On Air Fest Continues To Push Audio Boundaries This Week

On Air Fest is a yearly multi-day event celebrating the world of audio creation that takes place in the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn (and also sometimes in L.A.). But, if you want to know what On Air Fest is, or more precisely, aims to be about, the silent, sepia-toned video collage on their website will lead you into the feeling that they aim to cultivate and continue to mine to lead to deeper and deeper revelation. The On Air Fest is an intimate venue, even in the main performance hall, and the continually on and looping video of people laughing, dancing, cheering, talking, smiling and sharing during performances and life itself is a thing of beauty and a meditation on our shared humanity and of being fully present in the moment and open to new possibilities.

I have experienced all that On Air Fest has to offer twice before and yet each day is full of new possibilities and experiences. It’s a transportive venue that both inspires and delights and those who get to experience it come out transformed.

I spoke to two of the senior creative team members behind it this year, Scott Newman, CEO and founder of On Air Fest and the branding company behind it WorkXWork as well as Jemma Rose Brown, the Director of Programming and Production. Together they laid out the vision for me of their continued experiences.

Scott Newman – We continue to build out community in the entire ecosystem of the space. Hot Pod Summit (is a separate event the day before) caters to executives in the industry, and On Air Fest proper leans into creators and publishers and the art and craft of audio storytelling and personal storytelling and innovating in the medium. Since the beginning we have been firmly committed to the idea that audio is a medium, an art form, and we should treat it like Sundance thinks of film or Tribeca Film Fest or any other big filmic experience. It’s not an advertising inventory platform, it’s a creative medium. We (the audio industry) aren’t in doom or gloom right now. In fact it’s more exciting than ever. If you have something to express as an individual as a publisher, a brand, a duo, whatever you are, you can use audio to express that because it’s intimate, it’s personal, it’s clear, it offers so many opportunities and invites listeners into the theater of the mind.

As I said, every day and experience with On Air Fest is new and they continue to innovate with new approaches.

Scott: For the first time ever we are launching the world’s first podcast fan experience called The Podcast Experience.

The Con (a previous event from 2021 taking place in multiple rooms in the hotel) was a seed for what this is. We feel we have a point of view about the space that is very cultural and really expands beyond the makers and the industry. This will be a consumer facing event that everyone who comes to On Air Fest can go to. We’re taking over the entire 7th floor and each of the suites will be a different room you can step into. Exhibitions and interactive immersive experiences in each of the rooms. With Radiolab, On Being, My Favorite Murder, Object of Sound, and The Heart, each room is wrapped up in a magical sensibility. The hallway will be active and is open to the public, and that’s where we want to plant our flag.

The industry is confused. It thinks there’s only one or two ways to monetize ads or subscriptions but in reality when you have engagement, and we talk about how we’re the most engaged medium, it’s more about branding and some of these ideas are seeds that have infinite scale that create other ways that fans can engage with audio. This is our first time with this, and you will see a lot more of it from us whether we develop full on exhibitions like this or we do more group shows and or we do the thematic things we’re hoping for.

Jemma Rose Brown: It’s all about the programming experience. We’re featuring a live recording with Krista Tippet (On Being) and the guest will be the U.S. surgeon general which will be amazing. He was at the helm of managing the countries pandemic response and the mental health response of the pandemic.

It’s been a new endeavor for us, but it leads from a lot of the thinking that we applied to our programming on the festival stage as well. We work closely with everyone we feature at on air fest and by sitting with the creators and understanding and learning from them – their vision – the feeling that they want to impart to listeners – and less the plot points, and more of what it feels like and what they hope people feel upon listening and how we embody that in the room. It’s been a deeply involved process with each of the room partners when thinking about how we make their shows approachable and fun and interactive without losing the substance of it like you do at other pop up experiences.

We’re working with Kaitlyn of The Heart and her show is about touching the boundaries of human intimacy in a hotel room, and what’s interesting about a hotel room is that you can walk in and feel like it was maid just for you and it’s your private space, but in fact thousands of people have come in. We’re creating a new feeling of up close intimacy. She commissioned a couple to stay in that room for 24 hours and to document everything that happened and edited that down into scenes that you can walk between like a scene by the bed and window and shower.

My Favorite Murder – yes it’s about crime and murder, but it’s also about the connection and relationship of the two hosts and finding something strange like a niche interest as a point of connectivity between two people and bringing that feeling to life with the room that they created the show in originally as well as moments where you can meet other fans of the show who are coming to the experience with different activities and talking to other people in the room in order to play. That really embodies the feeling of the show.

Scott – What would it mean to step inside your phone and look around you at a podcast? These are some of the most creative people in the world, and these are the names that will go down in history as defining this media and moment in culture. At a time when things continue to shift toward short form we sit in a long form medium where people immerse themselves deeply and shower and swim in these ideas and moods and I love it! We sit in contrast to what goes against the grain. We work with brands and influencers in the cultural space and we know how to tell a story in 14 seconds too.

Scott – Each night of the fest we’re looking to put together new surprises.

Why is this an important moment in podcasting?

Jemma: Continuing to center podcasting as an art form is our unspoken mission, and has undergirded our decisions. There are moments in our cultural calendar like the Grammys and we need a moment like that in podcasting which is why we created the Audio Vanguard Award. This year’s award goes to Audie Cornish who has a tremendous creative legacy with CNN and NPR, and we get to do a longform conversation with her at the end

The Podcast Penthouse is another new space for us, on the top floor of the newly renovated Wythe hotel in a Windowed space –

Scott – its where rock stars stay and will be a live taping stage!

In a sense, this is the first ever On Air Fest. There’s never been one like this from creators to publishers to fans to podcast live tapings to thought leadership, we have the most recognized shows on stage like Slow Burn doing a live taping and Normal Gossip and Mo Rocca in conversation with Connor Ratliff from Dead Eyes.

Tickets and a schedule for the event this Friday and Saturday February 25-26 are available here.