Podcasting for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 21. Top Ten Reasons Why Podcasting Will Kill (Or Seriously Dent) Radio

"Podcasting is just a fad."

"This is nothing more than streaming audio, and that didn't go anywhere."

"I've listened to a few podcasts, and I'm not impressed."

The nay-sayers of podcasting (especially those who have no idea what it is, have never listened to one, but are the first to dismiss it) have a plethora of reasons why podcasting will fail or never catch on in mainstream media. Even with the thousands of podcasts available, their listenership steadily rising, radio and other traditional media outlets have nothing to fear.

Or do they?

Chapter 20 gives you a few reasons why radio will continue to be radio for the foreseeable future. Here, we take the opposite vantage point. Although the chapter title may be a bit — okay, a lot — of blue skies and optimism, we believe the powers-that-be in charge of the large corporate media conglomerates have been observing the podcasting phenomenon for the past few years with a wary eye.

Here are a few (ten, to be exact) reasons why.

Podcasters Don't Need No Stinking Transmitters

The distance a terrestrial radio station can transmit a signal is dependent on three things: tower height, transmitter strength, and government regulations (which in the case of the United States is designated by the FCC). The first two are physical limitations that control how far a signal can travel. At some point, geography gets in the way or the signal-to-noise ratio simply gets too low to ...