Welcome to the latest edition of #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio! My guest today is Marlies Hartendorf, Head of Content at Qmusic. In 2022, we were co-panelists on a RDE session about "Bridging in Action". Not only are her tales of creating new story telling formats fun to listen to, but Marlies also puts audio at the core. For her success is depending on how individual skillsets (broadcast/on-demand) form a great team. Marlies joined the RDE program team for the 2024 edition and I am looking forward to the sessions she is planning.

I hesitated a little bit with Oliver's testimonial, as it might encourage you to quit your job immediately and apply at Antenne Bayern. ;-) Oliver's contribution is a good example of #workingtogether between different skillsets, namely enhancing creativity through technology. By cooperating with his customers, the journalists, he helps them at being best at their job and you can hear his satisfaction when this is done successfully. Oliver also likes that due to technological advancements there are constantly new challenges in his job. Thank you for sharing your love of the industry and your colleagues with us!

Please welcome Simon Gooch to the latest episode of #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio. He crossed bridges not once but twice, as he migrated from the UK to Sweden and also from private radio to the public radio space. Not sure which one was the bigger move though :-). In my view people like Simon, who have the experience of living in different cultures, are key for the evolution of our industry. When Simon and I met for the first time in - I think - 2016, he already was pioneering a more integrated approach to audio and breaking down barriers between broadcast and digital. Our conversations from back then still hold up today. At Sveriges Radio he currently serves as the Head of P3 and is responsible for SR's music strategy. We share a love for music and when we find the time, we go record shopping together during #Radiodays Europe. Thank you Simon for your testimonial and I'm counting on keeping up our vinyl tradition in Munich at #RDE2024 (I know one or two good record shops there).

Our final "Student September" contribution of #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio comes from Tien Thuy Dao Nguyen, who studies Computer Science in the Master program of TU München and works as a Web Developer at DAVID Systems. For her it is interesting to understand how technology contributes to the evolution of a medium like audio and how it can advance other fields like entertainment, education and science. Thank you Tien for sharing your thoughts and deciding to apply your technological skillset in the audio industry. Before leaving the student realm next week, I wanted to share some final thoughts on "Student September": We had 5 contributions and my guests represent five different nationalities from three continents. Four guests are working in technology, one is a content creator. From a gender representation 40% are female, 60% male. While this data is non-representative of course, I truly believe that diversity is key for audio to remain competitive and exciting. Language in itself can be a divisive factor in our ability to communicate with each other. If we can find a common language and can contribute to our environment with our individual strengths and differences, our future will be golden.

I proudly present to you the 4th edition of Student September at #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio. Today, Elijon is taking us back to his childhood, when technology supported him in following his musical passion. Elijon came to Munich for the Computer Sciences Master Program at TU. As a working student at DAVID he currently helps with improving our UX and he is both fascinated by and concerned about keeping the human sense in the emerging AI topics. Thank you Elijon for your contribution! Next week will be the last episode of Student September, but no matter what your background is - if you love working in the audio industry, please reach out if you want to share your own testimonial.

Student September of #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio is continuing. Today my colleague Wenting Miao is sharing her experiences as a working student. Originally coming from China, she has made her Bachelor in Hungary and now she is in the middle of obtaining a Computer Science Master degree at TU München. She joined DAVID about 9 months ago. One of her core topics is AI and her expertise is helping us with integrating AI services with audio production workflows. She recently achieved a big step: it is now possible to use a locally hosted open source solution for transcribing audio. These automated transcripts can be used to edit the audio in a later step. While the concept has been around for a while, with Wenting’s contribution, the transcription comes at no extra cost (other than hardware and electricity). She also enjoys creating content and she is using software from DAVID for her productions. Wenting, thank you for being on the show and for enriching our industry with your ideas and spirit!

As the second Student September contribution please welcome Julius Peter to #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio. Julius is exercising his cross-media skills at Mediaschool Bayern where he is creating a multitude of different formats and shows. While he does not have an exclusive relationship to audio (who does nowadays anyway?), he loves the speed and simplicity of audio productions compared to other forms of media. Mediaschool is a perfect training ground for young media talents – many years ago it enabled me to get involved in content production (despite studying Electrical Engineering). Thank you Julius for sharing your experience and thank you to my new colleague Ismael Lo for producing it.

#WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio is not only about highlighting the different aspects of our industry. Attracting new talents and ideas is vital for our future. That is why I'm declaring this month "Student September". Today's testimonial comes from my colleague Christian Vargas, who lives a hybrid life as a computer science student and as a working student. He finds this way of working complementing, as he can apply his university knowledge in a business environment and he gets new inspiration from his colleagues and customers. And he finds connection to his home Columbia through music. I'm very glad that we have talents like Christian in our team and I hope that others will follow his example to work in audio!

Caroline Jamet, my guest in this week's #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio manages the French speaking audio business of Radio Canada. At our first (virtual) meeting I was immediately taken away by her optimism on the future of the audio industry, which you also will hear of in her testimonial. She keeps an open mind for new people, ideas and concepts - and despite not being familiar with the term #Briding broadcast and digital, I was able to convince her join a panel on the topic for Radiodays Europe in Prague - and also to contribute to this series. Thank you so much Caroline and I hope we will meet again soon.

For this episode of #WhyWeLoveWorkinginAudio I kindly ask you to take time. Not only because my guest Nora Hespers is active in so many different areas, but because for her audio has the ability to approach complex topics by taking the time to work through them. Thanks to Nora I started to realize more about the cultural differences between podcasts and broadcast radio, especially after listening to her first personal audio project called "Die Anachronistin". The way she is re-telling the story of her grandfather who was persecuted and murdered by the Nazi-Regime is unique. It is an uncomfortable story but an essential one and every time a new episode comes out, I simultaneously look forward to it and dread it. If you speak German, you need to listen to this. On top of that, Nora actively advocates for females voices to be heard in public - an issue that we are suffering from especially on the tech side of audio. You can find "Die Anachronistin" here: https://www.die-anachronistin.de/ Thank you Nora, for your important work and for connecting people to make our society more diverse.

On todays episode of #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio we dive into a new niche within our niche. My guest Max shows how the medium can serve as a lean and sustainable form of communication inside (non-audio) corporations. Before I met Max, I never considered that concept and maybe that's why Max runs a Startup and I don't. Hype1000 was born combining by personal passion for podcasts with experience in big organizations. Thanks to LinkedIn, Max and I bumped into each other and our companies have been exploring a technology partnership since then. Max's view on "Bridging" is therefore quite unique and focused on building networks between companies to benefit from each other's special talents.

Vincent, my guest on this week's #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio, also happens to be my boss at DAVID Systems. In his testimonial he touches fundamental issues, especially how our medium can be a sustainable and credible contributor to society. This is a new angle for this series. And that boss thing might soon be outdated, as Vincent recently has announced to step back as CEO of DAVID by the end of the year. He has launched a public dialogue to find one or more successors. Check his LinkedIn if you want to learn more about the process and the motivation behind it. Thank you Vincent, not only for your contribution, but also for constantly challenging the status quo by looking at things in a different way.

If you meet Jill in person, she will immediately capture you with her energy and enthusiasm. Back in 2017 she founded Bear Radio, then a Berlin based podcast collaborative for Audio in English, which has now evolved into a podcast agency. One of Jill's motivations is to bring people from "traditional" radio and people from the "new world" together so that both can thrive through diversity. Thank you Jill for your contribution!

Max deeply cares about the audio industry and is full of ideas how to transform it through technology. So it comes as no surprise that we first met during a Hackathon at Radiodays Europe. With his company Konsole Labs he is on the forefront of creating solutions for the ongoing transformation of audio and he is always looking for innovative ways to make it easy for media organizations to connect with their audience. Max, thank you for your contribution to this show but more importantly to our niché and I am looking forward to your next crazy idea(s)!

My guest this week is true Radio(Days) Royalty. Peter Niegel is the General Manager of Radiodays Europe (next to his day job at DR - Danmarks Radio). We spoke briefly at the start of RDE 2023 in Prague. #Bridging is an important topic for both of us, which Peter touches in the testimonial, but I also love his infectious enthusiasm for audio as a medium. Thank you Peter and I am looking forward to Munich (only 260 days to go!)

Today's #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio testimonial comes from Militsa Tekelieva, who brings stories to life by producing podcasts for Pool Artists. She appeared on my radar because of an interview with Bear Radio. A couple of months later we ran into each other at an audio conference, and latest at that moment it was clear to me that she had to be part of this series too. I don't want to spoil too much, but once you catch the audio bug, it might drag you in, even if you started your career in a different field. Thank you Militsa for your wonderful contribution!

This week's #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio features Maciej Szabatowski. We both met at a Polish Student Radio almost 20 years ago and we have stayed in touch since then. Maciej now works as a host and a music journalists and calls himself a "Radiota". In his testimonial he speaks about his early passion for radio (including devices being sacrificed for his curiosity) and the magic of building meaningful connections to the audience, be it through the airwaves or new technologies. Thank you Maciek - both for your friendship and your contribution to this series!

Scoop at #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio! This episode features NETIA's newly appointed Managing Director, Simon Leibovici. He has a background in customer service and audio for him has the value to be both a trusted and reliable medium that also fosters creativity. Simon also speaks about #bridging and hiring #talent. Thanks Simon and all the best in your new role!

Markus's job title roughly translates to Editor-in-Chief of Sound Design and Production. His inner tiger was awakened (you will get this if you speak a bit of German) by the radio jingles he heard in his childhood - and he still remembers them! The way audio can paint pictures in our brains encouraged Markus to pursue a career in audio and landed him at public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk where he uses keyboard and mouse as instruments to capture the minds of his audience. Thank you Markus for your contribution and the Ohrwurm 😁.

In this week's #WhyWeLoveWorkingInAudio episode Jerzy Listwan shares how his passion for ham radio has evolved into a professional career in Radio and brought him to Studiotech Poland Or to say it in his own words: "Radio is my life!" If you have a ham radio you connect directly with Jurek via: SP6TPY