27 Jul The Cybersecurity Industry’s First Radio Station Launches
Tune into WCYB at Cybercrime.Radio
– Melbourne, Australia – Jul. 27, 2021
What’s the difference between a podcast and a radio station? Steve Morgan knows all too well — and he has watched with a combination of elation and relief as response to the 24×7 radio station he recently launched, WCYB Cybercrime Radio, “exceeded his expectations” and helped propel his growing cybersecurity media company to a completely new level.
More than a year in the planning, WCYB is the latest venture of Cybersecurity Ventures, the company Morgan established in 2014 with a focus on cybersecurity news and research.
The company expanded into podcasts in 2018 with what, Morgan told Cybersecurity Magazine general manager of production Paul John Spalding, was a “completely unplanned” interview with Canadian security-industry figurehead and Shark Tank judge Robert Herjavec.
Herjavec’s related style and enthusiastic call to young people resonated with Morgan and over the last 18 months, Cybersecurity Ventures’ media arm, Cybercrime Magazine, has continued the podcast concept in both audio and video formats.
Cybercrime Radio: An Internet Radio Station Is Born
WCYB provides round-the-clock cybersecurity programming
Its Soundcloud series now has over 575 podcast interviews with industry luminaries, and the team also produces Cybercrime.TV, a YouTube channel that now has over 5,000 subscribers, nearly 300 video interviews, and a roster of sponsors.
“I really don’t believe we had very high expectations” in the early days, Morgan recalled of the first podcasts like the well-received The CISO Minute, “but as it turns out, people really enjoyed them.”
“The point wasn’t that podcasts were better than the video; it was that they were a completely different media experience — and we got great feedback.”
Live, on the air
Yet episodic, self-service podcasts and videos — which appeal to consumers looking for bite-sized content that they can listen to while driving or running, or watch on the train — are a far cry from launching an entire radio station.
Yet the possibility of launching 24×7 grew from a long-held dream into a very real possibility over the last year, as he spit-balled ideas with the team and canvassed options for content and sponsorship.
“I saw some really weak content out there where companies would call something ‘radio’ and they really just had their podcasts programmed in a series,” he explained.
“We have very high standards here, and we didn’t want to do anything like that: if we were going to launch a radio station, we were going to launch a radio station.”
That meant not only tapping Cybersecurity Ventures’ growing bank of interviews, but also leveraging its staff of 10 full-timers and a roster of new hires and freelancers, who will work out of the company’s Northport, N.Y. studio with the support of a major sponsorship by Deloitte Cyber, plus an impressive list of launch advertisers.
A key part of programming a radio station is ensuring that the content is both diverse in nature, and positioned to cater to a broad range of listeners. “A lot of the programming is non-technical,” Morgan told Newsday as WCYB counted down the last hours to its launch on July 15 — when it debuted with an interview with well-known hacker Kevin Mitnick.
The station, which will broadcast all day every day, is now operational and complements Cybersecurity Ventures’ library of recorded content with live announcers, live coverage from industry conferences, and an evolving roster of live shows.
“It’s a lot to have a radio station,” he said, “but it was also very exciting, because it’s an opportunity for us to broadcast our content in a way that is highly curated.”
There will also be live call-in shows with what Morgan promised will be “a lot of very exciting guests.”
“The diversity of guests is the single biggest thing we’re going to bring forward,” he said, “ranging from cybersecurity experts to CISOs, to ex-criminals, to victims. That’s what our audience can look forward to — more of what they’ve heard on the podcast, but hearing it every day.”
– David Braue is an award-winning technology writer based in Melbourne, Australia.
Go here to read all of David’s Cybercrime Magazine articles.
