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StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.
Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.
StoryConnect helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
What do you need to know before starting a podcast?
That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The
StoryConnect Podcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, one of the storytellers at
Pioneer Utility Resources, and I am joined by the amazing Michael
Rovito, deputy director of Alaska Power Association.
Michael, thank you so much for joining me today.
Michael Rovito:
Thanks, Megan. It's always a good time to be on the podcast with
you.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Now you host Alaska Powerline, and that's a podcast that was
launched by your statewide association in 2023.
We've got a lot of utility pioneers that are thinking about
starting podcasts too.
So I thought I would start with a really tough question for you,
Michael.
I've known you for a while. I figure I can do this.
How do you feel about the sound of your voice?
Michael Rovito:
Well, you know, there's been a long history of me liking the
sound of my own voice, so I think this was probably a natural
progression.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Really?
Michael Rovito:
Yeah. If you talk to my parents from when I was a kid, my dad
used to call it dinner theater that I would put on.
And so I was actually one of those people who were like, talk
all day on a microphone.
Yes, do it. Give it to me.
So it was kind of a natural progression for me.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I'm wondering, should a host or a guest sound a certain way?
Do you need a certain sound to be able to be a podcast host?
Michael Rovito:
I don't think so. I mean, you know, some people have those like
natural podcasting voices or even radio voices.
But I think, you know, I mean, I listen to – I have a long drive
to work.
I live an hour away from our office.
And the days I come into the office, I listen to a lot of
different podcasts on my own time.
And, you know, I think, I've not ever met a podcast where I'm
like, Oh, I've got to turn this off.
Their voice is horrible. I think everyone has their own kind of
voice.
I will say, though, I think I speak differently when I'm doing
this than if I was in a normal conversation.
I feel like I consciously force myself to speak clearer, even
though I just tripped over the word narcissistic a few minutes
ago or a few seconds ago.
But it's interesting because like, I have a friend – who's been
my friend for a long time – who was a TV newscaster for a
long time. And when I talk to him, just like buddy to buddy, you
know, at a restaurant or just hanging out, it was a completely
different guy than who was doing the newscaster voice.
And so I think you kind of find your voice eventually.
And I will say for people who are just getting into it, I bought
one of these fancy microphones.
Mine's a Shure MV7 and combined with the headphone, it really
makes your voice sound kind of different.
It kind of gets you into like the podcasting mood.
Like you feel official.
You feel like you're almost like in the studio, so to speak, and
you're broadcasting to the world.
And I think that really helps you find your voice.
And so it's, you know, I mean, I don't think there is a
particular voice for podcasting, but I think everyone can find
theirs once they get into doing it.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
You mentioned that you have that long, gorgeous drive to work, I
should say.
I have driven between Anchorage and your hometown, right?
It's beautiful out there.
What turns you off?
Like, what will you hear in a podcast, and you just turn it off
and switch to something else?
Michael Rovito:
Well, I'd say, you know, I mean, on the personal level, a lot of
the podcasts I listen to are political in nature.
I mean, I'm a registered lobbyist in the state of Alaska.
It's what I also do for APA, is do lobbying down in Juneau.
And so a lot of it's political.
I think repetition is often – if there's a topic that I've heard
over and over again or something that I already
know.
I tend to listen to podcasts that don't focus necessarily on the
news of the day, as it were.
Maybe they take a deeper dive into something that had already
happened, or another look at what have already happened.
But I will say that, but more importantly, occasionally there's
a podcast where either the guest
or the host clearly doesn't know the subject they're talking
about.
And I mean, I won't call out any particular podcast because I'm
sure their subscriber numbers far exceed mine.
But there has been podcasts in the past where I was listening to
an interview and, and I was like, you know, this person does not
sound like they really know what they're talking about.
I think I'm going to look for something else to listen to.
And that's kind of a turn off to me to listen to somebody.
Because, you know, I want to hear from an expert on a topic, and
everyone's idea of an expert is different.
But my idea is kind of, you know, an authoritative way of
speaking about a subject.
And I was actually just listening to an interview this morning.
I was streaming NPR here on my computer, and they were talking
about an issue.
And the person they were interviewing was really kind of
stammering.
And they didn't have really any idea, it seemed, what they were
talking about.
So I was like ehh. This isn't something I'm really into.
So I think if the the topic or the interviewee or interviewer
seems a little out of their depth, I tend to go away from it.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Well, and I think that comes back to if utility pioneers
are thinking about starting a podcast, you really have to be
clear on the goal of your content and making sure that it's the
right place for you to share your story.
Right? How is this going to meet some communication need that
you have?
Don't just be there because you think you have to.
You don't want to waste someone's time if you are not an expert
on something that you're talking about.
It all plays into your strategy.
So I'm curious what communication needs does Alaska Powerline,
your podcast, solve for your
association?
Michael Rovito:
Yeah, and that was one of the main drivers of putting together
the podcast was, you know, we thought, what is the general
public, and to an extent lawmakers and other policymakers, you
know, what do they really need to know about
the operations and business of providing safe, reliable and
affordable electric power?
And, you know, we know that.
I mean, people have various levels of knowledge about what
happens, but generally people are flipping the switch and just
kind of going on with their lives.
And we thought, what's a way, a good medium that we could really
explain to folks in an accessible way, you know, different
aspects of providing power in Alaska.
I mean, it's a challenging environment.
It's a unique environment up here.
But there's all these different parts and pieces of doing what
our members do every single day.
And so we focused on new technology.
Our very first podcast episode looked at Copper Valley Electric
Association was looking at integrating potentially a micro
nuclear reactor into their generation system.
And so we had their CEO come on and talk about why they were
looking at this, what need it would fulfill, what were the
challenges. And that's something that, you know, I think if you
remember the public, you might maybe read an article about it,
but you're not really hearing from, you know, an in-depth
conversation from the source.
We've looked at rural and urban energy in Alaska.
So our communication need was how do we reach a broad spectrum
of the public in
Alaska in a cost effective way?
Because I mean, it costs some money to put together a podcast,
but really the bang for your buck is huge.
I mean, once it's out there on that platform, it's accessible
all over the world.
I mean, my parents live in Ohio, and they listen to me.
They might be my number one fans.
And so it's just, it goes everywhere.
And so that was easier for us than to try to cultivate a social
media following or try to put out press releases or spend the
time to go, you know, try to get an interview with a newspaper
or a reporter or something like that.
It was like, well, let's just put this medium out there.
I know it from experience that I spend an hour of my truck every
day or two hours technically, down and back, listening to
podcasts. And it's a captive audience.
And so let's tell them what we want to tell them about power
production in Alaska.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, well, along those lines, too, who is your audience?
Do you have a couple different groups?
Or because you mentioned that the association, you do a lot of
lobbying for them, so are you looking at lawmakers?
Are you looking at the end of the line consumers for all the
different utilities in Alaska?
Michael Rovito:
I think all of the above, but I think I've identified two
audiences so far that we've received feedback from.
One is either folks who are in our industry in the power, you
know, the electric utility industry or adjacent to it, i
f they're working at an engineering firms or maybe some sort of
consultancy that might work with electric utilities.
Or we have some folks in Alaska that are interested in other
aspects of electric energy.
And then the other side is general public that has either
happened upon our podcast, or we do promote it all over the
place, that are learning new things.
And you know, every now and then we'll get some feedback from
somebody who might say, Hey, I listen to your podcast about
electric vehicles in Alaska, and I had no clue that, you know,
the electric utilities were taking these steps toward integrating
the technology and the other resources needed for that, and
that's really encouraging to me.
And so I think at this point, you know, we've done four
episodes.
We're recording episode five and six next week to come out in
the future.
I think those are our two most viable audiences right now that
have given us feedback.
But definitely our aim is for everybody in the state, no matter
what they do to listen to it and just to get
some some great information from us that they might not get
elsewhere.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
So going off of that, how do you plan your episodes and your
guests?
You've got two episodes that you're going to record next week.
Generally, your episodes come out once a month, I believe, is
the frequency that you all have.
Michael Rovito:
That's right.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Do you have an editorial calendar for the year that you're
working off of?
And how far ahead are you working, and how do you pick which
voices and issues in Alaska to feature?
Michael Rovito:
Yeah. So it's kind of a hybrid approach.
We did put together an editorial calendar, so to speak, where
APA's executive director, Crystal Enkvist, and I sat down before
this year started when we knew we were going to start
podcasting, and we set out 12 topics that we wanted to address.
And we looked at this from a statewide perspective because
there's a lot of
similarity in Alaska with the challenges and opportunities.
But then there's a lot of difference between very rural places
in Alaska and more urban places on the Railbelt of Alaska, for
instance. And so we generally have kept somewhat close to the
editorial calendar, so to speak.
But I mentioned a hybrid approach because sometimes we end up
hearing about things and we're fortunate to be in our position as
the statewide and that we communicate with our members all over
the state all the time.
And so we hear about stuff going on and sometimes something
comes across our email or somebody tells us and we're like, you
know what? That'd be a great podcast episode.
We should, we should work that in.
And so, so far we've done pretty well on keeping to that goal of
having a wide variety of topics.
Next week, we're going to look at, well, the next two podcasts
will be kind of interesting, and they're on the calendar.
One is electric utility right of ways.
Right. A lot of folks, we find, are kind of, you know, maybe not
as informed about the who, the what, and the whys
about right of ways for electric utilities.
How do you clear them?
How do you decide where they go?
Things along those lines. So we're going to take a dive in,
accessible, deep dive into the kind of theory of right of ways in
Alaska and how they work. And then we're going to look at
Kotzebue Electric Association, which is integrating lots of solar
and wind in the Arctic, and it's working.
And so we're going to highlight some of their projects.
And that's just something we knew about just from being, you
know, the statewide and keeping up with what's going on across
the state.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, I love that.
What kind of time goes into each episode for you?
Like figuring out who you're going to talk to, maybe drafting
out some questions beforehand and then getting it out there?
Michael Rovito:
I would say for me, it's not a huge time commitment.
Luckily, we have the fine folks at Pioneer Utility Resources
that are doing this podcasting backend stuff, so to speak, for
us. And so the way that I typically do it is if I have a topic,
for instance, I'll sit here, and I'll think about, you know, who
in our membership or who do I know in the state that might be
the best to interview on this?
And then I'll talk to Crystal, my boss, and say, "What do you
think about this?" I'll kind of bounce an idea off of her, and if
she says, "Yeah, that's a great idea," I'll contact the person.
I'll set it up, and then I'll spend, you know, some time, maybe
20-30 minutes well before I record thinking about what would I
like to address in this podcast?
And how do I want to go about structuring this interview wo that
I don't go into it blind and just, you know, stammer myself and
kind of, you know, have a lot of awkward dead air, which is like
the worst thing to have on a podcast during the interview.
And so I will write out some topics for myself, and then I'll
send them to the person that I'm interviewing.
I'll say, "Hey, here's what I'm thinking.
Here's what I like to talk to you about, and is there anything
else that we should talk about?
Or is one of these topics kind of not really applicable to this
or appropriate for this conversation?" And a lot of times I'll
get feedback from the person I'm interviewing, they might say,
"This is great.
I'll be prepared." Or they'll say, "You know, you might want to
think about this and add that in there." And I say, "Okay." And
then when I actually record the podcast, ours are 30 minute
episodes, but I do book one-hour because generally, you know, you
do some before you record, you kind of talk.
You know, it's a lot mostly friendly banter back and forth, you
know, how's the weather and that.
But then we prepare them again.
We say, "Okay, here's what I'm going to do." I'll walk through.
I'm going to hit record. I'm going to give my intro, and then
we're off to the races.
And then we start recording.
And I got my little timer so that I don't exceed 30 minutes by
too long.
And then we'll wrap it up, and we'll kind of just fall into a
conversation.
And I have my list of topics up on my screen, and I make sure I
reference them.
Or if somehow the, you know, the conversation is starting to run
a little slow, I'll be able to go grab that topic list and be
able to address, you know, another topic.
But sometimes, quite frankly, we just go off the cuff and none of
the topics go in order, and we just start having a great
conversation about something.
And it's just like the list is out the window, and that's fine.
It works. We're jiving together, and we're just talking and
talking.
And then after that, it's real simple.
Pioneer has set up a great, easy way for me to drop the file
into a what's it called, like a D
ropbox, I think.
I'm talking like a guy who doesn't know tech here.
And Pioneer takes care of the rest, and then they do send it back
to me before it ever goes out live.
And I listen to it.
I have Crystal, my boss listen to it, and then I do send it to
the person I interviewed and I say, "Please listen to this, and
let me know if there's anything in here that needs to be changed
." Or if we had, you know, said something incorrect or whatever.
I've never had anybody say, "I don't like this," or anything
like that.
They're always like, "This is great." And then it gets uploaded
on all the various podcasting platforms, and we are sitting here
watching our like count just tick up and up and up.
And that's what we do.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
You don't watch that all day?
Michael Rovito:
No, just half the day only.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Good, it's good to, yeah.
So you mentioned advertising, telling folks about podcasting.
How are you getting the word out about Alaska Powerline?
Michael Rovito:
Well, Facebook is a big part of it.
You know, every time that we put an episode up.
APA has a Facebook page.
It's the only social media that we take part in.
And so we do pump it up on Facebook.
And then, of course, we let our members know about it through
our normal channels.
Maybe it's emailing them.
Crystal does have an executive director's memo that goes out.
We'll mention it in various other ways to our membership.
And then, you know, if we're in, a lot of it's become word of
mouth too, where we'll say, "Hey, did you know we have a
podcast?" And now we've also gotten to the point where I'm
finding, occasionally, other people are advertising for us.
They're saying to me, "Hey, I told my colleague, you should
listen to this podcast." And I'm like, "Yeah, thanks.
You've done my work for me," essentially.
And so I think a lot of it is just getting out there.
You know, we're hoping that people will like and subscribe and
move us up higher in the the podcast list as it is.
And so I think that's where we go for now.
You know, if anyone out there has any ideas on podcast land
about how best to get your podcast to more ears, we'd be happy to
hear that and, and take that advice to.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, we are working on an ebook about examples of what folks are
doing to get their podcasts out there.
So we will definitely include examples of how folks are
publicizing their efforts.
I like the whole friends of the pod idea.
I think we all need some pod friends out there, and not just in
the 2020 meaning of
having a pod as well.
Now you publish your content.
I mean, one of the easy ways to get to it, of course, is just to
go to AlaskaPower.org.
And there's a list of all the different places where you publish
Alaska Powerline.
But you publish it on Spotify, which is where I follow you.
Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Deezer,
Player.fm.
There might be more.
I don't know. There's a lot of different platforms that – it's
hard to kind of track across all of that.
So I'm curious, how do you measure the success of your podcast
content, and is it worth the time?
Michael Rovito:
Yeah. Well, first, Megan, let me thank you for following us.
It's an honor to have you listening to us every day, and it's
making me like ten times more nervous to make these podcasts now
because someone like you is listening.
But you're right, we're out there everywhere.
I think I measure success in two ways.
I mean, there's the counts like the listener count, which I do
ask for those numbers.
And we have seen more listenership, if that's the right word, as
we've put
these out there.
I think that's a measure of success.
I think another measure of success, I can't quite measure yet,
and I think that's going to be, will people
either mention this podcast to us that they've heard it or
mentioned that they've learned something from it to us?
Or will it become something that is looked upon by people as a
source
of information about our industry?
And I don't quite know how to rate that yet, but I think we will
over time.
I think the more we do these and the more feedback we get on
them, we can kind of see what the success is on that.
But after four episodes, I'm not sure I can quite – I mean, I
know that our listener numbers have gone up in each episode.
It seems like has more listeners than the last one.
So I think that from a numerical standpoint is a good rate of
success.
But I think, down the line, I'd like to look at how is the
information that's coming out on this podcast kind of seeping
into the public. You know, are more people better informed?
That might not be something that we can really measure somehow
statistically.
I think it's going to be anecdotally out there.
But I like to think any time we get information out to the
public about what our electric utility members are doing, it's a
success all around. Even if only two people listen to an
episode, if they've learned something, maybe in casual
conversation down the line, they're going to say, "You know what
I heard on this podcast?
This is how our electric energy is generated, and this is why it
is what it is." I think that will be a success.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Nice and speaking to that as well.
You mentioned earlier you are getting feedback from members
about the podcast.
What are they saying?
What kind of feedback are you all hearing?
Michael Rovito:
I think one of the greatest compliments I received was, it was
from somebody who is not an employee of an electric utility, but
works for an organization that often works with electric
utilities.
And he said to me, "This state has needed a podcast like this
for a really long time." And I thought, that makes
everything worth it. And he just said, "You know, there's so
much that your members do.
Your electric utility members do.
That is so hard for the public to understand unless they're told
about what's going on." And, you know, you know, as well as I do,
I think electric utilities are very hesitant to toot their own
horns because they're just going there to work, keep the power
on, make sure it's safe and reliable.
They're not really focusing on saying, "Look how great we are.
Look what a great job we did." But they do these great jobs every
single day.
And I think it's important that people know about how – I mean,
electricity is the cornerstone of
everything. It's the cornerstone of the economy.
It's the cornerstone of our lives.
I mean, you and I could not be talking right now without
electricity.
And so it's a good way.
It's time for this information to get out to the public because
they need to make decisions, too.
We're in a transitioning electric energy world.
And, you know, the consumer has a lot more decisions to make and
a lot more involvement to have.
And so that sort of feedback about the state needing something
like this is really great.
And then we also hear, I have heard occasionally feedback from
someone who's been on the podcast to say, you know, they say,
"Hey," people have talked to me about, "Hey, great, great job on
that podcast.
That was awesome. I didn't know what you were talking about.
It was great. It was new information to me." And I thought, if
our guests are getting compliments for their appearances, that's
a compliment to our podcast as well.
So everyone wins in that situation.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Love it. Well, one last question before I let you go, Michael.
What tips would you give anyone who has never hosted a podcast
before, and they're getting ready
. They're going to do it.
Michael Rovito:
Yeah, I would say, first of all, listen to a lot of podcasts.
I mean, if you're a writer or you're a photographer, they say,
you know, view your craft, right?
I mean, I also like to write, so I love to read.
And you read people, and you're not stealing how they're doing
it, but you're admiring and acquiring, right?
You're getting influence. And so, I mean, I say listen to a
variety of podcasts and listen to how those folks do their
podcasts. And listen to what you like and what you don't like.
I mean, there's some podcasts I've heard in the past, and I
hadn't really liked the format that they did on their podcast.
I would say take some money and invest in a good microphone and
a good system in which to record it,
because so many times you might hear a lot of background noise
on some podcasts.
You want it to be professional.
Just like everything we do, it needs to sound good.
You want people to hear it and say, "You know, this was pleasing
to my ears.
I want to come back again." So listen to other podcasts.
Invest in the technology.
And then really think about, I think like you mentioned earlier
in this interview, why you want to do this podcast, right?
What information do you want to get out?
And that core purpose will really drive everything you do.
And so if you want to have like, say, like a safety oriented
podcast, what is your overall safety message, and how do you find
those people that can help you succeed in what you're trying to
do with your podcast?
That's just one example.
And also, you know, pull in other folks in your utility or your
organization and get them invested in the podcast.
Tell them what you're doing.
Make them your kind of chief marketers as well.
Say, "Hey, tell your friends.
Tell your family. Put this out on your social media.
Give me ideas." I mean, podcast hosts are almost infallible, but
we're not all the way full of great ideas.
So look for other ideas within your organization.
Involve people in the planning process.
And I think the last thing I would say is have fun with it.
I mean, you know, that's one of the things I love to do when I
do a podcast is just, you know, it's like talking to a friend.
We're having fun.
You know, we're not going to take it too seriously.
If you can work in a good joke or two there, everyone likes a
little bit of humor every once in a while.
But make it something that's fun.
Because if you're having fun in your podcast, I think people are
going to have fun listening to it too.
And you know, what we do in our business is serious in a lot of
respects, but you can kind of, you can bring it around to a nice,
easy way to listen to with some fun and a little bit of
happiness in there, too.
So if you put all those things together, put it in the podcast
pot, you'll stir yourself up a great recipe for success.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Wow. Wow.
That, that, what a beautiful way to bring it all together,
Michael.
And now I'm hungry.
Michael Rovito:
There you go.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
But thank you so much for sharing your story with utility
pioneers.
He is Michael Rovito, the deputy director of Alaska Power
Association.
And I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, at Pioneer Utility
Resources.
And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.
StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.