It began in June 2019 as a punk-style event for a few invited guests. Today, Podcast roku is the largest Czech event in the podcast world, with tens of thousands of listeners and hundreds of creators taking part. For seven years it has been showcasing the best podcasts and reflecting the state of the podcast scene, but above all it remains a celebration of podcast creators. We talked about the history of Podcast roku with Ondřej Musil.
2019: Podcast Day
“It all started with a grant from the Google Innovation Hub for a spoken-word app, today's Youradio Talk. Podcasts were starting to become a topic and we wanted to introduce them to a wider audience. That is how Podcast Day was created, which a year later became the Podcast roku poll,” recalls Ondřej.
Ondřej admits that the first year was aimed not at the general public but more at media, partners and several invited podcasters, mainly those who won in the poll. The idea came from Lubor Zoufal, then digital director of Active Radio, who now runs all digital at CNC. The goal of Podcast Day was to introduce the podcast format to a wider audience and show that there are quality audio projects here too. “A professional jury awarded podcast creators in five categories in total, and the best podcast of the year was Matematika zločinu,” he recalls. Few would have expected that an event for a few dozen people would grow into the Slavíks of the podcast world.
Podcast roku is a celebration of creators
During Covid, the popularity of podcasts grew, and the contest, now named Podcast roku, gave the chance to vote not only to the jury but also to listeners. Podcasts were no longer just for geeks, and the era of news podcasts such as Vinohradská 12 began, as well as shows about relationships and intimacy, such as Vyhonit ďábla. These two took home the main prizes. A live event was out of the question because of restrictions. “We invited the winners to the radio studio, did a short interview with them and handed over the prizes. It was all quite guerrilla, but it had great energy,” Musil recalls. The prizes came from partner Yankee, mainly microphones, speakers and other equipment. Active Radio added a digital advertising voucher worth CZK 50,000. So even though it was put together in a hurry, it had style and dignity. The scene finally got its own prize.
The turning point came with the third edition and an awards ceremony at the Radlice cultural and sports venue. “We did not know whether anyone would show up. And suddenly it was full. Everyone was excited. That is when we understood that it made sense, that we were at the birth of something big,” says Ondřej. For the first time, the awards took the form of sculptures by designer Lukáš Rejmont.
True crime podcasts moved to the forefront. Opravdové zločiny won the award for the first time, and definitely not the last. Celebrities entered the scene with their own shows, a video boom began, and the first subscription platforms, such as Herohero, appeared.
In 2021 the Podcast roku event was also tied to actor and presenter Lukáš Hejlík, who sat on the jury that year. He then took a few years off, before returning in 2024 as the host of the whole event. “It was a bullseye. He has an overview, knows podcasts and their creators, has an authoritative air. And he works brilliantly with the audience,” says Ondřej. This year, Lukáš Hejlík was also involved in the programme. He had an advisory voice on the definition of categories and on the atmosphere of the evening.
Podcasts are mainstream
By the way, podcasts as a format recently celebrated a round anniversary. In October 2023, 20 years had passed since the very first podcast episode was released. How the experiments of a few enthusiasts became a global phenomenon that transformed the media world is described in our article.
The podcast scene changes every year, and so does the poll itself. The number of voters has hovered around 100,000 over the past three years, and last year the awards ceremony moved to Občanská plovárna and opened to the public. “We did it for ourselves and for the scene at first. Now it is something the entire media market follows, and listeners also want to take part. The podcast scene is growing and we are growing with it,” sums up Ondřej.
*Text reprinted from ceskepodcasty.cz
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