Tuning In To Podcasting

Someone once asked me, “What is podcasting? Does that have something to do with whales?” Um no, but it’s definitely something that’s had my attention since its recent boost. Other than the whale question, many people have been asking me about podcasting, and you also might be wondering what it is. I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with a group of Hawaii’s pioneer podcasters, the Hawaii Association of Podcasters.

In a nutshell, a podcast is a downloadable “radio show,” typically in an mp3 digital audio file that can be created and listened to by anyone with a home computer. Its name was derived from two words: iPod and broadcast. You don’t need an actual iPod to listen to or broadcast a podcast. Any digital audio player or computer with the right software will do the job.

To receive podcasts, you need a “podcatcher” application that allows you to subscribe to your favorite podcast feeds. You can do that with a variety of different programs, such as iPodder for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (free - http://ipodder.sourceforge.net), iPodderX for Mac OSX (free 30-day trial, thereafter, $24.95 – http://ipodderx.com) or NewsGator (web-based and free – www.newsgator.com).

For you iTunes users, Apple’s next major release of iTunes (out soon) will make getting podcasts easier. With one click you’ll be able to subscribe to different podcast feeds and have them automatically delivered to your iPod. You can use the current version of iTunes to listen to podcasts, but you can’t use it yet to subscribe to the feeds.

I believe podcasting will be huge! Now you can listen to all the latest news, radio shows and the church sermon you missed last Sunday morning. There are about 5,000 different podcasts available now on just about any subject you can imagine! According to Your Computer Minute’s Peter Kay, “Podcasting has the chance to bring radio back to what it was a long time ago which was mostly locally relevant content. Podcasts, with its niche targeting, might once again issue a new era of local broadcasts.”

If you want to make your own podcast and be a “radio star,” a good book to read is Podcasting, The Do-It Yourself Guide, by Hawaii’s own Todd Cochrane. You can find it on Cochrane’s website www.geeknewscentral.com or on www.amazon.com for about $14. Here are a few other Hawaii-based websites you can check out for podcasts: www.hawaiipodcasting.com (Hawaii Association of Podcasters), www.808talk.com, www.nahenahe.net (Hawaiian music news and reviews), yourcomputerminute.com (Peter Kay’s tips), www.hawaiiup.com and www.barefeetstudios.com (BizzyCast – business podcasting).