Jeff Vidler: "Retired"

It was announced at Podcast Movement last year that Paul Riismandel would be taking over as President of Signal Hill Insights and Jeff Vidler would be stepping back from day-to-day duties, and segueing towards retirement. The same way a musician never stops being a musician, and a writer never stops being a writer; researchers may stop doing working for research companies, but their minds never stop asking questions. I've known Jeff for so long that I don't think he will ever stop wondering why something in audio is the way it is.

Jeff has been on the show a number of times before to discuss much of what he researches. But we have never started from the beginning. Until now. We covered his career through research, radio and podcasting. Starting in the 1980s, Vidler worked at various radio stations, including CKDA and CJAY 92 in Calgary. He transitioned to Joint Communications as a music director, where he helped shape radio formats. He then moved to CJFM in Montreal, improving ratings and rebranding the station to Mix96. He later founded Audience Insights and later Signal Hill Insights.

And yes we spook a fair bit about the future too, highlighting the importance of YouTube for podcast discovery and the challenges faced by Canadian podcasters due to smaller advertising budgets. We didn't solve every problem, but we solved a few.

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