Podcasting Is Radio As You've Always Loved ItOnly BetterIf you're old enough to drive, you probably have an intimate relationship with radio. As is the case with most intimate relationships, this means that radio plays an important part in your everyday life. It is often the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning, preparing you for the day ahead. You bring it along with you as you drive to work for news and companionship, and it's there with you for the ride home in the evening. It can provide a steady, reassuring presence as you go about your business during the day or it can challenge you with ideas and information that you won't hear anywhere else. Like other intimate relationships, there are certain things about radio you love but there are also a few things that can be frustrating and annoying. Some radio personalities make you laugh and seem as comfortable and familiar as your favorite uncle. Other on-air personalities can be so infuriating that you actually find yourself screaming at the top of your lungs, eliciting curious stares from people in the car next to you at a red light. Beyond the obvious love/hate aspects of the relationship, there's another reaction you've probably had more than once while listening to the radio: You've thought to yourself, "I can do that!" It might have happened while you were listening to your favorite taskmaster rant about the news of the day or while your local afternoon drive DJ smoothly announced artists and song titles. You listened and thought wistfully about how much fun it would be to actually be the person behind the microphone for once. Of course, unless you were ready to quit your job and pursue a career in radio, that particular dream was unlikely to ever come true. At least, that was the case before several previously unrelated technologies came together in a perfect high-tech storm and created a genuine grassroots phenomenon known as podcasting.
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