So what do you do after a 30 year career on the radio? While some continue to hit the streets looking for their next on air radio gig, other personalities are taking their talent to the Internet. This isn’t the Internet radio of years past. These are professionals from radio, bringing their years of broadcast experience to “Online Radio.”

Legendary Chicago DJ Steve Dahl is “Reinventing” himself after terrestrial radio. His podcast will be available after Labor Day (September 8). San Francisco’s Jeff Vandergrift, known as “J.V.” on Clear Channel Rhythmic KYLD (94.9), is launching “J.V.’s World” online, even while he still has a job on the terrestrial side.

And they’re not the only brand names to venture out into the worldwide web. Grand Rapids morning radio veterans Dave Jagger & Geri Jarvis have launched their own daily radio show, or “podcast” as some refer to it, which is heard on DaveandGeri.com.

The married duo had been heard on Grand Rapids radio for 23 years – and have been a morning duo for over 30. In 2007, after a year with a Regent AC station, they were laid off. Like many radio personalities who had success on the air, they assumed they’d be able to find another radio gig in time. But with the ongoing recession, and broadcasting’s ongoing cutbacks, that opportunity did not arise. So they created their own opportunity, and enlisted the help of industry veteran Jerry Del Colliano.

Here’s my conversation with Dave & Geri, on their new endeavor.

RI: After so many years on the radio, and many of them as a very successful morning duo, why did you choose to take this direction, rather than continue to look for a job on terrestrial radio?

Dave: Well, the first year we had every intention of getting a new job. We had an agent and we thought we'd get another radio gig pretty quick. But it didn’t happen. Finally, when your agent calls you and says “There aren’t any jobs out there,“ period, then we knew we had to take an alternate route. Geri—she might have been happy just doing something else, but me, I am an old radio guy. This is what I do.

I tell people, “We didn’t give up on radio – radio gave up on us” and as much as it hurts still, we knew we had to do it differently.

Geri: No matter how it crushes our spirit, the reality is there just aren’t that many jobs out there for us in radio. And what’s worse—those jobs are not coming back. And we’re not the only ones. So many friends and former co-workers are now also out of work. And these are all talented people.

RI: Going into this, did you have certain expectations or perceptions of what podcasting is? And how have those changed since the launch?

Dave: I didn’t want to just do a morning show, and put it online in bits and pieces. That’s what most stations are doing now with podcasting. It’s radio all sliced up into bits. Or, you have amateurs who grab a mic and just talk about nothing or are vulgar. We wanted to do a real radio show, like our old show. We wanted to take a different approach to podcasting – although we don’t ever refer to it as podcasting in the show—it’s just “the show.”

RI: Tell me about the process – What you had to learn about podcasting, and how it is different from terrestrial broadcasting.

Dave: We decided to jump right in with the podcasting and just immerse ourselves into the whole process. We met Jerry at a Conclave convention, and convinced him to work with us to launch it. We knew we had to figure out how to monetize it as well, and how to program it with the right content. . We don’t sound like radio. There’s no music, no intros, no drops – none of the traditional things you do in radio, which honestly I would like to have, because I am that old radio guy. So, for me it was a real learning process – or rather re-learning process. But I’ve come to realize, it has to be a different approach.

We’ve consolidated a whole morning show into 30 minutes—the average time it takes to commute to work. People might download us and bring us with them to listen in their car or they might just pull us up on the website and listen while they sit and have lunch at their desk. Either way, they get us on demand.

RI: There are a couple of things different from your podcast, from other “terrestrial” radio people turned podcasters. Your goal is to serve Grand Rapids—because that’s your base and where your brand is strongest. What advantages does that give you?

Dave: This is a show totally for Grand Rapids. Not New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago—although, we have had some listeners from there who have checked in, who might have lived in Grand Rapids in the past. The fact is, the only way we will truly succeed, is by keeping it local.

Geri: At he same time, while we talk about the local cherry festival, we also have to acknowledge things like the passing of Michael Jackson. We’re a show about what people are talking about in Grand Rapids, and they pay attention to the world around them too.

RI: This podcast is all talk—no music. Was that a big adjustment for you as a team – or is it a new found freedom?

Dave: We do one show a day—all done in the studio in our home. We do it every day, and we don’t pre-record them a week in advance so we are always on top of current events.. But we post the show at midnight for the next day. So we’re doing Thursday morning’s show on Wednesday afternoon. So it’s not exactly live.

We actually had finished taping the show on the day Michael died, and we went back in and re-cut the entire show to be up on what was happening.

RI: What else is different doing the podcast, from your terrestrial broadcasts?

Geri: The one thing that is very different for me, is before, when I said something on the air—that was it—it was out and gone. Now, I can stop after I say something, and take it back! I can rerecord it. I have to get over that. Sometimes it’s better just to stick with my original reaction.

RI: Jerry has talked about how this allows you some incredible sponsorship opportunities. He said in his article about your podcast “ in our world, a sponsorship contract doesn’t mean commercials.” How are advertisers responding?

Dave: We are surprised at how receptive the advertisers are. Not necessarily that they are open to us, because we’ve developed some really good, long term relationships with sponsors over the years. But I was surprised at how so many companies are open to things like podcasting and the Internet in general.

Most companies—large and small, are very open to new media.

Geri: And many of the larger business actually have their own digital teams to specifically deal with marketing on the Internet and in other non-traditional ways. There are a lot more opportunities out there then we expected.

RI: How are you using new technology and social networking to market the show?

Dave: We use Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin every single day. I put up the information about that day’s show and tweet it several times. We use one of those services that I put out the info once, and it goes across all the networks.

I’m actually stunned at how this has taken off—virally. We also do email blasts to our listener list. You can sign up on our website. We’ve had many former radio listeners give us positive feedbackl.

We also tried the old way of marketing. We went to our former radio station to do a ten-second spot that would run in morning drive. But they turned us down, which I don’t understand. We aren’t competition to them. We wouldn’t be taking listeners away. I mean, if that was truly their concern, then why do they run ads for TV’s “Good Morning America” in morning drive? I honestly think it was just a matter of them not wanting to give us any credibility. So that was frustrating.

RI: How do you like utilizing new technology?

Dave: I’m a geek—and always have been. However, I have to remember most people are not. So they might not use the same things I do, or as soon. Geri is just now getting more up to speed on some of the new Internet technology, and she loves it.

Geri: I was just doing some research for the show and found a figure that said 469 billion minutes were used on Facebook during the month of April alone. That’s amazing.

RI: Where do you see “radio” headed in the future? And what are the opportunities for other radio personalities to grow beyond working for terrestrial broadcasters?

Dave: I think if radio doesn’t embrace the Internet, and all these alternate ways to put out content, then they will be in big trouble down the road. And it shouldn’t be just some morning show clips that they post on their station website. Original content is what people want.

As individuals in radio, make sure you learn about all this new technology and then you will start to see the opportunities.

RI: You know, a jock might not have a big name nationally, but if you have some history in their market, and they have fans there, then their name is a brand to listeners – who are also Internet users, and to clients. Think “Big fish in a small pond.”

Geri: I would add, that while you are working—save some money. There may come a time, and this is almost certain, even for those who are rated No. 1 and have it all right now, there will come a time when you won’t have a job. And we in radio don’t always prepare for that. Also, get some guidance from someone who knows. Jerry was that person for us.

You can read more about the Dave & Geri Podcast, in an article by Jerry Del Colliano, here: