Podcasting: Watch Out Radio, There's a New Kid on the Block!

Watch out radio, there's a new kid on the block and it's a force to be reckoned with!

Podcasting is in it's infancy, and already it has exploded onto the Internet in a way that few things have. Basically podcasting is search capable radio on demand, with an almost unlimited catalog of genres.

You can get almost anything on a podcast from very micro-niche topics, to mass appeal shows like old-time radio programs that are on nostalgia networks.

It's like radio on steroids! Imagine if your radio had a catalog of virtually any type of show, and you could use a search engine to find it, that's podcasting.

You can get most of these feeds for free, get them when you want, listen to them where you want, as many times as you want. And listen to them over and over, without expensive software. In fact the software you need to listen or download them is either on the page where the podcasts are located, or it's free. IE: Juice and Doppler.

That's just the listening end, if you want be a podcaster yourself, all you need is some basic recoding software, (probably already on your PC), a Mic, and the ability to come up with content you think people will want to listen to.

Think about this for one minute, a couple of years ago, we'd be talking hundreds of thousands of dollars to start your own radio station if you wanted to do something like this. Today for less than a hundred bucks you can accomplish the same thing or better. There's no guarantee that anyone will listen to it, but then there wasn't with the hundred thousand dollar radio station either.

With the right content, some clever linking and marketing, you can be podcasting to thousands of listeners in a short time. There are tons of ways you could turn that into money. This genre is like the Wild West right now, so go be a Pioneer if that's your thing and maybe I'll be listening to you next week!

I'm sorry my old friend radio, but I'm sick of hearing those same top ten songs over and over again. And I'm even more sick of that blathering political idiot who wants to do my thinking for me.

I haven't listened to a radio for months and can't see why I would again. Nope, you'll find me at the Decoder Ring Theater, or listening to the Eauctionair.

To be sure, there's some lame podcasts also, but there's enough great content to keep the most avid listener satiated and finding it is half the fun!

One more thing, if your enthusiastic about podcasting, or any of your freedom on the net, you'd better call your Senator and Congressman and ask them to support the Net Neutrality Bill. If you don't know what that is, please Google it, it is an immensely important bill coming up for a vote that is going to decide whether or not we will be able to keep the Internet as free as it is, or whether they will be putting restrictions on it.

Peace.