Episode #90 was recorded and published today.
A major Vancouver episode. All artists are from B.C., we’ll cover news pertaining to B.C., go over some of the details to the creation of the new Canada Line, and explore the development of the olympic village for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Get it while it’s hot! Episode #89 is up and ready for you to listen to.
I often carry around recording gear, so this is my first attempt at including smaller recordings that I make into the podcast. I tell you a little about the Eagle Cam and finish out the episode with the two soundseeing pieces. Williams Park in Langley, B.C. is a protect spawning ground for salmon and trout. You’ll also get to hang out with me and Rebecca at the 9 O’clock Gun in Stanley Park.
Published last night, episode #88 is up and ready for your auditory pleasure.
Rebecca joins me for another CouchCast. There is so much to cover that I truly needed her help on this one. We briefly review the Mates of State show we went to last Friday, discuss our experiences with the Vancouver Sun Run, talk about construction details and headaches about the Canada Line, and finish up with some Hockey Talk that, oddly enough, includes huge news about the Canucks. This is a long one, but we also tossed in some music to break things up a little.
I am very happy to see this product come from Apple. I currently own the first version of the 17″ Powerbook, so the fact that they are going to keep making laptops this massive makes me a little giddy.
The big thing to me is the inclusion of FireWire 800[wiki]. I use an external hard drive to store a lot of data and work from it as well. It comes in uber handy with audio editing. In fact, I record all my podcasts to my external. It never misses a beat. (no pun intended)
I’m far off from upgrading my current laptop, but this is at the top of the list for when I can.
In an effort to promote myself even more shamelessly, I’m going to try posting an update here for whenever I publish a new episode to my podcast.
Follow the link to go directly to the show notes for episode #87.
Recorded via minidisc, I sat down with Rebecca on our couch last night to chat a lot about lots of random topics. Most of them relate back to Vancouver, but we cover some other things as well. We talked about a lot, hockey being the main topic I wanted to have her on the podcast for. I hope I have all the links to cover the information that we shared, but that’s also what Google is for, eh?
We’re off to the Mates of State show tonight in Vancouver, so I play two cuts by them as well.
I got curious and tracked down the Radio Brothers podcast today. They were just that. A couple of brothers who were in the radio industry that wanted to also get their foot in the podcasting realm around the same time I started.
I stopped subscribing to their feed a long time ago but got curious as to what they were up to currently. They last published an episode on May 30, 2005. I take that they’re not doing it anymore.
It strikes me as being interesting due to the fact that these were a couple of radio guys that let the podcast fade away. Ray Edwards maintains a blog that isn’t updated too regularly, but worth reading if you dig the radio.
Who says no one listens to the radio anymore because we’re all listening to our iPods? That’s rubbish. People are listening to the radio a lot more than the industry thinks. We’re just not listening to broadcast radio. We’re piping iPods through the stereo using all sorts of neat little transmitters.
I have one. It works through my Powerbook via USB. It’s brilliant for music and listening to podcasts all throughout the apartment. I often wonder if anyone else is tuning in, but they’d have to hit the right frequency.
I can picture someone now, tuning into what they think is a pretty cool music station, only to have a podcast come up next in the playlist. This morning, I went from New Pornographers, to Aberdeen City, to a CNN news update, to a NPR news update, to the Onion Radio News, to the Daily Breakfast. That would completely throw off the unsuspecting.
I am a Cubs fan. Pure, plain, and simple. Ever since I was wee, I’ve been a fan of the biggest losers in baseball. Say what you will, but I am what I am. There is very little you can do to change that.
What has me more excited is Len & Bob’s Weekly Podcast.
Every week, WGN Sports broadcasters Len Kasper and Bob Brenly will discuss the latest happenings about the Chicago Cubs.
Freaking sweet! We get WGN on digital cable here in Vancouver, but no Comcast SportsNet unless we upgrade to a dish. I always thought that WGN should have more games than Comcast, but that reigns more true now than before.
I did get a subscription to MLB.com’s gameday audio last season, the main reason being that my office at the radio station was horrible for getting any reception. Yes, I listened to another radio station to catch Cubs games, but you do what you have to do. Plus for the price, it’s pretty hard to beat.
MLB.com is a pretty great service, and there is large part of me that is really missing the sound of Ron Santo and Pat Hughes doing the games on radio. It’s always better to watch the games on TV and listen to Ron rip on the Cubs when the games get pretty awful.
CNet and TechWeb both reported stories last week regarding a report that Forrester Research published regarding how businesses should tred lightly when it comes to venturing into podcasting. I haven’t had a chance to read the actual report, but the stories I have read regarding it tends to make me very skeptical on their findings.
Essentially, Forrester feels that companies should create podcasts consisting of already existing content. This further promotes the “TiVo for your radio” idea, simulcasting radio content into the podcasting medium. They go on to say that investing in original content for podcasting should be a low priority as podcasting lacks in audience at this time.
I don’t disagree in the lack of audience debate, but holding off on creating original content paves the way for others to take advantage of podcasting right now. Businesses unsure or uninformed about podcasting will buy into this report and wait. Those with the desire to create programming will have more opportunity for getting in while the getting is good.
At the same time, podcasting will only become a stronger media method through promotion. Creating original content that you can only get through podcasts will drive people towards being a listener or viewer, depending on what it is that you are publishing. It’s like having a party where anyone can come and not telling people where or when. There is also truth in saying you never know until you try.
I will admit that something needs to be done to make finding and listening to podcasts easier. There are a lot of ways to find them, download them, listen to podcasts, and tons of MP3 players for you to take them with you. Just because there isn’t one, simple way does not make podcasting a poor medium to attract people to it. Not all radios and TV’s are built and work the same. Time will tell, but it will become more common place to have podcasts fit into the realm of things.
Wired.com is running an article on their site about National Public Radio’s podcasting efforts hurting their fund raising.
“Why would I sit through all of that if I can get what I like for free online, listen to it on my own time and not be guilted for weeks into giving money?” says Michaels, a real estate agent who says her husband donates to the station on behalf of her family. “I’ve even found a whole bunch of NPR shows online that aren’t on NPR here, which is so great.”
That kind of thinking reflects both the blessing and curse presented by podcasting. On the upside, the medium is expanding NPR’s overall audience and boosting some shows previously unavailable in many markets. While most NPR programming has been streamed online for several years, the portable, time-shifted, on-demand nature of podcasting affords a new level of convenience and access.
As some one who worked for an NPR affiliate and tried to create podcast content from there, this is interesting. Fund raising happens at regular times of the year for nearly all affiliates. Some stations do this more times a year than others, but it happens. The other major thing to note is that there is a lot of cooperation from NPR themselves, sending satellite feeds of fund drive programming out at specified times.
I subscribe and listen to a handful of NPR podcasts. I really like what they are doing, they get what this medium can do for their programming. What I don’t get is how they can ignore the fund raising issue. It would be very easy to tag something on at the beginning of podcasts to remind listeners to support their local stations, specifically on podcasts that are timely, such as the NPR news podcasts. Continue reading “NPR Quick to Podcasts, Regreting Decision?”
