Q And A With The Signal Awards Managing Director About The Future Of The First Year Podcast Awards Platform

The Signal Awards recently announced the finalists of their first year podcast awards that aims to celebrate excellence in podcasting in all its forms from the biggest to the smallest shows. Their founding judges are among the biggest who’s who of podcasting with CEO’s of various companies represented from Lemonada Media, Wonder Media, and Pod People, alongside industry stalwarts like Debbie Millman of Design Matters, and Nikki Silva of the Kitchen Sisters.

Voting is now opened up to the general public in all categories until December 22nd.

We caught up with Managing Director, Deondric Royster, to talk about what he learned, and what he loves about podcasts.

What were the biggest things you learned in your first year with this new company?

Deondric Royster: The podcast community is so vibrant and active that it can be a bit overwhelming. (They had 1700 entries). We were so welcomed and it can be tough to be a new player in a field where people spend so much time on their craft. But everyone bought into it from execution to now. That allows me to open up the playbook to do more things next year.

I was also learning how an award works and taking a more personable approach to get both independents and big studios on the same platform. We need to open up the faq book more, not just about the process, but about what the future of Signal looks like and making sure we have the answers on hand that they need. I want to make sure we have the most balanced and fair award possible.

One of my biggest goals is to lead with more transparency and to incorporate more activity to utilize how ready our podcast community is as a whole. We’d like to have a bigger blogging presence, and to expand on the content available to communicate what we have going on. We also want to build a finalists gallery to highlight each of the finalists.

What were some of the challenges?

Deondric: Learning how to effectively engage with everyone was a big challenge, and the way everyone gravitated to it was such a surprise. I want to communicate more and be more proactive instead of reactive and be more on top of social media. We can only respond to so many questions in one day, and we want to create a podcast of our own where these episodes can live.

What did you do to differentiate yourself from other podcast awards?

Deondric: One of the things I want to do is create more in person events and more community building. Those two things are very important to me because there are a lot of subcommunities in podcasting and we all have different experiences. I’d like to create a happy hour for producers, or virtual events for creators. I want to build people up by creating events and opportunities to grow the brands.

What was the criteria for voting?

Deondric: It was based on the category descriptions themselves. We tried to create the best description for our signal judge academy and have them judge it by the criteria of the description to see what matched the category the best.

How are you preventing robots from voting?

Deondric: We put human experience above everything. Our tech team mitigated robots taking over voting so only a human could enter and all emails are verified by a real person with extensive questions and logins. We try to keep everything as authentic as possible.

What was your first memory of podcasts?

Deondric: The first podcast I can remember was ESPN back in 2010-ish, I’m a sports kind of guy and a lot of their journalists started to expand their coverage to podcasts, and the content they didn’t air on TV would go to audio and those were my favorites.

Do you have a favorite podcast?

Deondric: I try not to have a favorite podcast because every podcast offers its own unique learning experience, so I try to approach each listening experience as such. I think having a favorite would hinder me from listening to the vast amount of creativity in the audio universe.

What made you want to work in podcasting?

Deondric: I worked in radio throughout undergrad as an intern, then post college as an on-air talent, producer, and programmer, so naturally I looked at podcasting as an extension of my career. The freedom of being able to control my creativity, own my work, and go at my own pace was one of the most incredible developments in my lifetime, and I was able to make a good living from it. So naturally, I wanted to help mold the landscape and make it accessible for people like myself while increasing representation.

What’s a podcast story that sticks with you?

Deondric: There are so many dope podcast stories that live with me, but the one that comes to mind is the story of Angel Livas. She launched the Alive Podcast Network, the first Black woman owned podcast network. It’s an incredible initiative and an opportunity for upcoming podcasters who aspire to grow their careers and speak without constraints.

Don’t forget to vote for free from now until December 22nd in the first ever Signal Awards!