Everything New Gets Old Again


(In light of today's Grokster ruling this blog would like to remind its readers of its longstanding opposition to illegal file sharing and illegal file sharing networks. Old Man Radio would also like to make clear that all tracks played on the Old Man Radio Show are offered for download by the artists as "free samples" for the purposes of promoting and publicizing their works. Under no circumstances will Old Man Radio ever play tracks which have not been freely offered to the public by the artists and posted for public download at various legitimate and legal download sites around the internet. )

Well I finally put Old Man Radio No. 2 to bed and I think it's better than the first, but I don't know. I tried to be more extemporaneous on this one, but I'm not sure I pulled it off - sullen and morose seems to be more my style. Anyways it's "in the can" as they say, and I've come to a couple of early conclusions about this whole podcasting thing.

The first is that I must have been crazy to think that I could crank out a new show every week. I mean just do the math. 52 weeks in a year times 1 show per week equals (gulp) 52 shows! As much as I hate to disappoint my legions of fans there's just no way I can crank out 52 of these things. I figure a dozen or so a year would be pushing it, and I can't even imagine what kind of lunacy posesses these people doing daily podcasts who think they can do 250 or more and not run out of material or things to say.

Not that podcasting isn't fun. For someone who's never tried anything like this before it's actually a lot of fun, but it's time consuming, and not just the recording but also the research and preparation of material to put on the show. Geez, I never knew that radio involved all this actual work. I thought that the announcer just cued up the music and then went down to the breakroom for coffee and donuts until the next commerical break rolled around, but it looks like I was wrong. On my podcast it seems like when I'm not playing something then I'm preparing for what I'm gonna play or trying to get the mix right and all this other crap which I'm sure real radio hosts have their producers and sound engineers take care of while their down in the breakroom stuffing their faces.

(No, that's not true. I'm only kidding. I'm sure real radio hosts find things to keep them busy while the music is playing. But haven't you always wondered...)

Anyways, the second conclusion I've come to is really just a reaffirmation of something I believed all along. There are some out there who are saying that podcasting is just a fad, that it won't last, and that eventually the Clear Channels and Infinity Radios of the world will take over the space and shove all the little guys to the side. Well that could happen but only if someone finds a good way of making money off of these podcasts. To me that's the real innovation that needs to happen. Otherwise, if there's no money in it then why should the big guys even bother?

What I do think will happen is that the dabblers and dilettantes like me will sort of cycle in and out of the podspace, and although there will always be a sort of subversive, underground quality to podcasting it will need serious players who really want to make a go of it and push podcasting into the entertainment mainstream if it's going to survive. And in order to do that they're going to either need profitable websites that can underwrite the time and expense needed to do a real, viable podcast, or they're going to need to monetize the podcasts themselves.

We're already seeing some attempts made to turn podcasting into a real business. I'm hearing commercials pop up from time to time, and over at the TWIT podcast they're trying a donation model similar to the one that PBS and NPR use, albeit without the pledge breaks and all that Andre Rieu nonsense. People are trying things and, who knows, when Apple begins including podcast support in their Itunes music software there might be some bucks to be made with this stuff. If not, then maybe it is just a fad.

Anyways, check out the podcast. Now that I've had a chance to listen to a couple of them it has suddenly dawned on me that the audience that would be most likely to enjoy them, that is the over 40 crowd, are just the sort of people who would never even think of using their computer as an entertainment device. I mean when people over 40 are looking for home entertainment they turn on the TV, they don't boot up their computers. Which means that I, as a podcaster trying to reach that audience, must either be a pioneer or a damn fool.

I like to think I'm a pioneer.

Either way it's still ok. To tell the truth I think I'm doing the podcast more for my own enjoyment than anyone elses. But I think other people can enjoy it too.

As a fad if nothing else.


Ooh, Look What I Can Do


Looks like blogger's got a new feature. You just click a button and you can add an image to your blog. Ok, I'm game. Here's a picture I took at the beach up in Oregon.

Pretty cool. Thanks Blogger.