ARN breakfast shows Jonesy and Amanda on WSFM Sydney and Gold 104.3‘s Christian O’Connell in Melbourne have both been dabbling with a different approach to their respective podcasts, offering listeners something more than just the best bits that might feature on their networked catch up programs.

WSFM recently spruiked what they’ve called Jonesy & Amanda’s Cutting Room Floor podcast where every day the pair will upload a talk break that was cut. These are packaged together to create a 25 minute-ish weekly offcuts special.

Over at The Christian O’Connell Show they are allowing listeners to be a fly on the wall after 9am, when the studio mics are turned off and he and his producers Caitlin McArthur and Riordan Lee are preparing for the next day/s. That podcast is called After the Show.

Both feel the equivalent to me of rummaging around in the fridge to make a dinner out of leftovers (sometimes delicious, sometimes surprising). No piece of audio will wither at ARN.

What I realised later is that both these new podcasts aren’t stand alone options but rather part of a daily suite of offerings. JAM Nation for Jonesy and Amanda on any weekday will offer the ‘full show’ of around an hour, the cutting room floor piece (around 5 mins), a really good interview or current and relevant news discussion (Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry on Friday for example), regular segments like the pub test, and more. Friday September 13 had five podcast episodes.

Christian O’Connell, like Jonesy and Amanda, is on survey break. Each day he has a full show, and a mini episode of the best bit from that day. The After the Show’s are a bit more sporadic, with one released this Monday as a catch up and something fresh while he and the team are away:

I do like this utilisation of bits and pieces that are happening in and around the main shows, and huge kudos to the shows’ producers who piece these together for off air play. I’d also be really interested to know the listeners and downloads to these specific podcast only episodes.

There is a saturation point as to have much extra we can throw in the pot before we ruin the meal. The advantage for ARN though is they’re making it from existing resources anyway, so if those particular episodes aren’t resonating they can can quietly be dropped with no loss to ratings or talent reputation.

Only probably a producer somewhere sighing with relief.

Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.