[BC] Listening in the car

[Rich Wood]

------ At 01:12 PM 8/5/2006, nakayle at gmail.com wrote: -------

>  Rich, you talk like what I said is blue-sky speculation.   For a year now
>I have subscribed to a number of podcasts (not streaming dups of broadcast
>stations) that are downloaded to my computer automatically and listen to
>them at my convenience throughout the day.

You completely missed my point. You must understand the difference 
between streaming and Podcasting. With Podcasting you access a site, 
pull down a file and you're gone. No constant load on the system. 
This isn't awesome competition. In fact, smart broadcasters are 
offering their own Podcasts and selling them as value-added parts of 
advertising buys. I can watch/hear the evening news via Podcast.

>In fact Google lists 37,100,000 pages
>regarding podcasting so this is a giant industry growing by leaps and
>bounds.

Here we go with the "giant" PR stuff, again. You don't claim 
37,100,000 Podcasts. You cite pages mentioning it. "Giant" industries 
usually make profits. What's the current profit figure, not including 
the full radio/TV and TV Network buys of which the Podcast is a part?

A Podcast usually is connected to something. Billy-Bob's ego driven 
Podcast of how he wasted his day isn't part of a "giant" industry." 
Billy-Bob's blog also might be an interesting diversion for a few 
minutes, but it wears thin if you're not into reading personal diaries.

>So to say that this can't work just isn't true.  Its working for me
>and millions like me right now.  And the fact that I have not listened to
>local radio in months certainly shows that it can replace it.  I know you
>people in radio want to close their eyes to this new competition and that's
>your privilege but that won't stop it from happening.

See above. Us "people in radio" and TV are, probably, the largest 
single group of contributors to Podcast content. It comes naturally. 
What we do is produce content. I didn't say it can't work. What I 
said was that WiMAX and other broadband wireless systems are unlikely 
to be free and questioned whether or not they could supply the 
capacity necessary to replace broadcasting. You chose to ignore all 
of the above.

The other mistake I believe you're making is to suggest that a 
particular technology completely replaces another. Most people listen 
to radio, watch TV, surf the web and play games - some combination of 
the list. You're making life a zero-sum game. It simply isn't. There 
are nearly 300 million people in this country. Look at the ratings. 
Most individual shows, even the highest rated, reach a tiny segment 
of that population. That leaves a lot of people available to do other 
things. Broadcasting has lived with that fact since day one and it's 
still doing quite well, thank you. The industry is very healthy.

Sad to say, you don't represent the entire US population or ever 
Podcast user. You represent you.

Rich



Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258