Radiowiz wrote:

To quote Howard Stern: "Podcasting is NOT radio..."

At the time he said that, I disagreed with Howard.  I thought he was being a sore loser because radio's days were appearing to be numbered (and that was nearly twenty years ago).  Plus, he was trying to make podcasting appear irrelevant.

Now, I find that most of my audio listening is podcast content, and my video is YouTube.

Now what I hear radio folk saying is, "Well radio isn't dying - it's just changing.  Look at podcasting for example.  Isn't that just the next "radio"?"

The other favourite I hear is, "well radio is content; not the medium.  Radio doesn't have to AM/FM to be radio!"

Uh ... yes it does.  Terrestrial radio is regulated by federal commissions and guidelines.  There are promises of performance, and informational requirements, including serving the public good.  Other audio distribution formats need not apply to any of those guidelines.  Therefore, podcasting is NOT radio.

This new "podcasting" radio format is just an example of radio trying to beat podcasting at its own game.  It can't.  Podcasting is tailored to interests, availability, details and depth.  Radio is geared to a mass audience.  All these years, PDs have been harping on "talk to one person; not a bunch of people", in efforts to sound personalized, but guess what?  When you're serving safe, milque toast content or playing the same auditorium tested, overplayed songs, then how personalized can the experience be?

Whereas, yes: a lot of podcasts lack polish and production value, but guess what?  The ones I choose to listen to discuss exactly what I want to hear.  Yes on podcasts, songs used as intro music or as "jams" may play out way too long, or fade out way too slow before dialogue begins, and perhaps some conversation can be extraneous.  However, the discussion is more relevant to me.  It's detailed and in-depth.  The only reason to have that on a radio station would be to enjoy it in the car.  However, I'll have to contend with some Simple Investor spiel, a "call on Reliance" chant, or Sarah giving me my last reason to swear off buying my lady friend a piece of jewellery.

For me, Rogers' news format is the only type of terrestrial radio that still makes sense at all.  I get what I want with a half hours' investment (in the car, that is), I can ignore social media and get what I need and I'm done.  My girlfriend is a jazz fan, and listens to Jazz FM 91 A LOT.  Now it's important to note that she buys very little of the music for herself, she enjoys the Jazz community, and Jazz FM has a light spot load.  For her (and for all these reasons), Jazz FM is a unique broadcast undertaking that still makes sense.  She does indeed get a lot of enjoyment from it.

But that's becoming the exception..  For talk content though, I don't know what to tell you.  I know podcasts aren't as immediate or local.  Guess what?  Very few seem to care.  Plus talk radio sticks to topics to younger people just don't engage in, for better or worse.
 

Last edited by Jody Thornton (August 23, 2023 8:39 am)

I’m pretty sure we’ve had this discussion before about “the first” podcast station.
iHeart had been doing this format in the US for a while already on some of its HD stations.  It seemed like at was just podcasts on shuffle without a set schedule. I don’t see any stations still doing it except one online station running environmental podcasts so they appear to have abandoned the idea.

Last edited by Tomas Barlow (August 23, 2023 11:27 am)

Radiowiz wrote:

To quote Howard Stern: "Podcasting is NOT radio..."

To be fair, I'm sure a lot of radio broadcasters would have said the same thing about Howard Stern in his heyday. 
 

They waited until the end of September, but Podcast Radio is now a reality in the U.S.

"The format features “podjocks” and showcases “produced and popular podcasts from the United States and all over the world, including audio content from TedAudio (TedTalk), Wondery, Evergreen, Corus and more.”

Yes, podjocks is now a word. The closest station to us is Detroit, where WCSX-FM HD2 and its 93.5 translator are airing the format. And as noted above, there may be some Canadian content on the outlets trying it on for size - Corus is among those supplying some of the programming.

You can hear the Motown version online here.

Beasley Launches On-Air Podcast Format