Public radio podcasting
Although in operation less than a year, podcasts have attracted audiences that number in the thousands — in some cases tens of thousands. Broadcast radio has begun to take notice, especially public radio. Some of the most professional-sounding podscasts are those offered by the larger public radio stations. Usually these stations make available programs they've produced for national syndication as podcasts. WNYC in New York City, for example, has done this with some of its arts and talk programs. One of WNYC's productions, "On the Media," has seen its online audience double almost overnight once it became available as a podcast.

The Public Radio Exchange was founded to give producers of public radio programs a showcase where stations could audition new shows for distribution. Stations only have 24 hours a day available to program, however, and every minute is already programmed. Thus, despite the quality of the offerings, many PRX programs remained without a home. By making select programs available as podcasts, the PRX has bypassed the broadcast bottleneck and made these shows directly available to the public. As a side benefit, shows with a large number of subscribers can have a better chance of being picked up by a station, as the success of the show's podcast provides a concrete demonstration of its appeal — and provides a built-in audience for the show.

So what does this mean for me?
The potential cultural impact of podcasting to radio listening has been likened to that of the digital video recorder (DVR) for TV viewing. With a DVR, you can record a TV program when it's broadcast, and watch it when you choose. You can pause, rewind and fast-forward through the program once it's in your DVR. Podcasts are the same. Once downloaded to your media player, you can listen to the program at your convenience. You can pause, fast-forward and rewind the program — you can listen to the podcast repeatedly, or delete it out of your player. In other words, with podcasting you now have the ability to time-shift audio programming just as you do video.

Is this the radio dial of the future?

Consider this scenario: while you're checking your e-mail at night, your iPodderX program collects and downloads the latest installments of the podcasts to which you've subscribed. In the morning, you transfer the new shows to your iPod. You plug your iPod into your car's audio system, and you're ready for your morning commute. During your commute, you can listen to your new shows — no commercials, no interruptions. Depending on how many podcasts you subscribe to, you could catch up on some listening at work, and still have some new programs to listen to during the drive home.

With podcasting, the concepts of "audio on demand" and "freedom of speech" come together. Your iPod is no longer limited to just your record collection — or even content provided by big media companies. It can now be your radio, with an almost unlimited variety of programming available that's as individualistic as you are. And this is just the beginning.