In the early days, technologists and futurists speculated whether or not podcasting would supplant traditional radio broadcasting.
Many had high hopes, including the CBC’s Tod Maffin. In 2004 and 2005, Maffin wrote and was featured in a number of newspaper and magazine articles worldwide touting the potential of podcasting.
★ Maffin explains why he found podcasting so exciting:
When major media outlets and commercial enterprises started podcasting in 2005 and 2006, the idea that podcasting might overtake radio suddenly seemed plausible. TSN started podcasting, The Toronto Star and Global Television, and all of them had a variety of different feeds by the end of 2006.
Podcasting has changed the way listeners consume media. No longer held captive by the traditional distribution models, people began seeking and consuming more portable content.
★ Wayne MacPhail, from Rabble.ca, explains:
Although listeners may be changing the way they consume audio content, broadcasters and mainstream media haven’t changed the way they produce it as a result of podcasting. Certainly newspapers ask their columnists to read their work aloud, but for the most part you’re hearing exactly what you would have otherwise read in the paper. Most CBC podcasts are simply repackaged programming that has previously aired on the radio.
★ Tod Maffin talks about podcasting’s effect on broadcasting:
Some CBC podcasts like Spark and True North, are produced with the the podcasting audience in mind. However, these podcasts aren’t representative of the majority of major media podcasts.
★ Dave King hosted the CBC’s True North podcast. Here he discusses how the podcast affected the work environment in Whitehorse:
Podcasting may not be changing traditional radio broadcasting, but there are still a number of things that broadcasters and podcasters can learn from each other. At the 2008 Podcasters Across Borders conference in Kingston, ON, Nora Young and Dan Meisner, from CBC Radio’s Spark, presented a session entitled: “What Public Broadcasters Can Learn from Podcasters, and Vice-Versa.” They discussed sound quality, preparation, online tools and spontaneity.
★ Listen to Nora and Dan’s PAB 2008 session, “What Public Broadcasters Can Learn from Podcasters, and Vice-Versa,” on The Canadian Podcast Buffet.
*** Thanks to The Canadian Podcast Buffet for making the 2008 PAB content available.***
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