How Podcasting Will Save Radio

by Tod Maffin

NOTE: This was a blog post I wrote in October 2004, at the very start of podcasting.

Blink and you might miss it. That guy apparently talking to his laptop computer at the coffee shop. Those teens in the basement monkeying with microphones. They are pioneers of a new form, but they’re yet unaware of their power.

They are podcasters: citizen broadcasters who arm themselves with rudimentary recording tools, free software, and a speedy Internet connection. And, like the bloggers before them, they are changing the nature of the medium. Podcasters may indeed revitalize the art of radio itself. And they’re hitting it in all four of radio’s vanguards: Sound design, talent, revenue, and distribution.

Sound Design

Podcasting is not easy for the beginner — it requires some technical knowhow and the right tools. For that reason, podcasters are by nature an experimental group — they tweak this, push that.

And this experimenting extends to more than the technology. Podcasters are experimenting with the form of radio itself: unique placement of pacing elements, new forms of narrative, and the development of unique characters.

Podcasters embrace the new, while much of radio is based on the same tried-and-true magazine form: Show theme, host intro, a sting or bumper, first item, extro, another sting, second item, etc.

When I hosted todradio.com on CBC Radio One, we solicited radio pieces from listeners at home. Armed with only their computers, a cheap microphone, and our Beginners’ Guide to Making Radio, we ended up with some of the most avant garde, unique, creative radio I’d ever heard. And most importantly, we aired them.

Talent

The Podcasters are few today, but as the tools mature, expect plenty more to jump on the bandwagon. By podcasting, sometimes in public venues, some are already developing broadcasting skills the radio veterans have spent years learning: quick reaction to live events, multitasking technologies while speaking, the art of the cold-read, and voice performance.

Podcasting also removes the barriers to getting on the air — as long as you can build enough of a brand to get people to your site, you are “on the air.” There’s no station producer or news director to convince.

Already, netizens like Adam Curry have developed a brand with their podcast, and that brand can easily be turned into revenue.

Which brings me to…

Revenue

Radio executives can afford to write off podcasters now because there just aren’t enough listeners to make it a worthwhile. But when 20,000 “high-value demographic” listeners regularly tune into a show, that show will attract advertisers. And advertisers will attract radio stations. It’s a trend I call “program backdooring” — where the show will develop enough of an audience to make a “real” radio station take notice.

One example: TreasureIslandOldies.com which started out many years ago as one of the first streaming Internet radio shows, quickly developed a loyal following and — surprise, surprise — was picked up by radio stations around the world. It still broadcasts in both media.

Further, it’s entirely possible that radio stations can sell individual shows on-demand: If you like such-and-such show so much, maybe you’ll pay $1 to listen. That model is being tested right now on satellite radio: XM’s Opie and Anthony Show — the show! — costs an extra $1.99.

I’ve always thought a great revenue channel would be for a radio station or network to put its entire library online, and meta-code the hell out of it. Then, for a monthly fee, listeners could program their own “show” arranged from a variety of station sources: a five-minute comedy about elections here, followed by 20-minutes of a talk-show about the U.S. presidential elections, and wrapped up with a satirical song. The technology to do that exists today, and podcasters may be the catalyst for radio executives to think about it.

Distribution

Despite radio stations’ best efforts, radio is rarely considered “appointment listening” by the audience, in the same way that people schedule specific time to watch their favourite TV show. Radio is usually simply what’s on while other things are happening: doing the dishes, driving to work, and so on.

Countless hours have been spent in radio management boardrooms trying to figure out how to become “appointment listening” — turns out, the answer is simple: Let the listener pick the time.

Podcasting’s distribution model is transparent: The shows you want get dropped into your mobile audio device as they air, and you can listen to them, pause them, resume listening, whenever.

However, “real” radio stations face an uphill battle today getting there. Many shows and even individual segments are produced with very rigid licencing arrangements. The station might own the commentary and the voice talent, and might even have the rights to use the music underneath on air, but those music rights may not extend to on-demand Internet broadcast. This is why many stations are pulling their on-demand audio downloads.

Once those licencing battles are sorted out, radio stations and networks will find huge success adopting the podcasters’ model of download and listen whenever you want.

Every art form has its moment of revolution. The podcasters may indeed provide radio with its.

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Tod Maffin is the editor of I Love Radio.org. His day job is being a national producer for CBC Radio, Canada’s national public broadcaster, and is the network’s technology columnist. He hosted todradio.com, a live interactive show on CBC Radio One for two seasons, and speaks at more than 30 conferences around the world about the future of media, business, and technology. His views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect that of the CBC.