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Anatomy of a Podcast: White Roof Radio
Introduction
Podcasting. It's been around for a few years now. If you haven't heard of podcasting, chances are you're still using a Sony Discman and reading your news off dried wood pulp. Time to join the 21st century. I remember listening to a radio news broadcast back in 2004 which proclaimed that "podcasting" was to be the future of radio. It's true; podcasting breached the mainstream and now offers users a new dimension to the old terrestrial radio format while expanding the popularity of handheld video. Podcasting is hardly a new phenomenon, though. For years, news websites such as NPR.com and Slate.com have been offering snippets of their stories for download. But the podcasting trend was not a spontaneous event. The evolution of this media format relied heavily on compounding developments in weblogging software and readily available broadband access. And what's more interesting is the role that a certain former MTV VJ played in its development. Podcasting History 101 A few events clearly stand out in the evolution of the podcast, the ever increasing penetration of consumer based broadband service and the development of RSS format (generally referred to as Really Simple Syndication). After the turn of the new century, more and more households were pulling down music and video via high speed internet connections while interest in blogging skyrocketed. The need for an audio capable weblog was first addressed way back in 2000. By 2003 audioblogging had become a new challenge for programmers and developers as they scrambled to generate content distribution software. Branded "podcasting" by a noted web journalist, the new movement had a catchy name that surfed the lily-white wave of the ubiquitous iPod. With the implementation of RSS feeds, users had the ability to subscribe to their favorite websites and receive daily updates. Bloggers were able to instantly push new content alerts to subscribers and virtually guarantee higher percentages of frequent return readers. Podcasters also began to utilize the RSS feeds. Coupled with stand-alone software they were able to deliver new content directly to their subscribers' desktops and iPods. The ability to easily subscribe to and receive audio and video content has secured podcasting as a viable internet service. (I'll spare you a full wikipedia rehash. You can read the full story here.) And the rest, as they are fond of saying, is history. History? Podcasting? Hardly. Podcasting may have started several years ago and clawed its way into iTunes browsers across the world, but the technology is far from becoming ancient history. In fact, I would go so far as to say that podcasting has yet to reach full-blown mainstream status. Despite moderate media coverage and ease of use from within iTunes and other delivery software, podcasting remains mostly nestled inside the domain of the more advanced netizens. Don't believe me? Then here's an example: Do your parents own an iPod or other MP3 player? Do your parents subscribe to podcasts? If we could all answer yes to BOTH of those questions, we would be hurtling towards a definite proof of podcast, um... mainstream'osity. Viva la Revolucion However, one important impasse hobbles this rising medium: Advertising. Advertisers have yet to really sink their teeth into the largely untapped resource that is the podcast. The very format of the podcast makes wedging a 30 second audio-mercial into a free download quite difficult, as users can simply fast forward past annoying adverts or choose not to download them at all. A little "this episode of XYZ is brought to you by..." is about all the commercial you'll hear on most podcasts. Similarly, the availability of numerous free podcasts and the ease with which the downloaded files can be distributed makes a subscription-based podcast a tough sale. As such, podcasts are typically relegated to the realm of tech savvy listeners and do-it-yourself broadcasters. But that's also what makes podcasting the near perfect independent medium. Podcasting is the ultimate in pirate radio. Anyone can create a podcast about any subject. The only requirements are a recording device and a means to reach your audience, namely a website. Therefore, podcasts are spread wide across the web and vary in content from daily news to politics to foreign language classes to porn... Yes, even porno is podcasting these days. [Editor: So you hear, right?] Some of the most widely downloaded (yet not quite mainstream) are tech-related podcasts. One of the most popular (and lucrative) shows, This Week in Tech (TWiT), is hosted by venerable techgeek and former TechTV ScreenSaver, Leo Laporte. Building upon his TechTV fan base has launched Leo's broadcasts to the top of the geek charts with over 250,000 weekly downloads. I know I sure miss seeing Leo on TechTV (now the pathetic G4 channel) and catching up with his adventures via podcast is a great alternative to news radio that is often devoid of in-depth tech coverage. You see where I'm going with this; podcasts can be about any topic. If you want to podcast about knitting, have at it. Chances are someone out there will want to hear about your wicked dip stitch. Of course, this specificity leaves the listenership for most podcasts hovering in the thousands rather than millions. But that doesn't mean fans are any less voracious. A good podcast can quickly garner a loyal base of faithful weekly listeners.
Page 1: Introduction, Podcasting History 101, Viva la Revolucion
Page 2: White Roof Radio, Behind the Scenes: Production 
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Add Comment
4 User Comments 1 - Posted by
handrail
on November 9, 2006 - 8:12 am 2 - Posted by
EmoMakesMeCry
on November 9, 2006 - 1:02 pm podcasts are great. if any of y'all remember the screen savers on techTV (back before the G4 idiots took over), leo laporte and a bunch of the other people from the show have a podcast. twit.tv
3 - Posted by
handrail
on November 9, 2006 - 1:52 pm heh, yeah...i kinda mentioned that in the article, Emo...
4 - Posted by
EmoMakesMeCry
on November 9, 2006 - 1:56 pm ah, so you did. sorry, i just skimmed over the article and didn't catch that. lol
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