New city of Las Vegas podcast hits 10 episodes

The city of Las Vegas’ first foray into podcasting has reached a milestone.

Jennifer Davies and Shane Savanapridi are co-producers and co-hosts of TMI, or “Timely Memorable Iconic,” which started in September and has reached 10 episodes and at least 2,000 listeners. The podcast lets them inform residents in a format longer than a 140-character tweet or a one-minute Facebook video, said Davies, the city’s social media manager.

Each episode is about 25 minutes, the average length for successful podcasts, Davies said. Episodes delve into topics such as businesses, recreational marijuana, the Las Vegas wedding industry or whatever the City Council is debating.

In addition to informing residents, Davies said, she and the team of six people making the podcasts want to encourage involvement in local government.

“We really pride ourselves on changing people’s perception,” she said. “Especially in today’s political climate, people feel very disappointed with government. It’s so important at the local level to make sure their voice can be heard.”

Episodes encourage listeners to follow the city on all social media accounts and to send in questions or feedback.

There are about 120 subscribers, Savanapridi said. Unlike for other social media tools, there are no developed analytics for podcasts, meaning the team can’t track how long people listen, where they find the episode or how many times people listen.

The number of listeners continues to grow, he said. The majority of listeners are locals, unlike the tourists who might follow the city’s Facebook page.

“People like visual content, but it’s really hard to get them to listen to something,” Savanapridi said. “We haven’t plateaued so far.”

The most popular episode was about recreational marijuana, featuring pro and con views, he said.

“Drugs is always a big topic that people kind of polarize around,” Savanapridi said.

His favorite episode involved interviewing children about the future of technology, he said. The podcast producers also have visited The Mob Museum, interviewed owners of coffee shops and wedding chapels and talked with city employees about ongoing projects.

“We try to incorporate new voices,” Davies said. “So you’re not hearing just me and Shane the whole time.”

Before this project, neither Davies or Savanapridi had experience in audio journalism, but both have worked in visual formats. Davies helps produce content for the city’s TV channel, KCLV, and for Las Vegas’ Facebook page. Savanapridi had a technical background in TV production.

Because the podcast isn’t their only job, episodes can take weeks to produce and days to edit.

Davies and Savanapridi said the podcast will continue to evolve, along with the rest of the city’s social media outreach, as technology develops.

“In the future, the only thing that we know is that things will always be changing,” Davies said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.