The Differences Between Radio and Podcasting


Now that you're a seasoned podcast consumer, some of the dissimilarities between listening to podcasts and listening to radio are no doubt coming into focus for you. Let's take a moment before we go on to explore some of the more important differences.

Podcasting Time-shifts the Radio Experience

The most significant difference between podcasting and radio is that radio is a "real-time" audio medium, while podcasting time-shifts audio content for your listeners.

Time-shifting means that listeners have control over how and when they listen. Podcasting time-shifts audio content in the same way that TiVo time-shifts television content. Time-shifting allows a listener to check out your podcast whenever he or she wants. It also allows listeners to pause, rewind, and/or fast-forward.

To appreciate this difference, think about listening to the radio in your car on the way to work. It's 8:55 and you're running late for an important 9:00 a.m. meeting. As you pull into the parking lot, your favorite talk show host introduces a special guest. Maybe it's someone who's been in the news lately or an actress you've been a fan of for years. You really want to hear what the guest has to say…but you can't be late for your meeting. You turn off your car's ignition with a sigh of disappointment, knowing that you'll never hear the interview.

Time-shifting changes all that. It gives the listener complete control over when and how often the content is heard.

To say that content is time-shifted is not quite the same as saying that it's recorded. In today's high-tech radio environment, a great deal of what you hear is recorded rather than live, probably much more than you realize. But when radio content is recorded, a listener still has to listen to it at the precise time it's being broadcast. Otherwise it's gone forever.

So, what difference does time-shifting make? For your listener, it's extremely convenient, even empowering. But for you as a podcaster, it means you don't have any control over when your show is heard. That means you can't fill your show with some of the traditional staples of broadcast radio such as weather, traffic, and time-checks. It also means that if you're discussing or referencing something that's timely, you'll need to find a way to put your discussion into a time context for your listeners.

Finally, time-shifting means that if and when you want to generate revenue with your podcasts, you'll probably need to do so in a way that acknowledges your listener's ability to fast-forward past conventional 30-second commercials. Your business model will need to be more creative than the straightforward selling and placement of advertising that radio stations can use.

In short, time-shifting is a subtle but profound difference that significantly distinguishes podcasts from radio broadcasts.

Your Podcast Isn't Restricted by Programming Constraints

A radio show occupies a particular slice of time that's assigned to it by the programmer at the radio station. No matter what, it has to fill up that slice of time. A talk show host may run out of things to say on a particular subject but that doesn't relieve him or her of the need to keep on talking (or doing something!) until the end of the show's time slot.

Podcasts, on the other hand, don't operate under the same set of requirements. As a podcaster, your show can be structured to reflect the demands of your content, not the demands of the clock on a studio wall. If you've covered everything that needs to be covered then you're done. If there's a great deal that needs to be said about a particular subject, then there's no need to conclude your discussion at any particular time. Podcasting allows you to concentrate on content rather than format.

Podcasts Persist

The moment something gets played or said on the radio, it's gone forever. The brilliant quip or entertaining story you heard on the way to work is gone. You can't listen to it again and you can't share what you heard. Yesterday's radio show only exists in your memory.

Yesterday's podcast, on the other hand, remains on the Web for a while and then might remain on your mp3 player indefinitely. This has certain legal ramifications regarding what you can do on a podcast with someone else's music (much more on that later), but it also affects decisions you might make about the content you're going to create.

In this regard, the difference between a radio show and a podcast is like the difference between a remark that you might make to some co-workers in the hall at work and what you would choose to put in a memo. You're going to be a little more careful about the latter than you will the former.

The fortunate corollary to this principle is that you always have the opportunity to edit your podcasts before they're distributed. Even if your podcast is designed to sound completely spontaneous, the time gap between recording and distributing is a kind of safety net that you might choose to employ from time to time when you consider the fact that your podcast can remain on someone's computer or mp3 player forever.

The Absolute Minimum

  • Podcasting may seem similar to traditional radio broadcasting but it is a new and different medium all its own.

  • Podcasts come in all sorts of different formats. Some of these trace back to traditional radio formats but many are unique to this medium.

  • There are four basic steps to podcasting: Planning your podcast, recording your podcast, "grooming" your podcast, and posting and syndicating it.

  • The first step to becoming a great podcaster is to become a voracious consumer of podcasts.




Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting
Absolute Beginners Guide to Podcasting.
ISBN: B001U8C03Q
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 167

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