Podcasting?

I'm beginning to think our stations need to start podcasting. Not because there is a revenue stream there (there one day will be) or because we're losing listeners to podcasting (some, not many) or because others are doing it (they are.) I think we need to start podcasting to keep the community tuning into us on a regular basis for their news every day.

I think we need to start simple...putting at least one newscast on line each day. Not the text but the audio. And not the audio they would have heard on the air that day but an entire newscast...several minutes in length. We then need to have individual stories available for down load. The kicker, the main reason people will want to go to our web site, is they will be able to hear more and get more than anywhere else in the community. An example would be a major story breaks concerning improper use of tax payer funds to pay for private trips for a county commissioner. David, our newsman, is able to get an exclusive interview with the commissioner. On the news, you'll only here a snippet of the interview, but go to our web site and hear the entire eight or 10 minute interview, now you've got something!

Also we can podcast editorials, commentary, weather and The Friday Morning Coffee Break. We need to keep the community always thinking we're the source for what's going on in our community. We could add a bulletin board to the web site for people to express themselves and then let them call a number and voice their opinion and then podcast those comments.

While this all seems simple, there is a time effort to take into account. But I also think the long term growth of the stations is worth the effort.

AJ