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 16th 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.

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 49 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.

The New York Festivals awarded the show the Grand Trophy as the Best Radio Program in 2011 and again in 2012.

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.

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Fun Facts

• We currently have over 1 million radio listeners per week in Canada.
• …and over 49 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 2021 season, we will have produced over 350 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.
• The slogans in the Under The Influence theme song are:
  • “You’re soaking in it” from the classic Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid “Madge the manicurist” commercials.
  • “You’re gonna love it in an instant” from a 1987 Carnation Instant Breakfast commercial.
  • “Your teeth look whiter than new!” from a classic 1960s Pepsodent commercial.
  • “You’re not you when you’re hungry” from the recent Snickers TV campaign.
  • “You’re in good hands with Allstate” from the long-running Allstate Insurance campaign.
  • And all of these slogans have one thing in common – they all begin with the word “You’re” or “Your” to set up “You’re under the influence… with Terry O’Reilly.”