End of an Era: eBay Radio Draws to a Close

[MyCottage]

I’m not sure how many forum members have listened to eBay radio over the years, but for those who have, here’s some news,from ebay Radio’s Facebook page:

We announced some important news on the show today. Lee is retiring from full time radio and will be leaving eBay Radio as of the last broadcast of the show at eBay Open on Thursday, July 26. That will be our last live broadcast of eBay Radio is its current format.

Starting the week after eBay Open, eBay Radio will resume in its new download format as a pre-recorded pod cast. We’ll talk about the details of the new format during the month of July’s broadcasts but to answer three questions that have popped up already: There will be a Community page for the podcast format show and it will contain a chat area. There will be a call in segment (more details on that in the coming weeks). The show will be called eBay Radio for at least the short term. That name may change later.

Working with Lee for the last 15 years has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. We have had a lot of laughs of course but most of all, she has taught me all I know about being a broadcaster. Her knowledge and expertise and her amazing on air voice and personality have been a invaluable. When she told me last year that she wanted to retire in 2018, I was crestfallen, to say the least. I couldn’t face trying to replace her (impossible) and her team (doubly impossible!) and I definitely have never wanted or enjoyed doing the show alone. So after some deliberation with our Community Team, we decided to change the format to a podcast show and to involve our Community team along with Audrey Tracey, to create a new weekly format.

The new shows will drop every Tuesday on both the eBay Radio page on Community as well as iTunes and Spotify. Again, more details to come during the July broadcasts on the current show.

I want to personally thank Lee and her husband John Sell (our engineer) for their contributions to the show over the last 15 years as well as the amazing production team that she assembled for supporting the show: Ebetsy Monjott, Carolyn Cj Jacinto, Donna Freher-Lyons, Melissa DeMille, and Frank Ceasar Csaszar. You guys were and are and will always be, amazing. Thank you.

Jim “Griff” Griffith

[Jay]

I think its a good change moving to podcasts. Hopefully they will move away from the radio format with the frequent ad spots. A good solid, edited hour show will be much better than the current current 4-hour live show with all the advertisements.

[bcfol440]

The “radio” part I don’t get. Why have ad breaks? It’s frickin’ ebay, that IS the ad. Looking forward to seeing what is ahead.

[MyCottage]

I think , at least for quite some time, and maybe still today, it was actually independent of ebay and received no funding from ebay, so the ads paid for the studio time etc.

[Steven S]

Sorry but I won’t miss it.
I listened to it a few times in 2013 then heard Ryannes interview and switched to the SL podcast and could never get through another one of their shows as the ad breaks and the non information doled out weren’t worth the effort.

[Retro Treasures WV]

I’ll at least give it a try once it is in podcast form. I’ve never had any desire to listen to the radio show.

[T-Satt]

Not surprised. Sometimes some good info, but too much fluff.

I still listen, but on 1.5x or 2x speed…

[Jay]

Since Griff is an eBay employee with access to all the departments, he should just make it a call-in show where he solves problems publicly. I bet many sellers have similar issues, so doing it in the open would avoid all the calls they get.

[T-Satt]

Good idea. Since it is a Podcast format, he can have people send him their issues, he takes the most popular, and answers them in the Cast…

[MyCottage]

Jay, You’re pretty much describing the Thursday radio show….Tuesdays the show features guests speaking on various topics with some call ins, but Thursday’s show has always been devoted to call ins. Not sure it cuts down too heavily on CS calls, because most people who call CS probably never listen to the show.

I’m not sure the podcasts will be designed to answer call in type questions, I suspect they will more likely center around a guest and a particular topic.

But that’s just a guess.

[Jay]

Huh, I guess this demonstrates that I haven’t listened in a while. As soon as those AM radio ads started playing, I tuned out.

It is weird that eBay doesnt just self-produce his show so they dont have to do ads. Griff already makes a salary (right?), so the technical aspect of producing a podcast is minimal.

[MyCottage]

I almost never listen live. You can select segments to listen to later, and if you download those you can pretty much skip through the commercials.

Once they start the podcast, I’m pretty sure that will all be in house, so I’m guessing no ads….probably more like their Facebook videos…

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