Will podcasting reinvent radio?

Apple Computer made a small but portenteous change to its iTunes software this week: It added a podcast function.

For those of you who don't follow the techology press, podcasting is a much-discussed technology that promises to do for the spoken word what blogging has already done for the written word. Podcasting allows pretty much anyone with a computer and a microphone to disseminate audio "podcasts" (the Apple iPod being the preferred method of playback, hence the name) on a subscription basis across the Internet.

A few MSM giants—Disney, ABC, NPR, the BBC—have dipped a careful toe in the podcasting waters, but for the most part the podcasting community is still a small, grassroots phenomenon. From what I can see, it's some years away from producing an Edward R. Murrow—or even a Glenn Reynolds, for that matter.

But the technology is moving quickly—and just took a huge leap forward with Apple's endorsement of it in iTunes (and its latest generation of iPods). And already some are predicting a "radio renaissance."

Experts say [podcasting] could change the face of broadcasting forever. James Beechinor-Collins, editor of gadget magazine T3, said: 'This is really going to be something of a saviour for many radio stations.

'The key is that this is easy enough for any iPod owner to use. There are certainly enough big stations, for instance the BBC and Virgin Radio, to make this a success. I think we will also see a lot of smaller stations thriving because now they have a whole new audience.'

The podcasting idea was tried out by the BBC late last year, using Melvin Bragg's Radio 4 programme In Your Time. More than 70,000 people downloaded the show and the BBC now has dozens of shows available for download, including Radio Five Live's Sportsweek and the 8.10am main interview on Radio 4's Today Programme.

Today's announcement from Apple means online listening figures are set to rocket as previously iPod owners had to download separate podcasting software to download shows.

Currently the podcasts are free. However, Mr Beechinor-Collins believes Apple could soon charge for some shows. He said: 'Commercial stations may well be looking to charge for shows in the same way Apple charges to download a song.'

Apple hopes that by making it easy for users to download the programmes, it will drive more traffic to its online iTunes Music Store, where the company has over 3,000 free podcasts available.

I think podcasting has tremendous potential to take an already powerful poltical medium—talk radio—and expand its audience globally in ways that earlier techologies like RealAudio and Windows Media never managed to do. But the Apple-centric nature of the medium may be a turn-off for the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt (especially when they start to notice the makeup of Apple's board of directors.)

Still, the loss will be their own. Podcasting—along with its sister technologies, iTunes, the iPod and the Apple Music Store—seems to be here to stay. And that's a lot to say for any Internet-based techology nowadays.

Will it transform broadcasting as we know it?

Stay tuned.