For the listener:
For listeners, podcasts are like radio shows recorded on a DVR. They don't have to listen to them when they happen, but download them to listen to them later, at their own convenience.
For the maker:
Everyday entertainment used to be entirely broadcast, but due to technology, broadcasting is being replaced by podcasting. The reason, simply put, is cost. It costs a ton to have a studio, to create content, and to broadcast it either through the air, or via cable. But podcasting doesn't have this capital heavy drawback.
It costs nothing for the software to make podcasts, there are many places where you can upload your files for free, and you can distribute them at no cost through iTunes, or various feed readers.
Making a podcast is super. You can do it in bits and pieces and stitch it together. For example, you might record your poems, and send the audio file to me. I might record an interview, and someone else sends me a recording of heir short story. I take these files, pop them into the show template in my audio program, then I write a little monologue to go with the bits, record that, and voila! A podcast is done.
Podcasts are actually perfect for people who are creative and engaged, but have busy, disparate schedules that would make ever meeting in the same time and place impossible.
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
My New Podcast
Recently I started up a podcast for my Masters program at UBC. I am working towards an MFA in Creative Writing (so eminently useful and practical, I know...), and there had been a discussion going on in the program for some time about starting a journal, or a magazine, and while there had been slight mention about podcasting, it wasn't until this year when a couple of students got going on the discussion boards, with some serious intent, about really starting a podcast.
Well, I had spent a few years in radio, and had been podcasting as far back as 2001, before the term podcasting had been coined, and before, in fact, the iPod had even been introduced!
I'd taken a hiatus for a couple of years from 2007 to 2009, but in 2010, at the request of my boss, I got back into podcasting in a serious way.
So when the call came for starting a podcast, I was ready to go. I contact the principals in that discussion, all full of vim and vigor, and immediately got back a response, which in essence was - "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we need to form a committee, discuss what a podcast might be like, form an editorial board, gather a larger group of people to take part in the communal decision making..." and it went on.
Nothing, nothing like a podcast ever happens by committee. There always needs to be a driving force. A center. A focus. Other people are brought in, encouraged to contribute, but you always need someone with their foot on the gas.
So after few more e-mails where I tried to persuade them to just start the ball rolling, at least, I got nowhere. Why, these folks even felt the need to go on the boards and obliquely mock me ("We need to build something that will last...not just be some guy who will flame out").
You know, that's cool. That's fine. I let them know that I was sorry they felt this way, and that I'd be going ahead and getting a show going, and that I was looking forward to listening to their podcast when it got rolling. But, that said, I wanted to get a move on, and I did.
That same week, the podcast was up and running.
I made a website, a comments wall, an email address, set up the online storage, and produced the first episode. I've recently submitted the podcast to iTunes for consideration, and I am waiting to hear back from them. From what I read, I may have jumped the gun, because they like to see at least three episodes in the can before they consider it.
Episode 2 came out last week, and I am working on number three as we speak. So maybe I'll just have to resubmit it later!
It's a funny thing when you tell people you are going to do something, then you go do it. More often than not, those same people are "caught off guard" or "surprised." I got word from my program administrator that a few people were upset. Luckily, there were far, far more people who were eager and enthusiastic about taking part.
So now it's "On with the Show!"
Well, I had spent a few years in radio, and had been podcasting as far back as 2001, before the term podcasting had been coined, and before, in fact, the iPod had even been introduced!
I'd taken a hiatus for a couple of years from 2007 to 2009, but in 2010, at the request of my boss, I got back into podcasting in a serious way.
So when the call came for starting a podcast, I was ready to go. I contact the principals in that discussion, all full of vim and vigor, and immediately got back a response, which in essence was - "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we need to form a committee, discuss what a podcast might be like, form an editorial board, gather a larger group of people to take part in the communal decision making..." and it went on.
Nothing, nothing like a podcast ever happens by committee. There always needs to be a driving force. A center. A focus. Other people are brought in, encouraged to contribute, but you always need someone with their foot on the gas.
So after few more e-mails where I tried to persuade them to just start the ball rolling, at least, I got nowhere. Why, these folks even felt the need to go on the boards and obliquely mock me ("We need to build something that will last...not just be some guy who will flame out").
You know, that's cool. That's fine. I let them know that I was sorry they felt this way, and that I'd be going ahead and getting a show going, and that I was looking forward to listening to their podcast when it got rolling. But, that said, I wanted to get a move on, and I did.
That same week, the podcast was up and running.
I made a website, a comments wall, an email address, set up the online storage, and produced the first episode. I've recently submitted the podcast to iTunes for consideration, and I am waiting to hear back from them. From what I read, I may have jumped the gun, because they like to see at least three episodes in the can before they consider it.
Episode 2 came out last week, and I am working on number three as we speak. So maybe I'll just have to resubmit it later!
It's a funny thing when you tell people you are going to do something, then you go do it. More often than not, those same people are "caught off guard" or "surprised." I got word from my program administrator that a few people were upset. Luckily, there were far, far more people who were eager and enthusiastic about taking part.
So now it's "On with the Show!"
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
RIP Age of the Broadcast
Not long ago I got into listening to podcasts. I'd discovered I enjoyed audiobooks, as long as the narration was decent, but as I delved further and further into the depths of the iTunes store, into those dusty online back rooms where they shove the free podcasts, I discovered a host of great stuff that I had never heard of before. I ran into Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, then came across The Leviathan Chronicles, and after that I met up with Mr. Garrison Keillor, and found the brilliant folks at This American Life.
Each one of these podcasts has been incredibly engaging and enlightening. Hardcore History deals with history the way only a very few (and the best) of my old teachers took on the subject. The Leviathan Chronicles was an eye opener. Though the writing wasn't as polished as it could be, and the odd anachronism or historical mistake that momentarily pricked at my willing suspension of disbelief, the sheer aural feast this podcast provides puts most modern radio dramas to shame. It is true theatre of the mind, with the same speed, intensity and action packed pace of the Bourne movies. Fans of Lake Wobegon need no introduction to Garrison Keillor, though I would point out that if they enjoy that kind of humor, then they will also enjoy CBC's The Vinyl Cafe. And when fiction, comedy, or ancient history are not in order, This American Life really seems to be able to delve into the complicated and complex issues of the day and illuminates them, making them understandable to the average Joe on the street.
As of late, I find myself filling up my wee iPod shuffle to the brim with these podcasts, listening to them on the way to work, at the gym in the afternoon, on the way home, and whenever I'm sent out of the house on a mission to procure milk, bread, or anything else that Command General Better Half thinks is needed. I used to queue up the news online, waiting for The National and CTV News to load, but as of late I find the stories flat, the in depth analysis lacking, and little to really hold my attention. Forget watching CNN International, which is mostly back to back Quest Means Business, or promos for something or other Cristiane Amanpour did lately. If I'm in the mood for watch the news with an ironic smile, I might turn on Fox News, but I can only stand up to 20 minutes of that at a time. Plus, you can't really take TV with you, let alone watch any while driving. But podcasts? Pdcasts can come from anywhere, and can go where you go.
And that's where the genius lay. Ten years ago, I could never have tuned into the BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy's "The News Quiz." To say the least, Canada was outside of the BBC's broadcast radius. Even today, with time shifting and 1,000 channel cable packages, it would still be hit or miss whether I could tune in, and even if I could, I couldn't take the show with me. But with podcasts, the very best the world has to offer, from comedy, to news, to stories, can be had by anyone, anywhere.
Each one of these podcasts has been incredibly engaging and enlightening. Hardcore History deals with history the way only a very few (and the best) of my old teachers took on the subject. The Leviathan Chronicles was an eye opener. Though the writing wasn't as polished as it could be, and the odd anachronism or historical mistake that momentarily pricked at my willing suspension of disbelief, the sheer aural feast this podcast provides puts most modern radio dramas to shame. It is true theatre of the mind, with the same speed, intensity and action packed pace of the Bourne movies. Fans of Lake Wobegon need no introduction to Garrison Keillor, though I would point out that if they enjoy that kind of humor, then they will also enjoy CBC's The Vinyl Cafe. And when fiction, comedy, or ancient history are not in order, This American Life really seems to be able to delve into the complicated and complex issues of the day and illuminates them, making them understandable to the average Joe on the street.
As of late, I find myself filling up my wee iPod shuffle to the brim with these podcasts, listening to them on the way to work, at the gym in the afternoon, on the way home, and whenever I'm sent out of the house on a mission to procure milk, bread, or anything else that Command General Better Half thinks is needed. I used to queue up the news online, waiting for The National and CTV News to load, but as of late I find the stories flat, the in depth analysis lacking, and little to really hold my attention. Forget watching CNN International, which is mostly back to back Quest Means Business, or promos for something or other Cristiane Amanpour did lately. If I'm in the mood for watch the news with an ironic smile, I might turn on Fox News, but I can only stand up to 20 minutes of that at a time. Plus, you can't really take TV with you, let alone watch any while driving. But podcasts? Pdcasts can come from anywhere, and can go where you go.
And that's where the genius lay. Ten years ago, I could never have tuned into the BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy's "The News Quiz." To say the least, Canada was outside of the BBC's broadcast radius. Even today, with time shifting and 1,000 channel cable packages, it would still be hit or miss whether I could tune in, and even if I could, I couldn't take the show with me. But with podcasts, the very best the world has to offer, from comedy, to news, to stories, can be had by anyone, anywhere.
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