Anchor adds audio enhancement

• Spotify’s Anchor has added “audio enhancement” to its app. The company says “A single tap can automatically reduce background noise while leveling your voice and bringing it to the forefront.” Alternatives are Auphonic, which is used by a number of podcast hosts, and Descript’s “studio sound”.

  • There’s also a free “speech enhancement” tool currently available from Adobe. (/ht Helene)

• Targetspot has sold its digital audio business to Azerion, a Netherlands-based “high growth digital entertainment and media platform”, for US $30m. Targetspot will retain ownership of Winamp; their adsales business, and streaming company Shoutcast, will be now owned by Azerion.

• A new audio editor, Trebble, is on-sale for a lifetime price of $69 in AppSumo. It lets you edit your audio using the transcription.

• While the UK press will take any opportunity to malign her, it’s worthwhile noting this piece in The Sun, claiming that Meghan Markle speaks more than the guests she’s supposed to be interviewing in her podcast Archetypes.

Yesterday, an unpaid role sneaked in to our jobs section. We are clear that we do not accept unpaid roles, and apologise for its inclusion.

Moves and hires

• Leo Laporte is to retire - from radio. The Tech Guy radio show, which started on KFI-AM in Los Angeles in January 2004 and is carried on over 160 stations, will end on Dec 18.

• Keith Korneluk has been promoted to Head of Podcasts for LA’s Believe Ltd. and BloodStream Media. He’s been with the company since Oct 2021.

• Tina Powell’s C-Suite Media has been acquired by Intentional.ly. She becomes the company’s Chief Growth Officer. Her podcast, In The Suite, gets a special mention in the announcement.

Podcast News - with CBC Podcasts

From CBC Podcasts #6 is: Welcome to Paradise When she was young, Journalist Anna Maria Tremonti married a man who beat her. Working with her therapist, she reveals the intimate details of a dark and secret past. The result is a profoundly intimate portrait of a powerful woman confronting the source of tremendous trauma and freeing herself from a life-long sense of shame.

Kickin’ It With CoolKicks is new from Vocal Podcast Network via Quality Ventures / Quality Control and The Network Advisory. It’s the first of a “series of culture defining podcasts”, we’re told; there are four other titles to come.

It’s 59 years since JFK’s assassination. The HISTORY Channel launches 24 Hours After: The JFK Assassination today, which takes listeners on a deep dive into the immediate aftermath of critical moments that reshaped the world - the show promises to unpack this unforgettable incident with unprecedented detail.

Podcast ads in the wild

Quiet Part Loud, a Spotify/Gimlet podcast, had some digital billboard advertising outside Penn Station.