Jul 24, 2010 |
A cuppa with the artist formerly known as Spoons
Three internet aeons ago, I used to do a podcast with James Debenham. It was called ‘Dubber and Spoons Take The Bus’, and it was just a recording of the inane conversations James and I had on the way home from work. No script, no rehearsal, not even any idea of what we were going to talk about before we pressed the record button.
It got reasonably popular as these things go. We were featured on BBC television and listed in the Guardian as one of their ‘top podcasts’ when they did a feature on the phenomenon.
It baffled us – but it was fun until it became inconvenient. James moved house, so we stopped regularly taking the same bus – and then, when he moved to Australia four years ago, we stopped doing it altogether.
So when he returned to the UK for a visit, we got together and did it again, without the bus. Enjoy.
[audio: bbqcast.mp3]
Mar 6, 2010 |
Photo by hebedesign
This is not an idea about radio as much as it is an idea for radio. And it’s a very simple idea about podcasting – but not one that I’m aware that radio stations have ever thought about or implemented.
Before I tell you the idea, let me describe the issue it addresses. Podcasting is a method of distribution. Nothing more. It’s not a new type of radio, an audio download, a democratisation of broadcasting or a category of content. It’s purely and simply a means of getting media content to audiences. Technically, it’s a media enclosure within an RSS feed.
And radio people have been aware for the past five years that the distribution technology exists and that they should make use of it somehow. Many of them do.
There are two main ways in which radio stations use podcasting:
The first is to make entire shows (often edited to remove copyright music) that can be heard on air available via RSS subscription online. This is usually thought of in terms of ‘timeshifting’. You listen to the same programme, but at a time that suits you, not the broadcaster.
The second is to create and package up extra content that does not make it onto the airwaves. This is more rare, but sometimes involves things like interviews in their entirety that had been edited for broadcast, or additional content designed to reinforce the station brand.
But there’s a third way – and one that I think could make the most of what radio stations already do, promote and enhance their brand, and allow audiences to customise their experience of the radio station. It’s modularisation.
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Mar 4, 2010 |
Photo by Ian Hayhurst
This is the first of what I suspect will be a number of radio-related ideas in amongst the 30.
Radio Alerts
Today’s idea is a blend of existing technologies to create a service that I, for one, would find very useful – ‘Google Alerts‘ style messages containing direct links to time-shifted radio content that is about something I happen to be interested in.
Not whole shows, of course – you can already listen to Gilles Peterson in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon if you want to. I’m talking about capturing mentions of topics that you’re interested in.
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