Under The Influence – Terry O’Reilly

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About the show

Back in 2005, I was at a lunch with three good friends from the radio business. Over a few beers, one of those friends, Larry MacInnis, said, “You know, Terry, if you were to break your annual creative radio seminar into smaller pieces, it would make an interesting radio show.”

See, once a year, I would stage a big radio event, and invite about 200 young copywriters to a theatre. Over the course of the day, I would teach them how to produce creative radio commercials.

But I had never thought of turning it into a radio series.

So I laughed and said to Larry, “Who would run a radio show like that?” He paused, and said, “The CBC.”

To which I replied, “You mean the advertising-free CBC? The network people flee to in order to avoid advertising? That network?”

“Yeah,” he said.

Well, this year will mark the 15th anniversary of that radio show airing on CBC and Sirius Satellite.

It began as a 10-episode summer replacement series in 2005. Co-created with Mike Tennant, the show was titled O’Reilly On Advertising. The program explored the world of advertising in a fun and irreverent way. Response was so positive – so quickly – that CBC asked us to stay on and produce a total of 25 episodes that first year.

When CBC wanted the show to come back in 2006, we decided to recalibrate the series, take a longer view, and re-christened it, “The Age of Persuasion.”

The program looked at all aspects of advertising, from copywriting, to radio commercials, to TV commercials, to direct mail, to the history of advertising – then broke it all down – and took listeners behind the walls of advertising agencies and big brands.

The audience responded and grew with each season. By 2010, we were averaging about 450,000 listeners per week.

Around the same time, the show was picked up by WBEZ in Chicago, and our American audience started to grow.

Master Episode List

Under The Influence: Season 9

1. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows
2. Goliath Meet David: Small Brands That Beat The Big Boys
3. Putting Fans In Stands: How Sports Teams Sell Tickets
4. Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing
5. Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing, Pt. II
6. Set Jetting: Film Locations As Tourism Marketing
7. Getting Personal In The Classifieds (Repeat, Season I)
8. The Name Game: Brand Names In Different Countries
9. Search Parties: The Relentless Hunt For New Customers
10. Come Fly With Me: Airports Are Now Brands
11. For Better or For Worse: Wedding Marketing
12. Striking Images: Matchbook Advertising (Repeat, Season I)
13. Lend Us Your Ears: The Intimate Art of ASMR Marketing
14. Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: The New World of Online Reviews
15. Takes a Licking and Keeps On Ticking: Advertising Torture Tests
16. Brand Envy 2020
17. Movie Merchandising (Repeat, Season V)
18. Talk Ain’t Cheap: How Conversations Impact Business
19. Flip, Flop or Fly: The World of Test Markets
20. Setting The Table: Best Opening Stories
21. Fix It Again, Tony: Brand Nicknames
22. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows (Repeat, Season IX)
23. Bookmarks 2020
24. Branding A Disease
25. You Must Remember This: The Mandela Effect
26. Ask Terry 2020

• Under The Influence: Season 8
• Under The Influence: Season 7
• Under The Influence: Season 6
• Under The Influence: Season 5
• Under The Influence: Season 4
• Under The Influence: Season 3
• Under The Influence: Season 2
• Under The Influence: Season 1
• The Age of Persuasion: Season 5
• The Age of Persuasion: Season 4
• The Age of Persuasion: Season 3
• The Age of Persuasion: Season 2
• The Age of Persuasion: Season 1
• O’Reilly on Advertising

In 2010, my series co-creator, Mike Tennant, went on to pursue other projects. It was as good a time as any to reboot and rebrand, as so much had changed in the world of marketing since 2005.

So Age of Persuasion continued for one more year, then in 2012, the show expanded to take a much wider look at – not just advertising – but the expanding world of marketing. With that refocus, the show changed its name to become, “Under The Influence.”

Since that change, our audience numbers took a big jump. We have over a million listeners per week in Canada alone, and our podcast has been downloaded over 35 million times. We also have a sizable audience abroad, with listeners in countries as far away as Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, Japan, China, Philippines and Mexico.

In 2011, iTunes named the show the Best New Podcast of the year.

iTunes named Under The Influence one of the Best Podcasts of 2015.

And again in 2019, we were named one of Apple Podcasts Most Popular Shows Overall.

And believe it or not, we just surpassed our 300th episode.

Who knew?

Besides Larry MacInnis, of course.

Master Episode List

Under The Influence: Season 9

1. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows
2. Goliath Meet David: Small Brands That Beat The Big Boys
3. Putting Fans In Stands: How Sports Teams Sell Tickets
4. Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing
5. Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing, Pt. II
6. Set Jetting: Film Locations As Tourism Marketing
7. Getting Personal In The Classifieds (Repeat, Season I)
8. The Name Game: Brand Names In Different Countries
9. Search Parties: The Relentless Hunt For New Customers
10. Come Fly With Me: Airports Are Now Brands
11. For Better or For Worse: Wedding Marketing
12. Striking Images: Matchbook Advertising (Repeat, Season I)
13. Lend Us Your Ears: The Intimate Art of ASMR Marketing
14. Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: The New World of Online Reviews
15. Takes a Licking and Keeps On Ticking: Advertising Torture Tests
16. Brand Envy 2020
17. Movie Merchandising (Repeat, Season V)
18. Talk Ain’t Cheap: How Conversations Impact Business
19. Flip, Flop or Fly: The World of Test Markets
20. Setting The Table: Best Opening Stories
21. Fix It Again, Tony: Brand Nicknames
22. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows (Repeat, Season IX)
23. Bookmarks 2020
24. Branding A Disease
25. You Must Remember This: The Mandela Effect
26. Ask Terry 2020
27. Under The Influence: Season 8
28. Under The Influence: Season 7
29. Under The Influence: Season 6
30. Under The Influence: Season 5
31. Under The Influence: Season 4
32. Under The Influence: Season 3
33. Under The Influence: Season 2
34. Under The Influence: Season 1
35. The Age of Persuasion: Season 5
36. The Age of Persuasion: Season 4
37. The Age of Persuasion: Season 3
38. The Age of Persuasion: Season 2
39. The Age of Persuasion: Season 1

O’Reilly on Advertising

Under the Influence Returns to the Airwaves January 2, 2020

CBC RADIO ONE:

Thursdays at 11:30am
Saturdays at 11:30am

WBEZ CHICAGO

Saturdays at 6:30am (yawn)

Podcast

A new podcast drops every Wednesday at midnight, the first of the season being Jan 1.
Listen on your favourite Podcast app, including:

1. Apple
2. Google Podcasts
3. Spotify
4. Stitcher
5. Podbean

Or, listen on demand via the CBC website or the CBC Listen app

Fun Facts

• We currently have over a million radio listeners per week in Canada.
• …and over 35 million podcast downloads since 2012.
• We create three versions of each episode:
  1. CBC/WBEZ Chicago
  2. Podcast for iTunes
  3. Sirius Satellite Radio
• It takes 12 hours to record and mix each 27 minute episode.
• There are four researchers on the team. One researcher is assigned per episode. The research for each show is split between Terry and that researcher.
• Each episode requires 30-40 hours of research.
• It takes Terry three days to write an episode.
• We are always juggling four episodes: One is being researched, one is being written, one is being recorded, and one is being revised for air.
• 24 original episodes are aired each season. Two episodes per season are encore broadcasts of popular episodes from previous seasons.
• From our first season in 2005 to the end of the 2018 season, we will have produced 296 episodes (O’Reilly on Advertising + Age of Persuasion + Under The Influence)
• One podcast (Unforeseen Circumstances: How Companies Are Affected By Chance) was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
• There are no interviews on our radio show, except one single episode titled: “So You Want To Be A Voice Actor” from O’Reilly on Advertising, Episode 2.
• A free Digital Box Set of the Under the Influence archives is now available wherever you download your podcasts.
• Under The Influence is produced by the Apostrophe Podcast Company. It is a family business.