Radio Podcasting

Traditional broadcasters were extremely quick to pick up on the podcasting format, especially those whose news or talk formats spared them the complications of music licensing. While there had been experimental feeds of radio broadcast material, such as Dave Slusher's August 2004 feed of WREK programs from Georgia Tech[36], the American syndicated radio show Web Talk Radio[37] apparently became the first to adopt the format on a regular basis, in September 2004, followed within weeks by Seattle news radio station KOMO and by individual programs from KFI Los Angeles and Boston's WGBH.

The BBC began a trial in October 2004 with BBC Radio Five Live's Fighting Talk. These trials were extended in January 2005 to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time and have been extended further since[38]. Also in January 2005, CBC Radio began a trial with its weekly national science and technology show Quirks and Quarks[39], which has offered listeners Real Audio, MP3 and OGG downloads since February 1996.

The CBC trial also included CBC Radio 3's Canadian Music Podcast as well as limited podcasting of CBLA's popular Metro Morning Toronto show. United States National Public Radio member stations WNYC and KCRW adopted the format for many of their productions. March saw Virgin Radio become the first UK radio station to produce a daily podcast of its popular breakfast show.

In April 2005 Australia's ABC launched a podcasting trial across several of its national stations[40], and in May, Sydney station 2MBS became the first Australian community radio station to deliver content via the format with its Ultima Thule ambient music programme.

Since March 2005, the trend has also reversed, with podcasts becoming a source of content for broadcast radio programs by Leo Laporte, Christopher Lydon and others. On March 30 Sirius Satellite began playing Wichita Rutherford's podcast 5 Minutes with Wichita making him the first person who started out as a podcaster to find a home on Satellite Radio.

The entire format of KYOU Radio, a San Francisco radio station, became based around broadcasting podcasts. That summer, when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation locked out more than 5,000 of its regular on-air and technical staff, they responded by creating their own unofficial podcast of original programming, CBC Unplugged, which also appeared on some campus and community radio stations, including CIUT in Toronto and CFRU in Guelph, Ontario.

London's LBC 97.3 has launched the first paid-for podcasting service [2]. Subscribers get access to extra podcast channels and the use of an online podcast player similar to the BBC's Listen Again service. The technology used by LBC marks a watershed in podcasting, which had been almost an entirely free phenomenon. Other broadcasters, anxious to generate some revenue to cover the costs of podcasting, may follow.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia material "Podcasting".