Podcasting from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

AttheCoalFace writes "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is piloting a podcast availability project. Quirks & Quarks, an hour-long weekly science review, is offered in the first, small list of programs." Q&Q is a great show, too.

Comments

Re:I hope to see

[Dancin_Santa]

It's not really a podcast or anything, and it's in RealAudio format, but BNW occasionally has some interesting things on their online media page.

Re:Lack of bandwidth makes podcasting difficult

[gellenburg]

Not if they use AAC/16kbit mono.

#1, that codec and that bit rate sound absolutely fantastic considering the available bandwidth.

#2, an hour long program is only about 8mb in size, so it will only take about 10 mins. to download on a dialup.

Of course, it would limit the audience to only those players that already supported the MP4-Audio/AAC OPEN format.

To get an equivalent sounding MP3 you'll need to encode at 32kbps which will more than double the file size.

But, since I already own an iPod, I guess it's not a problem for me. ;-)

CBC rulez

[MSBob]

CBC radio is without question the best radio station I've had the chance to listen to on a regular basis. Their programming is very diverse and there is a good representation of all points of view though they tend to lean slightly to the left.

Quirks and Quarks is excellent as is Northern Lights and Dispatches and Ideas and tons of other shows that are directed at an above average IQ listener. They are federally funded and unencumbered by the requirement to "have the numbers" and don't have to stoop to the lowest common denominator.

BBC is often hailed as the pinnacle of independent jounralism but I find their broadcasts have a very condescending patronizing bias when they report from "lesser" places such as Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa. Somehow, CBC manages to bring lots of news from all over the world while avoiding that annoying condescending tone that permeates the Beeb.

You can listen to CBC live. The links are on their website.

Re:Who actually bothers with podcasts?

[FLEB]

I'm not trying to "make you a believer" or anything, this is just my reason for being a podcast fan.

I listened to them at work... granted, I felt like the only one pushing for more on-computer frendliness to Podcasts and less iPod/Tunes centrism... but anyhow, I had a job that consisted of color-correcting, removing blemishes, and tweaking an entire image archive in Photoshop. The brain was flatlining, but the eyes were completely in use, so I couldn't do all the mindless web-surfing to keep a healthy, sane mind. Podcasting came as a real relief, because I could find content about the boring crap I found interesting (IT, scripting, web, RPGs... general geek fare) while still staying productive.

Really, I think the best audience is people who have something monotonous or primarily physical to do, such as exersize or work, but want something with more meat than music.