How Podcasting and Satellite Changed Radio

prostoalex writes "Business Week magazine discusses how podcasting changes the radio industry: "Consider the basics: With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy creating audio programming for thousands of others. They're bypassing an entire industry." The article notes about some advertising deals that podcasters managed to procure, but it also notes that another industry, satellite radio, represented by Sirius and XM Satellite radio, is already changing the radio landscape."

Comments

I like radio

[Jessta]

yay! I like radio

Problems

[Masq666]

Podcasters is probably a problem for Radio stations, but for us listeners it's a miracle.

All this hype about 'podcasting'

[fwice]

There is all this hype about podcasting but nothing about shoutcasting or other forms of internet radio -- which have been aroudn longer and have more than quite a bit of a userbase...

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is, Shout/Icecasting is just that... Radio. Podcasting is something different:

1. It is different in that the low-speed delayed delivery makes publishing (read: bandwidth) costs much cheaper, and it stacks with BitTorrent.

2. It is different in that the listener doesn't have to schedule their listening around a broadcaster. The TiVo metaphor is apt.

3. It is different in that it is built around mobile. Shoutcast is great, unless you are in your car on an hour and a half commute on 285.

Personally, I think Satellite radio is doomed business. Once 3G-ish technologies roll out widely enough, shout/icecast will kill satellite radio dead. I mean, why have this extra box and another subscription service when you already have a cell phone and an iPod?

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Spoing]

1. There is all this hype about podcasting but nothing about shoutcasting or other forms of internet radio -- which have been aroudn longer and have more than quite a bit of a userbase...

The two are different enough that -- for traveling and other uses -- Podcasts tend to be more practical.

1. 1. Blog/show format vs. radio. While podcasting is referred to as a type of radio...it's not. It's an audio blog. If you don't like blogs, and could care less about talk radio or public radio, podcasting is a waste of time for you. NPR btw has a few podcasts. I suggest listening to IT Conversations as well...even has non-IT specific content that I haven't heard elsewhere.

   2. You can take podcasts with you. That's the design. OK, you can also take shoutcasts with you though it's not as easy. Shoutcasting is designed for streaming and you can't stream if you're not connected to the source. The associated tags tend to make more sense with OPML/XML and embedded in the audio files themselves.

   3. Podcasting is like a magazine or newspaper subscription. You pick what you want and it comes to you.

   4. Podcasts can be fetched at odd hours of the day. While I have cable internet, I don't like to bog the connection down while playing Savage...so I schedule Bashpodder to fetch the podcasts before I wake up in the morning.

   5. Podcasts do not require a high speed link. Got a modem and 'unlimited internet', fetch podcasts when you aren't there or late at night.

   6. Podcasting is not limited to audio. Any data can be embedded in the RSS feed including video. I subscribe to Rocketboom this way.

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Lord_Dweomer]

I totally agree. But I have to give major credit to Apple's PR department. Truly some first class work they've been doing with this podcasting thing.

However, I believe the reason podcasting is getting press as opposed to its predecessor, shoutcasting, is because the iPod is the new hip mainstream consumer electronic device. So that means that readers are more likely to read about something involving the iPod than just Winamp for example. Plus, it combines the coolness of the iPod with the "coolness" of the blog scene, which gives it a real grass roots feel. The combination of all this equals a lot of guaranteed readers, and thus higher ad sales which in turn equals more profit for the companies publishing these stories.

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[davie]

Once 3G-ish technologies roll out widely enough, shout/icecast will kill satellite radio dead. I mean, why have this extra box and another subscription service when you already have a cell phone and an iPod?

Assuming carriers manage to deliver devices that actually allow you to take advantage of streaming media and don't cripple their EV-DO and etc. networks with poorly implemented gateways that break streaming. I'm not optimistic.

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Brained Child]

THANK YOU!!!!!. I only know, maybe two people on my entire campus that know how to listen to a podcast, let alone how TO podcast.

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[diyer]

There is no doubt that podcasting is cool, just like tivo is cool. I am waiting for the day that Clearchannel swoops down like the RIAA and makes it much harder for it to work. They have a lot at stake.

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Barryke]

1. It is different in that the low-speed delayed delivery makes publishing (read: bandwidth) costs much cheaper, and it stacks with BitTorrent. 2. It is different in that the listener doesn't have to schedule their listening around a broadcaster. The TiVo metaphor is apt. 3. It is different in that it is built around mobile. Shoutcast is great, unless you are in your car on an hour and a half commute on 285.

Sooo... are you talking about a walkman?

where are the decent channels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Could someone that's actually listened to a decent podcast channel please post a link? Everything I've found has been mindless dross with little social or commercial value.

Re:where are the decent channels?

[Lumpy]

how about 2600.com?

how about leo laporte's radio show?

i do agree, Podcasting is very close to what the web is, lots of annoying tripe. think of it this way, every time you hear a podcast with lots of soundeffects and trying to sound like a big-time DJ, that's the equliviant of the html BLINK tag or an annoying animated GIF.

Lots of the NPR shows are available as a podcast.

Right now there are only a few good outlets of quality programming for podcasts, that will continue as well as the tripe. example? sure, one called the Wizards of technology, they suck horribly! every show is 15 minutes of talking about HOW to get the podcast or WHERE to get the podcast and then the rest of it is nothing more than mindless drivel with no content. Also the guy that is claiming he started podcasting, that out of work MTV Vee-jay. His podcasts are pretty mind numbing, he tries to keep you awake by saying a bit of profanity here and there.

Granted, I am glad they are producing the drivel, some people out there are eating it up. But overall it is making radio shows sit up and pay attention. Click and Clack from NPR will be podcasting soon as well as I hear roumors that howard Stern will be offering a PAY-FOR podcast of his show.

that is something else, I am willing to pay a buck to download a podcast that is worthwile if they are not interested in getting advertising to sponsor them... and I'm not the only one.

My biggest problem is that all the podcast apps SUCK. they all assume you use iTunes and an ipod. I dont.

I want one to simply write the files and a properly formatted m3u file.

Re:where are the decent channels?

[rmolisak]

what about http://www.kcrw.org/podcast/

Re:where are the decent channels?

[inline_four]

I use jPodder, an open source client that can be told to just drop the files on the file system.

Digital Radio Obsolete?

[dappleyard]

I suppose that it could ultimately mean that digital DAB radio will never really take off. It could be surpassed by other mediums before it is fully taken on board...

Re:Digital Radio Obsolete?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the US perhaps. Except in the UK we've had DAB for almost two years and DAB receivers are both cheap and widespread. And nobody would even dream of getting satelite radio. And 'podcasting' is just an excuse to shout "iPod! iPod!" ad infinitum. But then we have the BBC and you just have a load of crappy commercial broadcasters... Poor you...

Re:Digital Radio Obsolete?

[Tony Hoyle]

DAB is neither cheap nor particularly widespread (wake me up when they make a portable DAB for £5. That's all my FM radio cost & it does exactly the same thing). Hell, less than £50 would be a start.

Satellite (and DTT) radio is a free addon to satellite TV and everyone who has satellite already has it... it's not particularly mobile though.

Re:Digital Radio Obsolete?

[RotateLeftByte]

Try larger Sainsbury;s stores. They sell a Dual Band FM/DAB receiver for under £50.00(Brand name "Red"). This is a Mains/Battery receiver. There are truly portable DAB receivers on the way to market as well(Pocketsize). IMHO Satellite Radio is really a non starter while there is a total monopoly in service provider. SKY (prop R Murdoch) does not want it to take off so it won't. He wants all the commercial revenue from the dross he calls TV and as the parent said, its not mobile. US Satellite Radio stations are probably not receivable here in Europe as we are well outside their broadcast footprint.

XM Price Hike

[iamatlas]

I have XM. I love it, although I received a notice yesterday that they were raising their fees to $13. It will now, however, include internet access to their feeds, and the premium chanel you previously had to add on for a fee.

Re:XM Price Hike

[filmmaker]

Kind of reminds me of what Charter Communications is doing.

They just rolled out the DVR box for an additional $10 a month; optional service of course.

Because it's so sweet and easy to use, people are adopting like crazy. Then Charter will see how willing people are to pay for it and before you know it, bam, the DVR is your cable box and it's no longer optional, but is simply "included" now. Oh, and instead of being $10 a month, now it's 16.99.

That's a look at 18 months from now.

Re:XM Price Hike

[Anonymous Coward]

I found XM to be uncompelling. Too much chatter and too much money for music that's too old - in my first week I heard the B52's about a dozen times. Then again, I live in the Boston area where there is a lot of excellent college radio for alternative/rock music (go ZBC), so I may have been expecting too much.

Re:XM Price Hike

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, XM and Sirius each have 120 channels... you know you can use that little knob on the units to change it off the 80s channel.

Unless you love 'Love Shack' and that chick with the beehive hairdo.

Podcasting?

[NeuralAbyss]

....am I the only one who's had absolutely no experience, nor been affected by either podcasting or satellite radio? I'm tempted to just write it off as a fad... who'd spend time downloading a multi-hour 'podcasting' program just to play later?

I personally would much rather go for a personal selection of mp3s.

Re:Podcasting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone sell an pod with Wifi RSS type capabilities? It'd be kinda need to set it up and then whenever I'm in range of a WiFi it automatically looks for content updates and downloads.

Re:Podcasting?

[ewg]

Podcasting and satellite radio are ways to deliver topical content and new music to your ears without too much work.

Satellite radio has general news, talk, and live sports covered. The music channels give you essentially a self-updating playlist in a huge number of genres you'd never have time to keep up with on your own.

Podcasting offers the promise of very specialized topical content. Think of a talk show that covers very narrow areas of interest. Things much too specialized to ever be "broadcast".

Re:Podcasting?

[nicktripp]

While it may just be a fad, I don't "spend" any time downloading Podcast content. When I wake up in the morning my Powerbook has already done the work during the night. Schedules and RSS feeds are a beautiful thing. As for "just to play later", isn't that what gets people so excited about PVR's? I love being able to find a favorite show and always have it available on my iPod for when I'm in the car or at the gym. Okay, okay. So just in the car, but my point still stands.

Re:Podcasting?

[acroyear]

i've not done the podcasting thing, though its really just a variation of making "mix tapes for friends" which became "making mixed cds for friends", which is now "making a mix as a giant mp3 stream for friends to download so i don't have to actually send them anything". its a kids thing, and if i was a kid now, i'd probably be in the heart of it.

at work, i tend to be in very tight control over what music is being played, both to control my mood (and ease frustrations when windows sucks) and to keep things inappropriate from being played when a strict-interpreter of the harrasment policy comes by (less they hear the wrong line of a Frank Zappa track).

but in my car things are mixed -- sometimes i don't want to "think" about what to put in (i've had times where i didn't play anything during the 30 minute drive home because i couldn't decide what to play...and it wasn't a quick decision: i was trying to decide what to play the entire drive home).

so there's a need for radio: when you don't have an mp3 collection in the car, it allows "randomness" to control what you hear. but as we all know, over the air radio sucks.

XM does have stations that cater to the kind of stuff I listen too. yes, they have a station that plays the "typical" classic rock, but hey, right now the 80s on 8 station is playing Live Aid complete (the full soundtrack to the 4-DVD set). They even "title" the segments so you know whether or not its coming from Wembley or Philly. What radio station has EVER played that since the day it aired back in 1985?

similarly, there are serveral "no rules" stations, like Fine Tuning, Deep Tracks, some of the alternative stations, an "unsigned" station, Cinemagic (which plays movie soundtracks intermixed with soundbytes), broadway, etc...

so unlike conventional radio where only one station in my area (DC) comes *close* to playing what I like, and that's the classic-rock staiton playing stuff so overplayed over the last 25 years that i'm sick of every single song they play, there are plenty of things to hear with XM.

The main place I have it on is in my kitchen while cooking dinner, 'cause its one of the places where i don't have time to "look" at anything, and i haven't wired it for playing mp3s from the main computer downstairs (and with XM, I probably won't).

I actually bought something because of hearing it on the radio for the first time in about 15 years -- the Lemony Snicket soundtrack, 'cause the closing-credits track is cool. Of course, that was XM radio.

Re:Podcasting?

[torpor]

podcasting rocks. there is so much good music out there, for free, being put out by individuals who really do have talent.

if you're blowing podcast off on the basis of 'bleh', you're missing the beginning of something big.

the era of Brand Is Your Master is OVER. The People have killed it.

Re:Podcasting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets see, it is using an over hyped keyword based on an Apple product when just about any mp3 playing device works. And all it is is using RSS feeds to find and pull down new music/shows.

So it is safe to say it is an over used buzzword fad(like blogging), but it can save you time downloading and finding stuff that intrestes you.

Re:Podcasting?

[mydigitalself]

if i can download and synch a radio show overnight so i can listen to it on the underground (where there is no radio reception) and discover new music, then why not.

Re:Podcasting?

[laird]

"Lets see, it is using an over hyped keyword based on an Apple product when just about any mp3 playing device works. And all it is is using RSS feeds to find and pull down new music/shows."

I think you're missing the point of why PodCasting is so cool. It's not interesting because it's hard technology, it's interesting because it's trivial technology that is trivial to implement, thus has been widely implemented, and has (and will have) a huge impact on people's lives.

Re:Podcasting?

[mactov]

I was not interested in podcasting until it occurred to me that I could download programs I like and save 'em up for long drives. Once a month I work at a location 5 hours away, and I have to drive to get there. The idea of listening to stuff I like instead of to six different variations of religious programming sounded very good indeed. I just have to figure out the cheapest way to listen to it, now, since I don't own an iPod.

Re:Podcasting?

[DennyK]

If you have a cassette player in your car, you can probably find a portable MP3 CD player with a cassette adapter and 12V DC power adapter for around twenty bucks. The sound isn't the best, but if you're just listening to speech, it's more than sufficient. If you want something fancier, MP3-CD head units can be had for around a hundred bucks these days. Really, the only advantage I can see of a solid-state or HDD-based MP3 player over an MP3-CD player is portability (for the solid-state players) or total capacity (for the HDD units). When you can hold 700MB of MP3s on a $0.10 CD-R and play 'em with a $20 MP3-CD player, what's the point in spending $200+ for an Ipod?

You could also just make good old audio CDs from the MP3 files, if they'd fit on a CD.

Re:Podcasting?

[jlewin]

Would you be interested if the podcast was your personal selection of MP3 content, freshly aggregated from various sources & sync'd to your portable media player? That's what podcasting is all about.

Podcasting News is a good place to find out more info, from the perspective of the podcasting community.

Re:Podcasting?

[Normal1]

acroyear says, "so there's a need for radio: when you don't have an mp3 collection in the car, it allows 'randomness' to control what you hear. but as we all know, over the air radio sucks."

In the case of classic rock, sure, ok, because every classic rock song that will ever be released has been released. But how do people find out about new music without hearing it on radio? With the satellite stuff, it shows up right there on the little ugly screen, so you can track it down later. We give out the monitoring URL for Shoutcast's listers and status page so people can see what we're playing (see: http://broadcast.theoryradio.org:8000).

Podcasting seems so hopelessly complicated that a novice like me could scarsely hope to learn how to do it. I don't know... maybe it's much simpler than it seems. A couple of our DJs are looking into doing it.

*shrug*
Normal

Re:Podcasting?

[acroyear]

well, it used to be that setting up a track list and burning a cd was much harder than it became.

it takes first steps into something, actually having somebody do it at all, before the tools come out to make it easier to do.

already the tools are coming out to simplify the process by allowing you to edit mp3s (cuts, appending, etc) without having to turn everything into a wav (and go through a lossy re-encoding phase back to mp3). those tools weren't around 2 years ago.

in the end, it really is no more tedious to podcast than it is to make a mix tape or a mix cd.

collect the songs, record any voice-over segments you want, append them togther to a single mp3 stream, and stick it on your website, hoping there aren't so many downloads that it blows your monthly quota out.

what makes podcasting work is that you have to download it first. yes, it *seems* to those used to live radio that it sucks compared to streaming...but on the other hand, i can't stream 24/7, and you can't take a stream with you on the road.

i'd love to share my musical tastes by running my own online station...but at 34, with a day job and plenty of non-technical commitments, i can't. i'm not that kind of geek like i might have been in my college days. if i felt so inclined, casting like this would be a good alternative.

however, its also comparable to an audio-blog. you're mostly going to be interested in podcasts from people you already know.

Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[Anonymous Coward]

Satellite's subscription model will make AM/FM's advertising system obsolete. The majority would rather pay for no/few commercials than music that's interupted after 5 songs or talk shows that need breaks every 10 minutes. Opie and Anthony on XM do a four hour show with almost no breaks, and it's taken off so well XM is using them to compete against $500 Stern.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[velo_mike]

Satellite's subscription model will make AM/FM's advertising system obsolete. The majority would rather pay for no/few commercials than music that's interupted after 5 songs or talk shows that need breaks every 10 minutes. Opie and Anthony on XM do a four hour show with almost no breaks, and it's taken off so well XM is using them to compete against $500 Stern.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that the allure of Cable TV when it was introduced in the late 70's? I've never been much into TV, and didn't get cable til I hit my mid 30's, but I seem to remember that a lack of commercials was part of what you paid for.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[HFXPro]

It was... and now look at it today. Commercials all over the place and even a lot of dedicated commercial tv stations (Home Shopping Network or whatever its called). As much as I hate most radio, if people switch to Satellite I only see it becoming worse and satellite becoming just as bad.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be more worried about Sirius' new boss Mel Karmazin, he was a sales guy at Infinity and has hired more salesmen than a commercial free service needs.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[sanityspeech]

velo_mike:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that the allure of Cable TV when it was introduced in the late 70's? I've never been much into TV, and didn't get cable til I hit my mid 30's, but I seem to remember that a lack of commercials was part of what you paid for.

It seems that history has a funny way of repeating itself. It is very likely that the merchants will not appreciate your insightful analysis.

"There's a sucker born every minute." -- David Hannum

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[scupper]

I think that when either Sirius or XM break the 10 million subscriber mark, Clear Channel, Viacom or perhaps even News Corp. will try to gobble them up.

News Corp. absorbed 82% of DirectTV. What's to stop them from "assimilating" XM or Sirius?FCC?

Once that takes place, the commercials on satellite radio won't be far behind.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[HAKdragon]

The majority would rather pay for no/few commercials than music that's interupted after 5 songs or talk shows that need breaks every 10 minutes.

Interestingly, the radio station I listen to doesn't play commericials. Occasionally, they play promotions for upcoming programs or they'll do like 1 minute educational bits, but I hardly consider these commercials.

Then again it is a college radio station so that might have something to do with it, I'm not completely sure.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[kaosmunkee]

Er, you do realize that ClearChannel owns XM already, right?

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[scupper]

Sure about that? XMRS - Major Holders - Yahoo Finance

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[Anonymous Coward]

One only needs to make a call to XM or Serius, and say, "Can I speak with your Advertising Sales Department please?", to understand that Satelite Radio will go the way of commercial radio in terms of advertising. They have sales people on staff just like regular staions. Look at it this way, you're a station owner. You have a popular show that 2 million people listen to. Pepsi calls. "Would you mind airing this little 30 second piece that we have here. It's just a little bitty commercial. Just 30 seconds. We'll give you a million dollars if you do it. C'mon, think what yo could do with a million dollars. It's just one little commercial...

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I didn't think trailer trash would be able to afford or want to pay for satellite in order to listen to their Stern or Opie and Anthony.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[Anonymous Coward]

There was some demographic study a while ago that showed that the average Stern listener was upper or middle class making a decent salary. They're just not the goons that call the program or viewed as a sideshow.

People love compelling radio. It's the same reason people watch "Cops"

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[acroyear]

and there are plenty of stations they'll air it. almost all of them are "talk" / "news" stations, or the regional traffic/weather stations above 210.

XM is trying for a different model -- the retail/restaurant PA system, to replace those stodgy (muzak) or over-the-air (with commercials) radio in the store. having commercial-free yet still "hip" is appealing to those places that want to keep the pop-current atmosphere and yet not want the commercials (or repetition) of commerical radio, and at a cheaper price than the old-style contracted music services that used dedicated phone lines or stuff like that.

it'll be a while before they get into the mall market that way, of course, but its a way to make more money (and advertising) without having to put commercials in the music stations directly.

Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[reallocate]

To me, the advantage of radio is that stations exist that broadcast programming in specific formats. I can tune into these stations anytime and listen to programming that I enjoy.

For example, 3 FM stations exists within 25 miles of me that have 24/7 jazz formats. I'm a jazz fan, so that makes me happy.

I'm not aware of any podcast sources that provide comparable services. Podcasts require that I go out and find digital files I want and then set them up for play. I don't have the time to do that to build up a podcast playlist as lengthy as the one I can get just be turning on my radio.

There's no reason why someone couldn't hire a staff, pay them to create and collect podcasts and then broadcast them over AM or FM on a 24/7 format, but that would be very much the same as radio anyway.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[kev0153]

Sat radio offers that advantage and moe. For example Sirius offers 6 channels dedicated to Jazz and XM offers 5. With the added bonus of being able to listen to these stations anywhere in the country. Heck it gets any more specific, Sirius offers a channel that plays nothing but 80s hairbands 24/7 if that is your thing.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[MidnightBrewer]

Podcasts offer programming in specific formats, i.e. people create podcasts based on their own personal interests. There are podcasts for every possible type of interest out there, plus a few that radio would never even consider investing in.

You aren't willing to go out and find digital files and set them up for play? So you've never downloaded music off of the internet, ever?

Podcasts are also usually quite long. One podcast can last anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes. There is plenty of free podcasting aggregators available that will allow you to subscribe to a feed, check the feed regularly, and then automatically download new podcasts and load them into your favorite MP3 player. You might want to start here (http://www.ipodder.org/) and see what you can find.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[rob_squared]

"For example, 3 FM stations exists within 25 miles of me that have 24/7 jazz formats. I'm a jazz fan, so that makes me happy."

Consider yourself lucky, the only jazz station close to me turned into TALK RADIO, 96.9 in Boston. Grr.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[reallocate]

I've checked into satellite radio but the programming is similar to what I can get free on local FM. Perhaps if/when I relocate.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[reallocate]

The advantage of radio for me is that it is free, available 24/7, and I can listen to it pretty much wherever I am.

Podcasts require me to buy an mp3 player, carry it with me wherever I go or buy several players to put in the car and in differnet places around the house, and then locate and collect the programming I want.

So far, I much prefer just turning on the radio to listen to the kind of music I know is going to be there.

I'm not questioning the validity of podcasting, just suggesting that programming and content are more important than technology.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[Wyatt Earp]

I live in Portland OR, where the radio market sucks, but I also travel back and forth to South Dakota and Wyoming, so Satellite radio (XM) is a huge bonus, you get out there in Montana and Wyoming and theres nothing on FM and often nothing at all on AM during the day. You can put the tuner on search for an hour and get no hits.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[ravenskana]

Podcasts work great for those who already have an MP3 player.

If I already have an iPod and is has several days of my music on it, then podcasts make a great addition, giving me things like some talk content like NPR's On The Media podcast or the opportunity to discover new music like with the Insomnia Radio podcast.

Buying an MP3 player just for podcasts might be a bit too much at this point unless you already know there's content you want, but if you already have an MP3 player experimenting with some podcasts can be fun.

Radio can be great for some people if you live in an area with decent stations, but I've lived in areas where there were only one or two stations that appealed to me but they got to the point when they seemed to play commercials 40 minutes of every hour. Luckily, I moved, so now I have a variety of options.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[pbaumgar]

It isn't even remotely close to what you would find on any FM station in your market, I don't care where you live. You need "check" it out a little more I think.

Re:Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[reallocate]

I've got 3 FM stations playing the music I enjoy and one flagship NPR station giving me everything else. And I it's free.

I don't buy satellite radio for the same reason I don't buy anything more than basic cable: I looked at the programming and saw nothing I'd watch or listen.

Satellite radio couold carry a thousand formats and I wouldn't buy it if I didn'y want to listen to those 1000 formats.

Inveitable

[luckytroll]

I stopped listening to radio a long time ago - my MP3-cd player for the car was the best money I ever spent. Aside from our commercial-free public radio (CBC) I have only occasionall listened to commercial radio, and was driven off by the advertising within a few minutes. The only thing that is missing from my de-commercialized listening experience is a way to inject new music and news into the stream of music I have chosen so as to keep it fresh.

So - why not broadcast cue information about which stations are playing what so my (yet to be invented) intelligent radio/player can dash seamlessly between stations and canned tracks whilst avoiding the blaring Ads with tivo-like grace. We do it with the remote on television to avoid the chaff, why not with radio?

Re:Inveitable

[NeuralAbyss]

It's a good concept - I thought of something similar a while back.. 'why don't we have digital radio, like we do digital TV.. transmit the songs quickly, then keep playing if there's a dropout'... but you won't see them broadcasting playlist information in any meaningful format for two reasons:

1. There's no 'standard' for naming tracks - some may spell things differently
2. They'd lose their income stream - advertising!

Unfortunate, but it's the way things are.

Re:Inveitable

[sharkman67]

Maybe because most of these stations do not publish their playlists. And even if they did you would have to have some kind of cross ref to a database to look up the length of the song, genre, etc. Then you need some way to beam the data to your car.

If radio stations were supportive of such an idea they could send the data on a subcarrier of the main freq, However your main intention is to skip their advertiser so why would they want to go to the expense of providing you with all this data?

Re:Inveitable

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason what you're doing doesn't work for me is the pool of music gets stagnant. After years of collecting CDs, I discovered XM radio. Those thousands of CDs sit on the shelves collecting dust now, because they offer nowhere near the choice I get from XM.

I had stagnated musically (and I knew it -- going into the CD stores literally unable to find anything I wanted). Since 2001 when I got XM, I've heard more new great music than I did in the entire 20 years before.

I once recorded stuff all the time. Today, I view it as a horrible waste of time and energy.

Why anyone would NOT have XM is beyond me.

Re:Inveitable

[Anonymous Coward]

"Why anyone would NOT have XM is beyond me."

I'm sure this is just one of many things which are beyond you.

Re:Inveitable

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm the same way, only i started with a mp3cd walkman and tape adapter way back when. finding new music is harder lately, my substititue for radio used to be browsing people's shares rather than searching for a specific. nowadays, i'm into a lot rarer tracks (live if i can), so i'll enjoy the binary newsgroups.

Good

[CarrionBird]

Such industries should either evolve or die out.

Podcasting: Will it be as big as FLASH MOBS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Another inane buzzword fad cooked up by the idiotic blog crowd. WTF is so special about downloading audio files of these morons talking?

Re:Podcasting: Will it be as big as FLASH MOBS?

[Anonymous Coward]

I get to listen to these morons like several of the NPR shows or Leo Laporte or off the hook from 2600 on my morning drive.

it's better than actink like a moron bitching about something they know nothing about.

kind of like you.

Mobile Porn

[MLopat]

Sure XM is great, but its still kinda pricey to have it installed. My alpine deck with XM was $600 + $400 to purchase and nstall the xm antenna. Playing MP3's and WMV's in the car deck is great, but gets a little stale unless you're constantly burning more cd's. So now, I've equipped the car with an 802.11 enabled pocket pc so that I can send porn to it and keep upto date on all my favorite Barely Legal DVD's. Makes getting stuck in traffic alot more fun. Plus the girls actually seem to like it when we're driving to a club.

Re:Mobile Porn

[Skater]

I can't believe someone that bought an Alpine receiver is complaining about the money. You do realize Alpine is top of the line, right? You could've gotten XM for a LOT less - most $150 and up head units support it now, and maybe even some under that. You still have to buy the tuner for around $50 and an antenna (say, $40), but that's still far less than $600.

I'd say you paid too much for the installation, too - swapping a radio is a matter of minutes, and it can't be that hard to put in the antenna - I did one on mine in about 10 minutes start to finish. Only thing left is mounting the tuner and running wires, but I can't see the whole job taking more than an hour or so for an experienced installer.

Re:Mobile Porn

[MLopat]

Actually I was suprised myself that it cost $400, bit it included the antenna which was apparently $180. The rest was for wiring, and having it run to the rear windshield. Yeah I probably got fucked on that deal.

It's not just you.

[solios]

I'm in the WTF boat myself.

But then, I stopped listening to radio years ago- I pull my weather from the *.gov, and get everything else through iTunes and the internets. I once heard podcasting described as "an audio blog"- my response was something along the lines of "just what I want to hear- more talk radio."

Blogs have given us a few million Spider Jerusalem wannabes- podcasting and cheap cams will give us a few million Edison Carter wannabes. While technology has decimated the entry barrier and given any medium to anyone with enough motivation to make a try for it, it's done nothing to make it easier to sort through the crap and find the good stuff (example- webcomics. Finding a good webcomic that's not run by someone who's even better at marketing is a crapshoot).

Stern, Limbaugh (sp?), et. al. irritate the everloving crap out of me- if I wanted a cult-of-personality circlejerk I'd buy a TV and watch the local news. Those jackoffs can't seem to get their faces off of billboards, and they look a few notches up the percieved quality scale from all of the radio "personalities" splattered across same. Stern went to XM- that's good, he can stay there. I don't miss him. If podcasting is similar, then I'm so far out of the demographic that I'm orbiting pluto.

If I really want talk radio, I can pipe an infobot or eliza through a speach synthesizer and be done with it. :-)

Re:It's not just you.

[ScrewMaster]

Well, AT&T's Natural Voice speech synth is pretty good, about the best I've ever heard come out of a computer. I have the "Crystal16" voice and I use it to announce incoming phone calls around the house. If you listen closely you can tell it's synthetic, but it's so much more understandable than all the Votrax SC-01 wannabes out there that it's actually pleasant to hear. Dunno if I'd want to have it (her?) read my news to me though.

Other than that I feel pretty much the same way you do. I'm all for the egalitarian aspects of modern technologies, and I'm glad that the Internet and low-powered radio makes that possible from a free-speech, good-for-the-society perspective. We're all better off when the power of communication stays in the hands of the individual. I don't, however, feel compelled to listen to much of it.

It's like anything else that requires skill and talent. Take music, for example. Prior to the advent of electronic instruments, a composer pretty much had to hire a musician to play whatever instruments his piece required. For any sophisticated composition that was an expensive proposition, only a few could afford it (or those that the media moguls chose to support.) Today, by investing a few thousand dollars in a couple of good synth/processor modules, and a Mac or PC to run the show, and you can make music of professional quality. Well, you can if you know what you're doing, and that's the problem ... there are certain areas of human endeavor that haven't yet been effectively replaced by technology. Sometimes it takes actual talent ... the machine makes a great facilitator but isn't much of a creator (yet.)

Re:It's not just you.

[broller]

my response was something along the lines of "just what I want to hear- more talk radio."

Yep, me too, only without the sarcastic overtones. I'm tired of being stuck with ultra-conservatives as my only sources of good talk radio. NPR is OK, but they are more entertainment and liberal news and I prefer issue-based discussions. Most of the podcasters I listen to seem to be more open and honest and have a down to earth feel, but that's typical with independent broadcasters vs. those who answer to the underwriters. Eventually as the advertisers get involved, that aspect will fade from the popular shows.

Podcasting gives me access to interesting talk radio, without the ultra-conservative bias, and in a format I can easily carry with me. If I wanted to listen to music, I'd just turn on the radio.

podcasting's effect

[Anonymous Coward]

... is absolutely zero.

Podcasting has become the lastest outlet for the angst-ridden 14 year olds who now find having a "BLOG" is not hip enough for them anymore.

"download this file and listen to me talk for hours on end!"

a tip: stop recording while you're puffing the blunt, it'll cut the download times in half.

And if it were the RIAA being bypassed...

[Tavor]

"Consider the basics: With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy creating audio programming for thousands of others. They're bypassing an entire industry"

They'd sue you, buy your congressmen to get the laws changed, and consider you a criminal for being enthusiastic about the art and the industry.

The problem with that...

[solios]

... is that these "specific formats" typically consist of a 200 song playlist. There were a hell of a lot more hit singles in the 80s- nevermind hit albums or hit artists.

I listened to the local Clear Channel Alternapop Earcock a couple of days ago for the first time in months... in a thirty minute span, I didn't hear anything I haven't heard a few hundred times before, and years previously. Last I checked, Radiohead has written more songs than "Creep"- but you wouldn't know it to listen to these asshats.

When I got to this town (Pittsburgh) in 1997, there was a Jazz station parked at 104.{5|7}. It was nice and I listened to it quite a bit... until one day it magically Changed Format to hiphop/r&b. Just like that. A few years later and that frequency is a black hole of Rod Stewart / Michael Bolton-esque soft rock. :-| And College Radio can't get the OMFG TECHNO OMFG GANSTA RAP OMFG HIPPY MUSIC out of their systems either.

Radio's great when you're in the serviced demographic- if you're noti, it's a vast, staticy wasteland.

Re:The problem with that...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was with you right up until you said "asshat."

Re:The problem with that...

[reallocate]

Radio's great when you're in the serviced demographic- if you're noti, it's a vast, staticy wasteland.

Agree, but the same applies to any medium. If someone doesn't make podcasts I want to listen to, I'm not going to listen.

Changed? It hasn't happened yet

[Anonymous Coward]

And if the masses move, the government is going to go for regulation, even of content. If they do that, the only thing that will change is the method of distribution.

I wish I had mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I truely love seeing so much untargeted anger.

Re:I wish I had mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I truely love seeing so much untargeted anger.

Hah. You can always tell the dittoheads. Rush has them convinced that he's calm and normal and that all the big bad liberals are full of hate and rage. Tell me dittohead, do you know what "the big lie" is? Rush is a master of it.

Anyone listening to him in the last week would know he's a total nut, going on and on about other shows stealing his soundbytes oh my god!!! Just because his staff put the effort in to dig them up, he thinks he owns them. Someone needs to call him up and point out that you can't copyright facts. He knows it though, when asked why he just doesn't go to court about it, he says "I'm not a litigious man" that's code for "I know I would lose."

So he has said he is going to watermark the soundbytes that he plays on this show. After all, "they can do it to CDs and DVDs and TV Shows" (yes, verbatim quote). So, what technology does he use to "watermark" his sound bytes? He's got a recording of a guy with Turret's Syndrome that he plays over his soundbytes. No fancy encoding in the noise, no hidden codes.

No, Rush has decided that his fans need to constantly listen to a guy with Turret's syndrome because somebody is "stealing" his soundbytes. And you know what? All the dittoheads nod right along with it and are happy to hear little barks and yips all through the show. Never once questioning their lord and master since if he says it, it must be true!

Meanwhile, anyone else with a sane view of the world is laughing their asses off at Limbaugh and his completely rational, normal and calm tantrum. You're a big dork Rush, king of all those little dorks...

Re:I wish I had mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

"Because I truely love seeing so much untargeted anger."

Will Slashdot tolerate such a truly pointless waste of posting and bandwidth ?

And will your parents, when they find out what you've been doing over the internet connection they pay for ?

It's Radios' Fault

[vapor2000]

Commercial radio is BAD. It stopped being about anything besides delivering specific market segment a long time ago and a medium radio is capable of so much more.

It is only natural that somone that isn't as beholden to advertisers can be more creative and produce a higher quality product. Public radio has been demonstrating this for a long long time (at least here in MN).

Sirius/XM is cool and is an extension of the cable/sat TV business model, but I wonder about Podcasting. It's one thing to spam your signal in an unlimited fashion like radio can, but the infrastructure costs of pod casting could be an issue. Streaming and downloads are like collect calls and we all know that there is no free lunch when it comes to bandwidth. I think the bandwith costs will probably limit the growth of internet based distribution significantly...

Re:It's Radios' Fault

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

You're forgetting our friend, BitTorrent. Which was pretty much designed for that.

Re:It's Radios' Fault

[MtViewGuy]

Sirius/XM is cool and is an extension of the cable/sat TV business model

In fact, one of the big draws is that satellite radio offers the chance for people to listen to many types of national broadcasts that you can't get with local radio. That's why ESPN Radio has done well because you can hear all of their programming 24 hours a day, and Fox Sports Radio is growing because of their association with XM. I wouldn't be surprised that once both Sirius and XM reach "critical mass" of listeners you will see a lot of national talk radio shows go to satellite radio, too.

Do they get it?

[sammyo]

"...listeners are creating the future. In just seven months, podcasts have appeared, covering subjects from Delta blues to vegetarian cooking..."

Naw:

"It's possible to imagine people paying monthly fees to hear programming-on-demand on the phone, PC, or in the car. Listeners could buy a song they hear on the radio with the click of a button."

Actually a pretty good overview from the 'business' viewpoint. The world it's a changing.

Anyone else see where this is going...

[Nobody from Nowhere]

It seems pretty obvious to me that as things continue on the current trend that it won't be too much longer that "videocasting" and the like will start to upset the right people in TV and Cable land . I could easily see that the only thing you have to pay for is bandwidth (which is enough in and of itself) and anyone with a server, the bandwidth, and a video camera could start "broadcasting" their show over the internet. Commercial (I know of the free ones as well, but that is another topic entirely) products like "Windows Media Center" that are sold in stores will make it so that the average user can now watch Star Trek New Voyages on their TV. If you want your fan films to show up, you just have to plug into their API and WAMO! you've got a million viewers (certian assumptions made...like its worth watching). I think the "numa-numa" kid, and the jedi-kid prove that this is where things are heading. The real question is, how much kicking and screaming will the "traditional" broadcasting folk make? or will they jump on the bandwagon?

Re:Anyone else see where this is going...

[LocoMan]

Checking that new voyages website makes me think of one thing.... cue lawsuit in 10.. 9... 8... 7.. :)

Anyway, the real point of this post is that what you describe is already happening (and has been happening for a while) in sites like iFILM, Atomfilms and Pocketmovies, just to name a few that I can think of right now. As a 3D animator wannabe I still check them from time to time to see new animated shorts.

Bullshit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Leave it to Slashdot to hype nonsense like "podcasting." Never mind that there are lots of us out there that don't use iPods as our primary means of listening to music.

Podcasting is nothing new or revolutionary. What about sites like SomaFM? They've been streaming music longer than anyone. Prior to the RIAA licensing mess a few years ago, internet streaming radio stations didn't (by and large) pay any fees either. And there are "talk radio" stations on the 'net that STILL don't pay anything at all because they aren't using anyone else's music.

Podcasting is yet another stupid fad, and I highly doubt it has influenced ANYTHING, especially the bottom lines of satellite broadcasters.

Re:Bullshit.

[ravenskana]

For most people it would be hard to take SomaFM into their car radio on on their portable music player (doesn't have to be an iPod as the files are typically just MP3 so any player will work).

There's ways to record streaming stations to MP3 files to accomplish the same thing, but many people either don't know how to do that, or just don't consider it in the first place.

Lord knows Radio NEEDS it.

[Matey-O]

Since getting my iPod and haveing access to most of my collecation, I NEVER listen to radio. I find NO redeeming qualities to the ClearChannel owned FM band.

Re:heh

[CptNerd]

When I first heard of the blog-concept, I thought: What kind of egocentric and conceited cunts think they need to share their shit-encrusted thoughts with the world? How deep can someone sink?

Then came podcasting.

But first came Slashdot to show the way...

Podcasting and Satellite dead?

[e03179]

Shouldn't the title be: How Podcasting and Satellite Is Changing Radio?

The BBC have the power

[matt me]

DAB and Digital TV are already going full steam with the backing of the BBC. The BBC want to start podcasting soon, so that might help it take off here, as soon as they get legal problems sorted.

As for podcasting ever killing commercial radio, you might as well expect amateur movies filmed by bloggers to destroy Hollywood and music on Creative Commons to kill EMI.

Podcasting really needs a better name. The 'pod' bit, is just another commercial plug for Apple. It wouldn't be acceptable to call all PCs 'Window-machines', would it? Or websites 'Internet Explorer sites'?

I have an iRiver H120. On their front page they have someone listening to their new mini player, whilst crunching on a juice apple. Subtle?

Re:The BBC have the power

[Storlek]

Podcasting really needs a better name. The 'pod' bit, is just another commercial plug for Apple. It wouldn't be acceptable to call all PCs 'Window-machines', would it? Or websites 'Internet Explorer sites'?

You might as well call Kleenex "tissues", call a Xerox machine a "photocopier", or a Band-aid a "bandage". The iPod has the vast majority of the market share and mind share for digital music players, and it's not going away.

Re:The BBC have the power

[Tony Hoyle]

Can't see what the BBC would want to use ipods for, they already have a proper commercial broadcast license.

It'll probably always be a US thing... having a private radio transmitter is illegal in the UK and most of Europe, which is why the podcast devices aren't sold here.

Re:The BBC have the power

[matt me]

Here many ppl have iPods and other mp3 players but very few ppl have mobile DAB radios. (Not sure if/when they plan to turn off FM radio. Analogue TV is 2012, I think.) I cannot listen to 6music or any other DAB station whilst travelling in the morning. If the BBC were to podcast programs, I could funk my way to school with Craig Charles. Woo.

Re:The BBC have the power

[ashchap2]

i dont think ive ever called a tissue a kleenex, and i've definitely never called a photocopier a 'xerox machine' or a bandage a 'band-aid' i think its an american thing

Re:The BBC have the power

[iowannaski]

You have no idea what a podcast is, do you? Hint: it is not the act of playing music from your iPod over a radio.

Re:You live in Utopia

[Bastian]

Where I live, there is a single jazz station. The country stations only play popabilly CMT shite. There isn't a 24 hour classical station I can find, and the rock stations spend more time branding themselves as "The " and ripping on each other than playing actual music. All the stations within a given format range use the exact same 10-song playlist anyway, but they make it sound likethere's more variety with their vast libraries of IDs. The two NPR stations I can pick up just play All Things Considered all day, crappy light jass all evening, and BBC worldservice all night - now a whiff of a truly inspired show like Odyssey or Tavis Smiley.

And with a job that has me driving across the country on a fairly regular basis, I can say that I'm pretty sure that my home area is par for the course.

I don't know much about podcasting, but I can tell you my Sirius subscription is well worth the 12-something a month I pay for it. They play MUSIC! Actual MUSIC!

(Too bad the company cars have XM radio, which is only a marginal improvement over FM radio and still not as good as a Mr. Big album on repeat for 10 hours.)

Re:heh

[machine of god]

When I first heard of the blog-concept, I thought: What kind of egocentric and conceited cunts think they need to share their shit-encrusted thoughts with the world? How deep can someone sink?

Then came podcasting.

Perhaps some introspection could answer your question?

Howard Stern proves otherwise

[USCG]

The entire point of Howard Stern leaving broadcast radio was partially because he was sick of being harassed by the FCC, thanks to extremist right-wing Christian groups. The government is not regulating cable, and will not be regulating satellite radio any time in the near future. With Cable, advertising dollars fuel it, and advertisers aren't willing to pay for anything they deem as risky during the day. With Satellite, it's subscriber based and not advertisement based, like cable's pay-per-view, so the dynamics are completely different and your blanket statement does not apply here.

u r dum

[Anonymous Coward]

All three programs have been available online long before there was any such thing as an iPod or podcasting.

A. Why do we need a new buzzword to describe downloading radio shows as audio files for play later?

Q. So idiot tech journalists and writers that hype fake trends can get in a big circle and jerk each other off until one of them lands a deal to put together "Podcasting In A Nushell" for O'Reilly

Re:u r dum

[ravenskana]

"A. Why do we need a new buzzword to describe downloading radio shows as audio files for play later?"

It's the automation. There's been radio shows you could download before (or more likely, stream), but it required the listener to seek it out and begin the playback or download. Which is fine for a single use, like if you want to check the NPR archives to find an All Things Considered story you only heard a fragment from the radio, but it doesn't scale well. If you want a new show each day, there's a bit of work for you to do each day.

A podcast is different in that once the listener finds the content, they can use a program to check automatically for them and download new content when it arrives. Many programs go further, moving the content into iTunes which then automatically syncs with the iPod (or whatever MP3 program/player you use). So the effect is one can wake up, take the iPod off the dock on the way out the door, and listen to new content in the car or on a jog, etc.

Now the podcast is using RSS to accomplish this automation, so if you don't see a difference between using an RSS reader vs. a web browser this probably won't matter to you either. Also one can argue that the term podcast isn't needed and RSS could be used instead. Sure, but many people don't know RSS either. ;)

primitive? No boat, no moter car

[goombah99]

Let's see there no tower or frequencies involved.

Uh yeah but there's billions of miles of internet cables, all sorts of frequencies, amplifiers, ....

radio can be picked up and amplified by a couple transistors and a coat hanger.

Radio is the simpler of the two.

It sounds like you're looking for Shoutcast.

[Eevee]

Shoutcast has a wide variety of formats available; however, since it's live netcasting, you can't carry it with you. C'est la vie.

Re:It sounds like you're looking for Shoutcast.

[Normal1]

One last shameless plug. Our station uses Shoutcast. We're also investigating Icecast. Our technical guy can tell you the difference between the two, but I can't. Shoutcast seems to be good and stable, and you can go to Shoutcast's page to find stations. Rogue Amoeba, who makes the supremely awesome Nicecast (no, I don't work for them, I'm just a fan), has their Macstreams here:

And, of course, our station rocks the world at

-Normal

Re:It sounds like you're looking for Shoutcast.

[acroyear]

i had reasonable success with Icecast on a slow linux box about 7 years ago. one thing about it was that at the time, the box would slow to a crawl if it had to re-encode the mp3 to a smaller value (ie., turning a 44/128 down into a 22/64). but keep in mind that was 7 years ago when boxes were 4 times slower (and far less memory) than today's hardware. shoutcast probably would have done the same, but I used icecast to stay on linux.

also, though broadcasting, i wasn't "advertising" per-se. i was using it mostly to share music with my then girlfriend (now wife) who was in jersey while i was here, and also to provide background music to a weekly chat i used to be part of before other commitments took out that weeknight.

but on the technical end with icecast and stuff, i'm sure things are better now than they were then. i just haven't had the need to try.

Licensing issues will burn podcasters

[DetroitSongBird]

If you add songs to your podcast you'll need a set of licenses: for the songwriter (bmi, ascap, etc) and for the "mechanical" owner (the owner of the sound recording) at the very least. Or, you'll need explicit permission from the songwriter and the music label/artist. Podcasting won't fall under the internet broadcasting licenses. It's much closer to file sharing and will end up with the same issues as file sharing.

That's why you'll start hearing about "podcast safe" music - usually by independent artists or small labels that explicitly give permission for their songs to be included in a podcast.

Hopefully podcasters will keep this under control so that the paid for leaches in congress don't start passing legislation that would hurt this.

For public radio stations and alternative news/music organizations podcasting is awesome! I could see some podcast producers being picked up by radio show distributors. Coverville, for example, would be an excellent show even on terrestrial radio.

good podcasts?

[chocolatetrumpet]

I actually started to make my own 'podcast' but I thought it was too boring for anyone to listen to so I never released it.

Can anyone recommend some good podcasts? Are there any big popular podcasters that many people like?

What ever happened to "Geeks in Space: Slashdot Radio"? Wasn' that a 'podcast'?

Re:good podcasts?

[Spoing]

1. Can anyone recommend some good podcasts? Are there any big popular podcasters that many people like?

The group I listen to needs to be purged (getting borred of a couple podcasts). IT Conversations has the best content, though The Peanut Gallery looks promising for short thoughtful stories. Openpodcast quite a bit -- both the worst and best.

For what it's worth, here's my complete current list (/. mangles it a bit);

http://www.thepeanutgallery.info/peanut.xml
http: //www.rocketboom.com/vlog/quicktime_daily_enclosur es.xml
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/audio/l ydonRss.xml
http://feeds.feedburner.com/OliverWil lisLikeKryptoniteToStupid
http://iplusone.org/blo g/index.xml
http://radio.linuxquestions.org/syndi cate/lqpodcast.php
http://leoville.com/blog/index .php/C32/
http://leoville.tv/airchecks/rss.xml
h ttp://mysite.verizon.net/jennsnoddy/Chick.xml
htt p://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/audio/directmp3.x ml
http://www.gomaya.com/glyph/rss.xml
http://ww w.lugradio.org/episodes.rss
http://www.masternewm edia.org/news/2004/10/10/eric_rices_podcast_interv iew_with.htm
http://www.matthewbischoff.com/mt/in dex.xml
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/future tense/podcast.xml
http://www.radioxfactor.com/200 4/11/podcasting_univ.html
http://oak.phpwebhostin g.com/~theagent/wordpress/wp-rss2.php
http://open podcast.org/podcast.xml
http://pentdego.com/feeds /freeflow.xml
http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/ca tegories/dailySourceCode/rss.xml
http://radio.web logs.com/0001014/categories/qotd/rss.xml
http://r adio.weblogs.com/0142338/rss.xml
http://rasterweb .net/raster/feeds/rwaudio.rss
http://rss.actsofvo lition.com
http://rss.radiowhore.com/rss.xml
htt p://secrets.scripting.com/xml/rss.xml
http://stre ams.wgbh.org/podcast/morningstories.xml
http://th elinuxlink.net/tllts/tllts.rss
http://webword.com /podcasts/dircaster.php
http://www.acmenoise.com/ temp/250millionradio.xml
http://www.atomiccity.or g/categories/podcasts/rss.xml
http://www.blogosph ereradio.com/
http://www.ipportunities.nl/wordpre ss/
http://www.itconversations.com/download.php?i d=214&format=mp3
http://www.itconversations.com/r ss/category-rss.php?k=dougkaye&e=1
http://www.itc onversations.com/rss/recentWithEnclosures.php
htt p://www.reinvented.net/rss/formosa.xml
http://www .scripting.com/rss.xml
http://www.thelinuxlink.ne t/tllts/tllts.rss
http://www.welchwrite.com/dewel ch/ce/

XM, or why I hardly ever listen to MP3s anymore

[Andy Dodd]

Since I bought my Roady and activated it, I've hardly listened to any MP3s.

For one, the enclosure for the hard drive most of my MP3s are on is not working and I haven't gotten around to replacing/fixing it (I'm pretty sure the HD itself is fine.) One of the reasons I've been lazy about replacing/fixing the HD is because I don't need the MP3s as much.

XM gives me a huge variety of music with an amazing selection, and exposes me to new music I'd NEVER have found on my own, and it's so damn convenient too. No need for a PC, just my tiny Walkman-size receiver and the antenna. :)

And XM has also completely replaced FM for me, except for when I'm too lazy to move my receiver/antenna into the car, in which case 92.3 K-Rock is still a decent station. (XM 48 Squizz is far, far better though.)

Re:XM, or why I hardly ever listen to MP3s anymore

[acroyear]

annoyingly, the one major review of the myfi unit was from an mp3-o-phile who was so addicted to having total control that anything bad (like sound quality on some of the older rips) was a major bad.

as Fripp would say, the reviewer reviews himself far more than the target of his review.

the myfi isn't really my thing (the main time i listen with headphones is on the subway, where xm wouldn't reach. but one thing that will likely reduce my mp3-playing @ work would be listen.xmradio.com's online service.

Re:XM, or why I hardly ever listen to MP3s anymore

[Normal1]

Yeah, I completely agree (I have Sirius, not XM). It's not just about not having commercials, it's about a different range of music available. It seems like the obvious reason Satellite, Podcasting, and Internet Radio is around is because commercial radio stations are too similar-sounding and aren't worth listening to. It's amazing that the radio industry has become so terrible that people are happy to pay for radio.

Amazing, but ok.

I have discovered that I LOVE radio drama, where I wouldn't ever have known that given our ClearChannel span here. I mean, where is the radio drama station in LA, eh?

-Normal

I enjoy Podcasts

[owlet]

I really enjoy podcasts. There really isn't any interesting programming here in Finland and with three kids it's pretty impossible to tune in at some weekly schedule.

I also recently got an iPod Mini. This part is essential. A portable media player that is. I only listen to podcasts when "travelling". On my way to work, lunch breaks, walks, etc... Listening while at the computer doesn't really work for me. Can't focus.

Now I can get interesting programming and listen to it any time I get a few minutes free.

I feel I've been given a chance to experience good entertainment in a both new (internet) and old (audio/radio) way. Excellent value.

A good place to start: PodcastAlley

Podcasting didn't change anything

[wootest]

The people who were doing good radio shows on the web were doing them before anyway, and far more people have web browsers than have any sort of RSS vehicles. Everything Podcasting does is make it easier to download and automatically send it to your portable music player so that you might actually stumble upon it for a while. It's important to not downplay that it's a lot more convenient, but the medium was already far enough along to have relatively stable users - you will get very few absolute newbies who on a whim download an RSS vehicle tailored for podcasting and starts listening to random people on the web.

"Podcasting" is a silly media invention

[popo]

Its a non-topic. A non-technology. Its not even widely utilised -- whatever it is.

IMHO -- P2P streaming is important. Its the next logical step up from conventional streaming technologies.

Why it gets no attention I have no idea.

Re:You live in Utopia

[reallocate]

Yeah, I know most places are like that. Fortunately, I've got easy access to three local university FM stations that play real jazz, plus a large flagship NPR station with excellent local productions and news.

i've given up on commercial radio, too

[schuss42]

a local high school has a very accomplished station that plays only PSA's and occasional news headlines.

five minutes of "normal" radio is enough to make my ears bleed.

i pledge their annual fund drive, which i guess is my "subscription" charge. but somehow, when you give it willingly instead of it being ripped from your grasp (ala cable/sat TV) it is easier and feels good.

doesn't mean there aren't times when i'd rather build my own mix on a portable/desktop player. but having people who like the same kind(s) of music you do finding new stuff and sharing it with you is what, i think, radio is supposed to be about, whatever the format.

Some decent podcasts

[Polymath Crowbane]

These are some of the podcasts to which I listen on a regular basis:

Coverville: Nothing but covers of songs. Good commentary; takes listener requests.

Firesign Theatre: Snippets of FT albums and commercials they've done. I don't know if the commercials are serious or not, but they're for real companies, and are typical FT.

On the Media: A weekly NPR program. Since I'm rarely in the house Saturday when it's broadcast, I love the ability to listen to it during the week as I have time.

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd: The serialized (and funny) adventures of Dr. Floyd as he travels through time battling his nemesis Dr. Steve.

Safe Digressions: Your daily dose of poetry, and a refreshing break during a day of techie nonsense.

Science @ NASA: Brief reports on various NASA activities. The stories about the Huygens probe have been particularly interesting, especially the description of methane rainbows on Titan.

HD radio?

[johnnyR]

I read something in wired per high definition radio, digital broadcast radio, that sounds killer

Good Podcasts; also, the Rapture Right

[JimatForemat]

Try the Dawn and Drew show http://www.dawnanddrew.com/.

It's quite funny, really. There are others, as well, including a podcast of Air America's daily programming (http://www.airamericaplace.com/), which you'll get a few days late, but is still entertaining (especially for those of us stuck in the Hannitized Savage Nation of Rush).

What most people here don't seem to understand is that podcasting is, currently, a purely talk format. Since most talk radio (with rare exceptions, above) is directed at a very specific Rapture Right listenership, it's nice to have lots of topics and styles to choose from. Music barely enters into it, unless the subject is music.

Once again

[kilodelta]

Disruptive technology is putting the hurt on the establishment. And I'm loving it.

Having witnessed the destruction of commercial radio and taken refuge in the open arms of NPR I'm so happy the established mega-stations are getting what is due them, their ultimate destruction.

For example, DAB. The cost to implement DAB is going to be hideously high. And you just know that they're not going to give it away for free. Add the fact that sat providers already have the infrastructure in place, and people willing to pay for it. Who will want to plunk $500 down for a DAB capable receiver and then probably pay closer to $20 a month. Not many people that I know, that is certain.

Homogenized radio does suck though. When the same song gets repeated in a playlist within four hours, you know your once favorite station has sold out.

I rejoice in the death throes of traditional radio. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.

Re:heh

[wootest]

Who asked for your shit-encrusted opinion, you egocentric and conceited cunt? :P

even Launch does that

[goodzilla]

Go over to Launch.yahoo and select a nice video ... like i selected kittie and the next song they played was some britney spare us... sheesh i was logged in and they do preference tracking but still they try to just push stuff... irritating i tell ..
sadly k ROQ in LA too is playing some random ugly stuff
commercial radio ... the online launch version too is pretty ugly...i constantly change to lesser known shoutcast channels just to listen to better stuff

Sat & iPods will be dead soon-Virgin Radio lik

[Anonymous Coward]

Well i am not sure if you all have read the recent news which is being hailed as a serious satellite competior and iPod killer-mobile radio by Virgin Radio. Its free and can be accessed anywhere in the world [with data network ofcourse] and its right into your handsets. I think these guys are onto something really good. Dont believe check it out and listen to it & judge for yourself: www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/mobile Only if they had more stations and i would be their devout convert.

MyFi

[Andy Dodd]

Yeah, as an existing XM listener, the MyFI makes me drool.

Too expensive for me though. My Roady (not Roady2 even, the original Roady) is more than enough for me.

Link here

[Rudy Rodarte]

Here is more information about the XM rate increase. Now I can listen to XM over the computer! Except that I can't do it at work :(

Variety and Passion

[rinks]

...are two of the things I really like about the podcasts I subscribe to. Whether it's "slacker astronomy" or an introduction to Opera or the finer points of wine selection, I think it's great that these people with so much knowledge of eclectic subjects have a forum to talk about what they love. I find it fascinating, like having a great college professor that got you interested in something you would never have thought could be. Yeah, there's a lot of crap, but that's the case with every medium. I have three or four cued up every morning for my dreadful traffic-filled drive to work, and I'm finding new ones I like every day. The bottom line is that it puts broadcasting in the hands of the people with an easy to use system that doesn't require esoteric knowledge of coding or anything else. It just requires a passion for you subject, and people certainly have that in spades.

Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

you are the only one.

Re:Podcasting (Not the worst buzzword)

[Tavor]

A news story I read the other day about Podcasting being picked up by churches used the word "Godcasting". I wanted to puke. http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_2596528

Via one of my fav. news sites, right up there with /.
http://www.witchvox.com/xwrensnest.html

Re:XM Price Hike & Sirius

[Normal1]

That makes them along the same lines as Sirius.

Internet radio is generally free, though. You mean they were charging you to go online and hear their music?

-Normal
http://www.theoryradio.org

pdacasting - poor mans podcasting

[totierne]

audio is ok but text rules if you have a half decent screen.

I have a palm pilot 3e and a broadband connection. Has anyone else looked into automated downloading content onto the pda for later consumption [for me in bed as I am nodding off to sleep. I know too much information]

html to text should not be a problem with lynx, it is 'just' seamlessly tying all the pieces together.

[My 'podcasting' amounts to downloading IT Conversations to listen to at work, I have not quite managed the listen to talk audio and work yet.]

Re:XM Price Hike & Sirius

[ffuege]

XM has its own unique channels that are all commercial-free and they make them available online to subscribers. You can't exactly compare it to free Internet radio. It's like expecting them to stream HBO to you for free.

-ffuege
http://www.xm411.com/