What is a Podcast?

What is Podcasting?

A podcast is a radio (audio) or television (video) style show which you can listen to directly on our page or subscrib to and automatically receive new episodes when they are released by the show’s creator. These will automatically download to your computer and can be synced up to a portable media device. You don’t need an iPod to listen to a Podcast.

You can find podcasts on just about any topic that might interest you and a few topics that will amaze you and keep you entertained for hours.

Give it a try. It’s free, it’s easy and it’s all right here at BroadcastMastery.com.

Click here to watch a brief overview as told by someone in the know.

How do I subscribe?

There are several free and easy-to-use applications for Windows and Mac systems that can assist you in locating, subscribing to and viewing podcasts. The most popular is Apple’s iTunes, which is a free download.

Once you have downloaded the application of your choice, just click on the iTunes or Zune icon for the full master feed, or the individual orange icon to the right of any podcast you see listed on BroadcastMastery.com to start receiving great audio and video content, sent directly to your computer, for free. Each new episode will be sent to you automatically.

For a step-by-step tutorial, check out this page put together by Dyann Bakes, a budding podcaster who hosts a cooking show from her kitchen.

What is Podcasting? The Long Version…

So what exactly is this new fangled phenomenon called podcasting? Here’s the skinny.

The technical definition of podcasting (according to wikipedia) is: “a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.”

The key components of podcasting are digital media files, syndication and the Internet. The idea of syndication is that the content is sent out like a magazine subscription instead of the recipient going to get the content, such as walking to a news stand to buy the magazine. The technology behind the scenes is similar to that which drives blogging on the Internet and the analogy holds true: a blog is to the newspaper as podcasting is to radio and television.

The history of podcasting is not that different from that of the traditional media formats of radio and broadcast television. It began as audio and was a means for anyone to create a radio-style show and distribute it to iPods, the transistor radios of the 21st century.

That was in 2004. Now, the technique and mechanisms of podcasting are being used not only by thousands of individuals around the world to deliver audio and video, but by almost every major media outlet as well. In-home devices, such as AppleTV and Tivo, can playback video from podcasts as seamlessly and easily as stored broadcast television programs. Mobile devices like Nokia phones have built-in podcast clients. It’s one of the fastest growing and widest distribution mechanisms in the history of media.

So now that you know a little bit more about podcasting, why not jump in head first? Subscribe to our Full Feed to get started.