Business View Magazine l January 2023

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 COUNTIES GIVE VOICE TO THEIR STORIES VIA PODCASTS Source, National Association of Counties, Meredith Morgan, Published Nov 21, 2022 Podcasts have an ardent following —with an estimated 80 million people across the country tuning into them weekly— and are affordable to produce, making them a growing asset for county governments and associations looking to keep their constituents updated and broaden their audience. If you’re not quite sure what a podcast is, it’s like a radio show, told in a series and streamed online. People don’t have to tune in live; they can listen to them whenever they have time. In the past five years, podcast consumption has nearly doubled. Early to the craze, Fairfax County, Va. launched its program in 2007 and has since created eight county-focused podcasts, ranging from “Scam Slam,” which warns residents of current scams circulating the community, to “EnviroPod,” a show the county’s public works and environmental services department runs. The episodes include “Alternative Uses for Holiday Waste” and the “Coming Cicada Invasion.” “Podcasting for the past several years has been just on fire and it’s a great way to get information out to the residents, because it’s free or very minimal cost to get into it,” said Jim Person, Fairfax County’s emergency information officer. OPENING L INES