Build your own radio station
While satellite radio will always have limited appeal due to the monthly charge, podcasting offers a free way for you to create your own radio station on the fly each day, listening when you want. Satellite radio services have been loathe to allow people to record their programs due to copyright concerns. XM Radio threatened legal action against the maker of TimeTrax software, which lets users record satellite shows on MP3s.
But Reuters reported that XM is planning its own TiVo-like devices soon that will allow users to pause and rewind live satellite broadcasts. Plus XM has a deal for streaming its programming onto the next generation of TiVo television recorders.
Still, podcasting goes much further, giving listeners full control over what they listen to, depending on the available RSS feeds. Basically, you need a portable MP3 player -- not necessarily an iPod -- Apple's free iTunes software, and the new iPodder software. The latter is an open source application, birthed by Adam Curry, the former MTV VJ, blogger and serial entrepreneur now based in Amsterdam.
Curry runs the iPodder site, which includes a nascent directory of podcasting feeds with everything from music to news to audiobooks. So far, the selection is weighted to technology radio shows, and it sometimes seems as if a small group of people are just listening to each other.
"So this morning, here in my hotel room, I listened to the latest edition of Adam Curry's Daily Source Code, Dave Winer's Morning Coffee Notes about the open-sourcing of Frontier, and a conversation between Adam and Dave about all the above, iPodder, Trade Secrets Radio and much more," wrote Doc Searls in his Weblog about his new fascination with podcasting.
But Curry is optimistic that podcasting will catch on with a much wider audience. He thinks MP3 player manufacturers will be able to build iPodder functionality right into their devices. "Mass appeal is likely, since the installed base of MP3 players is huge," he said. "Most of them have gigabytes of empty disk space and users are apparently really enjoying this new use for their players."
Beyond the smaller productions, there are now more polished podcasts from public radio station WGBH as well as KOMO 1000 AM news in Seattle. KOMO is the first commercial news station to take the leap into podcasting. The station's assistant director of news and programming, Stan Orchard, told me that his station has always been on the cutting edge with technology, launching a Web site in 1994 and an RSS feed last year. Podcasting was an easy addition.
"For the user it's easy-squeasy," Orchard said via e-mail. "They just install iPodder or some other such program and type in our podcast feed URL. That's it. As for setting it up at this end...all it takes is a RSS feed which we already had. We just had to tweak it a bit. Then we had to crank out some stories. Again, we were already doing that for the Web site so it wasn't much [work]."
One of the challenges for KOMO was getting the radio reporters to think a little differently, according to Orchard. Now they have to consider three formats while producing a story: the radio broadcast, the MP3 podcast and a written story for the Web site.
While podcasting is only in its embryonic stage, people are already looking beyond time-shifted radio on portable MP3 players. NPR's Mitchell, for one, thinks that ubiquitous wireless Net connections could bring on-demand radio to a variety of devices, cutting out the computer as content server.
"The next big thing is...I think eventually you'll be able to wirelessly download something, stick on some headphones, and sit with your iPod or phone and listen to a program," Mitchell said. "I think you'll eventually be able to do that. Handheld devices will keep shrinking. You can already download and listen to shows online."
Plus, Mitchell notes just how cheap radio production has become. Now a college student can spend about $1,000 on audio equipment, maybe $2,000 on an Apple laptop, and with the right training, start reporting stories and put them online. "I don't have to burn CDs unless someone wants to purchase it," Mitchell says. "It's extremely cost effective. All the barriers are coming down. It's becoming extremely decentralized."
For the independent radio producer, the biggest barrier might be getting heard above the noise of so many like-minded folks online. Adam Curry says that skill, experience and talent will still set people apart. "There will be a lot of crap, and just like Weblogs, we'll also have our superstars," he said. "And everyone can have their 15 minutes [of fame]."
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