Podcasts are downloadable pieces of audio (or video) that you can subscribe to off the internet. Think mini radio shows that you can listen to whenever it suits you. You can listen to them on your mobile phone, mp3 player of your computer at home – it’s up to you. To listen to the audio you can either download a podcast individually or subscribe to the RSS feed for regular doses of your favourite show.
Podcasts range in length with anything from a couple of minutes to an hour long piece. They tend to be speech based files with little music to avoid any copyright issues. And the key is to produce them regularly – daily, weekly, monthly – so you start to build up a following of subscribers.
So why should you produce podcasts at your station?
Well the fact that you produce engaging and interesting radio everyday day means that you already have plenty of good content at your finger tips. If you’ve recorded a great interview or gripping debate why not make it available as a podcast for people to listen to after it has gone out on air. This way you give your audience the opportunity to listen to the output they may have missed at a time that is good for them.
Producing podcasts is a great way of archiving your output. This is useful for both you and your audience. If a new listener becomes a fan of a certain show and the show has been podcasting regularly that listener has the option to go back and listen to material they had missed before they were familiar with the station. Or say you do an interview with an unsigned band and a few years later they make it into the mainstream. If you had a podcast featuring the interview you could highlight it on the website and encourage your community to have another listen.
So where do you put up your podcasts?
There are a number of different podcast hosting sites you can use – Jellycast, Podbean and Pod0matic are examples. If you are familiar with the blogging software WordPress you might want to check out Podpress their podcasting tool. Alternatively Canstream offered by the CMA is a good choice.
Then once your podcast is up and ready to listen to you can get it listed on iTunes to open your audio up to a much bigger audience. For tips on how to add your podcasts to iTunes check out this info on the iTunes website
Here are some community radio stations already making the most of podcasting –
And is you’re still not sure about podcasting check out this video – Podcasting in Plain English.
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