other people saw it before I did. I should have listened to them.

James Bishop [00:22:10]:

Once you embrace it, it becomes so much more powerful.

Charlotte Foster [00:22:12]:

Oh, it totally does. Now I'm like, yeah, I'm the best.

James Bishop [00:22:15]:

But there absolutely is something about embracing that sort of level of influence that is uncomfortable at first, that lots of people talk about. What aspect do you wish you'd focused more of your energy on?

Charlotte Foster [00:22:27]:

I think I've got a little bit lost in the City of Culture bid, but that was what the buzzwords were at the time. But it also meant that when the City of Culture Didn't happen. There was, like, oh, where do we go next? What do we do next to to keep that momentum going? So if I'd not sort of hung my hat Totally on that that City of Culture bid quite so much, then I might have been able to have a bit more Of the more more of the community groups. Because we did kind of end up going to some of the the city culture events that were being put on, so, like, bigger cultural events in the city, and I think we lost our way a little bit rather than just talking to the more more of the community groups, the ones that were putting on An event because it was in the estate where they lived, and they wanted people to come together. So I think we lost away a little bit there. But equally, That did get us into other places as well. So there are pros and cons to to that, but I think I would have liked to spend more time talking to the Real Real People.

James Bishop [00:23:28]:

So it sounds like for you, it's really about getting out in person and meeting more people and just growing that network and really taking full benefit of the halo effect that making the podcast was having.

Charlotte Foster [00:23:42]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think embrace I think I should have embraced as weird as this sounds, I should have embraced the listeners from abroad a little bit more because there was a load of people listening who were expats Who went in the city, and it was their connection back to the city. And I think if I had thought about those people a little bit more, About how I could get more stokey sounding voices and more more atmosphere of the city rather than just being a straight interview. Could I have done a bit more about where we were in the city, a bit more Location feel rather than just a straight 15 minute conversation with people.

James Bishop [00:24:14]:

How did you know they were expats?

Charlotte Foster [00:24:16]:

People would have get in touch with me, and I loved it. When people message me, it's a DM on Twitter. I'm listening from, someone listening from Australia, Which was lovely. You know? They're so far away. So I'm listening to Australia. It's so nice to hear people from home. Or they'd comment on Twitter, or they would Sometimes email me as well. By your side, it would dig down on the, the analytics as well, and I could sort of see where people were were listening from as well.

Charlotte Foster [00:24:40]:

And, you know, there was It was big in Japan as well, but I think that's because anytime we mentioned ceramics, there was it got a big boost in Japan. Certainly, the Japanese listeners were quite keen on the ceramic history. But, yeah, I got a lot of interaction from people who were who were abroad. And by expats, there's also people who'd left the city and moved, I don't know, maybe to Stafford so far away. Oh, oh, oh,

James Bishop [00:25:03]:

I've got it the way.

Charlotte Foster [00:25:04]:

For about about not even that, about half an hour. Or they'd left the city or they'd left the area, and it was just a really good way for them to connect back to the city. And I think we could've done more on that That side of things.

James Bishop [00:25:15]:

So I think I probably know the answer to this, but did you mourn its passing or were you relieved to see it die?

Charlotte Foster [00:25:20]:

I mourned its passing, and I Still mourn it's passing. I can Maybe I can get a little sister for it. It's a weird one, right, Because there's part of me that's like, oh, do you know what? If someone wanted to take up the, the stoke version, you know, cultural quarter of an hour, someone based there was like, oh, we need something. Would I would I hand over Culture Quarter an Hour to them? Or do I want to keep it as my baby and just have it finished? I can't decide. Should I try and find someone to to take the show, to grow? And it would be it'd be like it's It's been like, I guess, Doctor Who. You have different people running Doctor Who, don't you? And everyone brings their own thing to it, and everyone likes the different seat. You know? It's like, well, would it be a bit like that? Not not saying that the podcast is as big an impact as Doctor Who, but actually it'd be really fun maybe to see what someone else would bring to it and what where they would take it. And it probably would have a TikTok channel by now.

Charlotte Foster [00:26:18]:

You know?

James Bishop [00:26:19]:

It wouldn't be the 1st podcast for that to happen with either. In fact, I produce a podcast where the host has changed for it to stay, you know, for it to stay alive.

Charlotte Foster [00:26:29]:

I'm intrigued now. Maybe maybe we're resurrecting the podcast. We're not mourning it's lost. We're bringing it back to life.

James Bishop [00:26:35]:

From everything that you've learned, what piece of advice would you give to someone just about to make their 1st episode?

Charlotte Foster [00:26:41]:

Know how you're going to finish It's my best piece of advice. Know your exit strategy before you start. Now it can be a certain amount of episodes or if you decide you're in a series. But know how you're going to finish before you start because then it can be much much easier. Yeah. It's what I say to everyone I work with, know how you're gonna finish this before you start.

James Bishop [00:27:02]:

I love And

Charlotte Foster [00:27:03]:

it doesn't disappear. Your podcast, if you pay for it to be online, it stays online. It will be there for as long as you want your podcast to be out there. So It might be dead, but, you know, you can visit it every now and again, and people will visit it.

James Bishop [00:27:17]:

Reframing it as a body of work rather than the preconception that you have to do go on all the time forever makes it so much easier to manage. And as you say, people do go back and listen. I know of a podcast that's in our portfolio that hasn't posted for 2 years, and it still does a 1,000 downloads a week. 2 years later with no promotion because people know where it is and they go back to it, and new people find it.

Charlotte Foster [00:27:45]:

I think we're so used to social media being instant, and once it's out there, it's gone. You don't you don't you don't scroll back to the beginning of Facebook. You don't scroll back to the beginning of Instagram. Could you imagine? God. Thank the lord. But your podcasts will stay there for as long as you want them to stay there, and they're valuable Being there as well.

James Bishop [00:28:04]:

Giving yourself permission to have an end. That's a great piece of advice. I love that.

Charlotte Foster [00:28:11]:

Thank you.

James Bishop [00:28:12]:

If the podcast had a headstone, what would you put on it?

Charlotte Foster [00:28:16]:

What a ride.

James Bishop [00:28:17]:

What a ride. So we've already touched on this, but I think it's probably about time to consider whether the show should be resurrected or whether we're sending it to the podcast Afterlife and Leaving It in the Graveyard, and I think it's got so much potential. I completely understand why You stopped. I understand the credibility thing, the credibility piece of I'm not there. I haven't got my ear to the ground. I'm not following the local news and therefore It's hard to make a show about the local area if I'm not consuming it and being part of it. That's true of any niche or any topic. But at the same time, such a great idea.

James Bishop [00:29:07]:

99 episodes. So much work. You are clearly getting loads of success. If you go and listen to the episodes, they're rich with stuff that's going on in the local area. The 15 minute thing is perfect too because they went so short it was irritating that it's over before it started, but it wasn't a 45 minute conversation with someone rambling on, so it was really great from that perspective. I love the idea of potentially having been a custodian and finding somebody else. Maybe you mentioned TikTok a couple of times. Maybe it's about finding someone on TikTok who's TikToking hard about stoke and wants to become the voice of it, and you act like the producer and they become the host and you figure something out? Or? Yeah.

James Bishop [00:29:50]:

It also feels like it's something that could easily be monetized with local communities and, local businesses. There's Definitely been a shift since you started the show and what podcasting is since, you know, the whole trend that the pandemic caused in podcasting means that it's much more widely and commonly recognized, which means I think you would probably open up lots of new conversations about a podcast in the local community. So it does seem a real shame for it to to be killed off. Not that I'm pushing you towards resurrection, but I can totally see how it doesn't need to belong to the underworld just yet.

Charlotte Foster [00:30:29]:

No. I don't think it's I doubt it deserves to go to the underworld. I think it needs to be I think it needs to be brought back in some way, shape, or form.

James Bishop [00:30:34]:

No pressure.

Charlotte Foster [00:30:35]:

No pressure.

James Bishop [00:30:36]:

Amazing. It's a great idea. So hopefully talking about the podcast on this episode and giving it sort of a memorial has been both emotional, but maybe inspirational too.

Charlotte Foster [00:30:49]:

I'm genuinely leaving it inspired and motivated, as you've just said, to to do something about it, whether that And I've I've just had an idea about what I could do, actually, with someone that I have a connection with in Stoke and work with young people in Stoke.

James Bishop [00:31:04]:

And And I

Charlotte Foster [00:31:04]:

was like, oh, we could get a little workshop going, and they could create and they could get young people to do it. I say young people. Like, I was such an old person. But get some teenagers working on it and just get some bit some of that going maybe.

James Bishop [00:31:17]:

That sounds amazing too. I actually love that idea. I'm sure there's all sorts you could do. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me for a send off for Cultural Quarter of an Hour. Although I feel like it might not be the last we've heard of it.

Charlotte Foster [00:31:34]:

Thank you.

James Bishop [00:31:39]:

I don't know about you, dear listeners, but I sense a resurrection on the Cards for Cultural Quarter of an Hour. So keep an eye out for its return. Let's take a moment to reflect on the lessons from today's service. Number 1. Choose a release schedule that works for you. So many times on Podcast Graveyard, we hear that committing to a weekly episode schedule eventually becomes The Straw That Breaks the Camel's Back. The workload becomes overwhelming and the podcast crashes and burns along with its creator. While consistency is important, You can be flexible with regularity of release.

James Bishop [00:32:11]:

And if once a week proves untenable, consider bi monthly or once a month. Just be sure to choose a release schedule that is Aynable, and you can be consistent with. Number 2. Think about how things will end. Even though there are hugely successful podcasters who are on episode owed 3,000 or more. That doesn't mean you have to be. You're free to see your podcast as a body of work, just like the great TV shows that have a set number of seasons and then end. Knowing when and why your podcast will end can help give it a sense of purpose and direction.

James Bishop [00:32:44]:

And stop it from feeling like a burden. And last but not least, a podcast is one of the best vehicles to build a personal brand. It's about to be 2024, and the value of so called personal branding continues to carry a lot of weight. A podcast allows you to build a deep and meaningful connection with your audience. Helping you win their trust and thereafter turn them into your community. Charlotte went from being a kid who struggled to draw to being a non exec director of an art space CIC. She was also part of Stoke on Trent's cultural forum and got access to many influential opportunities, all as a result of the podcast. So even if the podcast didn't last many of the benefits certainly have.

James Bishop [00:33:28]:

At the last service We were haunted by Casey Hayes, host of the show Give It A Rest. Casey shared her struggle of maintaining an ongoing narrative with her podcast. How she underestimated the beast that is podcasting. And we discuss whether podcasting was even the right format for her to begin with. It's a fascinating memorial. Go have a listen. Next time, we're conducting a memorial for On the Left Side. It's ghost, Jim Salvason will talk about playing with the podcast format, learning to trust your team, and considering your own footprint.

James Bishop [00:34:00]:

Make sure you're there. It's a great memorial. As we bring this service to a close, we ask you to please pay your respects by recommending this episode to someone you think will find it And if you or someone you know has a podcast that's been laid to rest and would like to give it a proper send off, we'd love to have you on. Please email us at podcastgraveyard@onefineplay.com. A quick thank you to those who that helped make today's service possible. Kasar Faroozia was the producer and editor. Connor Foley was our assistant producer. And Selena Christofides Put together the visuals.

James Bishop [00:34:39]:

Special thanks go to Andrew Davey for the inspiration. In parting, let us not dwell on the darkness of moment. But instead, let us focus on the light that cultural quarter of an hour brought into our lives. Its memory will forever be a guiding star leading us through the night. I'm James Bishop, and this is Podcast Graveyard.