Blog Relations

Apple is staying way-ahead of the media game. It’s struck a deal with NBC TV to offer a huge car-boot sale (is that a “garage sale” in the States?) of old TV shows. You can download episodes of “Dragnet”, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Office” and much more at $1.99 a pop.

Please forgive the awful cliche. I’m sure you are going read and hear other audio podcasters posing this question: “Will video kill the Radio Star?” (It’s impossible not to think of that infuriating tune on occasions like this).

Obviously, the seduction of moving pictures does pose a threat to the popularity of audio. But I believe that podcasters can fend it off, just as radio survived TV . The important thing is to play to the strengths of the medium. TV appeals to a different part of the brain from radio/podcasting. It’s easy and effortless to take in. But what you get from TV is a big picture. It tends to portray humanity in a rather bland way. One game-show contestant looks much like another. Even TV detectives are all a bit the same (except for the wonderful Columbo).

Radio/podcasting is much more intimate. It tends to be rather comforting. You get a strong feeling for the personality of the speaker. The words are obviously very important, and it appeals to the language part of the brain. Listeners are very good at telling truth from falsehood on the radio – much more so than when they are distracted by the way a con artist/politician looks.

So my theory of podcasting is that you must look for material that has really strong human interest. I don’t think that loud gimmicks are going to appeal in the long term. TV does them much better.

By the way, I had an inkling that the iTunes deal was coming up because I heard a tip the other day on The Maccast. Adam does a really good show. He does it very straight, and he packs it with information. He obviously spends a lot of time preparing it. I think that really shows through. Some podcasters seem to get in front of the mic with only a sketchy idea of what they are going to say, and then ramble on and on and on. Sometimes, two or three of them are rambling on about nothing in one show. Okay, I’m on my high horse again. Time to get off it.