Cheap applications are available to record RealPlayer streams, and Windows Media for that matter, and convert them to MP3, ready for a waiting iPod. That these programmes are only available as RealPlayer streams is irrelevant to the determined. Radio Four leads in this: its Listen Again page offers much of the previous week's listening. The BBC, for example, allows listeners to stream certain old programmes, depending on the rights owned by the BBC.

One might soon be able to make a living doing this.Īs for the professionals in the UK, none, as yet, offer radio programmes for download. This might allow all-comers to sell downloadable radio shows, as well as the major broadcasters. 'The business involved in getting something on the radio (in the US) is an onerous one,' says Korzen, 'but the internet is not fettered by regulations.'Īlthough they currently have no concrete plans, Audible is considering launching a form of 'vanity press', perhaps later on this year. Nor is there a shortage of airtime, previously a major constraint on aspiring radio journalists.

Happily, being distributed via the internet, downloadable radio is not subject to any programming regulations. 'Her show is, in essence, unbroad castable,' understates Korzen, 'because of her frank language.' Susie Bright, the American sex writer, has a downloadable weekly show, In Bed with Susie Bright, currently on its 145th episode and very popular, despite never having been traditionally broadcast or promoted. You can get away with a lot more on the internet.Ĭase in point: Audible also creates its own programming. Liberating the listeners from time and place, and allowing them to talk back to the programme-makers is one thing: liberating the programme-makers is even better. The freedom given to the listener, of being able to choose when and where to listen to their favourite programming is proving extremely popular.Īdd that to the feedback fostered by the increasingly online-savvy listenership that are searching these things out, and you have a potent mix. They sell subscriptions to recordings of many popular daily American national talk radio shows, and even to read-aloud versions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Audible is an American company which started off selling downloadable audio books, but now, Korzen says, its fastest growing market isn't books, but downloadable radio programmes. Many people are seeing the 'internet as a medium that can garner a great deal of feedback,' says Jonathan Korzen, director of public relations for. Let's think of a new kind of media,' he says. My feeling is that traditional media in America is stuck. 'It's an approach to a different kind of radio. The ability to broadcast out, and have the internet talk back to them, Lydon says, is very appealing to journalists: professional hack and weblogger alike. they all have an institutional envy (of this)'.īy combining the intimacy of voice, the interactivity of a weblog, and the convenience and portability of an MP3 download, Lydon's work seems to take the best of all worlds, and not just for the listener. This, he says, is 'something that newspapers can only dream about. With no publisher to appease, no editor to report to, and an abundance of cheap tools, he says he feels unleashed to work directly with his audience. When I spoke to him, Lydon was in Iowa, reporting for his website from the caucus. Lydon's programmes, downloadable from his weblog, are interviews with webloggers, internet pioneers, and more recently, politicians, as the American presidential election campaigns gain speed. Everyone has been saying anyone can be a publisher, anyone can be a broadcaster,' he says, 'Let's see if that works.' 'It's an experiment, really,' says Christopher Lydon, the ex-New York Times and National Public Radio journalist, and now a pioneer in the field.

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