Traditional Radio Tries Out Podcasting

For those who need yet more motivation to check out podcasting, here's a site that Tod Maffin has put together that consolidates a list of podcasts of traditional radio shows. (via Amanita.net)

When podcasting started, it was mainly with the idea of giving a voice to anyone who had a microphone and wanted to record their words and upload it to a server - kind of an audio version of blogging.  And it still works this way.  The vast majority of podcasts out there are by individuals who may not have any broadcasting experience, professional equipment, etc.  Likewise, there is no regulation of podcasts like there is of traditional radio, no financial structure unless a podcaster has been able to secure some advertising support, and no real pressure to post a show at any given time, except perhaps from clamoring fans egging you on, if you're lucky.

But what began as a kind of pirate radio movement, has become much more than that because traditional broadcasters recognized that people liked the power of not having to be chained to a stations schedule but rather have a Tivo-like timeshifting ability.  Likewise the idea that no government or corporate entity was going to come and tell them what they could and couldn't listen to because it might hurt some segment of the audience.

It appears that more and more traditional radio are getting the message and are offering their content online as podcasts.  This list that Tod has put together shows just that.  I think public broadcasting is probably much more insulated, due to the fact that they don't have to prove audience numbers to some advertiser and can just rely on the donations of members.  Public Radio has been at the forefront of providing this new format, although they are still providing only a tiny fraction of their programming this way.  

It will be interesting to see how this trend plays out especially as the commercial stations try to figure out how to switch to this format but continue to make money.  Certainly I think the hyper-commercial radio that has commercials take up one third to half of their programming are going to die, because now that the growing number of podcast listeners has thousands of choices (which will only grow even more in number), why would you choose to listen to a station or podcast for that matter which has more than one or two 30-second commercials every half hour?

By the way, Todd's list isn't just of public radio, even though that's the title.  It does include a section for "Commercial Radio" and other shows or whole sections are not public – E.G. Leo Laporte on KFI, or Air America Network shows.

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