Podcasts Outnumber Radio Stations

I got an iPod a little over a month ago and have been devouring podcasts at a pretty good clip, as anyone here who's read one my posts lately knows well. I usually listen to them in the car. I used to study with the TV on and holding a conversation with several people in the room and still managed to do ok. You could argue I could've done better if I would've focused a little more, but I managed. However, I've found that I can't really effectively write or read while listening to a vocal podcast, such as NPR: Science Friday. Conversely, I seem to be able to work a lot more effectively with just about any kind of music playing in the background. For some reason I can watch TV and read/write while following the show, unless I am subconsciously filling in the gaps or something.

Anyway, my point here is that I originally thought podcasts were a fad until I started listening to them. Once I started listening to them, I realized it could be a great medium, especially if you are trying to convey information best transmitted in an audio format (like, duh, sounds). At this point I also thought, ok, it's good for that niche, but why listen to something that could be put on a blog or website and still get the info? Sometimes listening to these shows are interesting even though it could be done just as well as a website. As I've discovered posting here, it's pretty tough to link to a podcast or tell you guys about what I heard on a podcast. Some of them are really nicely done and make it easy to listen to complex subjects. In fact some, like NPR: Science Friday are just skimmed off of currently existing radio shows. Others are a little rougher around the edges, but are done by knowledgeable amateurs who are getting better all the time.

Like Brandon says in the summary, you can find tons of niche topics you would never hear on the radio, such as This Week in Nuclear, The Atomic Show, or the Military History Podcast. However, just like listening to music on my iPod didn't stop me from listening to the radio, this won't either. It's nice to be able to play any music that I own anytime I want on my iPod, but sometimes you just want to listen to something and don't want to mess around with it, and sometimes radio provides that "tickle" factor of playing something unexpected that you like. Radio also has flash messages, like weather and news, and I don't own every single piece of good music out there...yet. I don't know how many times I've listened to the radio and heard something I wanted to rush home and buy, or an old favorite I'd forgotten about.

The web hasn't killed print media either...yet.

I was listening to some more podcasts today and have some more comparisons for you. Some of these are related to the Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV article.

You can listen to a podcast anytime you chose, you don't have to be listening at a particular time to hear it and you can listen to it as many times as you like. This also has the advantage that you can pause the show or back up if you miss something. Unfortunately, it also means that if the show has contests or call in questions, like BBC's The Naked Scientists or NPR Science Friday, then you are out of luck and cannot participate.

Podcasts, unlike broadcast shows, can be of variable length and are not constrained by time slots. In the Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV article, I mentioned that I heard the producer of Battlestar Galactica complain that they were stuck with 60 minute segments, and that it was MAJOR drama to get a 90 minute slot, or a two hour special because of the second and third order effects for the network, the advertisers, TV Guide, moving other shows, etc. Podcasts can stand on their own and can use precisely the amount of time they need to do the job properly. Unfortunately, podcasts swiped off existing radio shows, like The Naked Scientists or NPR Science Friday carry over the time constraints and you constantly hear them cut off interesting discussions and great guest speakers because they run out of time on the "on the air" show. Other podcasts, such as Military History Podcast, This Week in Nuclear, and The Atomic Show all vary their length according to need because they are a podcast from the ground up.

NPR Science Friday does take a little bit of a hybrid approach though, in that they break down the radio show by topic, so you can listen to a discrete segment of the show to hear the topic you want to listen to, rather than listen to a whole indivisible hour long show with a mixed bag of stuff, like The Naked Scientists. The latter show is good, but you are stuck listening to a whole hour long show, sometimes covering more than one topic. If you want to go back and listen to something specific, good luck. Science Friday makes it a bit simpler, and you have some that run for 9-12 minutes on brief subjects, to 30 minutes or more for more complex discussions or special guests--but it's all related.

Battlestar Galactica is a special case, in that it's meant to be played at the same time as you watch the show, and is much more like the directors comments when you purchase a DVD.

As I mentioned in Throwing Away the Cookie Cutter for TV, I hope they make "TV shows" for the internet like they make podcasts. You can already download standard TV shows, like Battlestar Galactica on iTunes, but it's the same as you'd see on The Sci-Fi Channel. I think it would be neat if they would make variable length programming like some of these podcasts that suit exactly what the director had in mind, rather than constraining themselves to a set timeslot.