The Shadows is the name of the new project from Kaitlin Prest and the CBC in Canada and the audience at Radiodays Europe heard it first!
How does a public broadcaster open up to the way Canada look today, CBC wants to reflect the country.
Risk and Creativity in the New Golden Age of Audio: CBC's new fiction project w Kaitlin Prest was the name of the title which was presented by Kaitlin Prest (Artist, Performer and Creator of the Heart podcast, USA) & Leslie Merklinger (Senior Director of Audio Innovation at CBC, Canada).
Leslie started by saying CBC has a suite of podcasts such as Campus, Missing & Murder, Uncover etc. The remit to Leslie’s team was “Don’t make shows that sound like CBC in your head”, in 3 years the CBC has 13 original podcasts.
Leslie Merklinger took a look at some of the podcasts that the CBC has created. But along with the current projects the CBC wanted to create something new…
Kaitlin Prest is a feminist and host of The Heart podcast on Radiotopia. Kaitlin described how experimentation has molded her style and her podcasts. She described how with Radiotopia came along at the right time and meant no compromise of their Punk sound.
Kaitlin described what happened when the podcast went to the next level of podcasting and the problem of churning out content which was of a higher quality but then not having time to create and experiment. At this point the CBC partnership was created…
“Can the public broadcaster team up with a punk activist and nobody gets hurt”
The PSB is about trust and this cant be risked so impacts all decisions on innovation. On the opposite side Kaitlin Prest also had a reputation and needed to keep her integrity.
So there needs to be risk but also compromise, the first cut of the podcast for CBC from Kaitlin Prest was very provocative. Leslie’s decided that it wouldn’t be something to put on the radio, but that was the point. Authenticity and positivity were one of the key things which made a sensitive subject not a shock piece and there needed to be clear parental advisories on this podcast.
The partnership with a huge institution has allowed Kaitlin to be just the podcaster in stead of being all things to all people which is what an independent has to do.
The Shadows is launched in September 2018! A six part serialized radio drama