Podcast n00b

I have gotten into podcasts fairly heavily the last few months. Why didn't I start digging podcasts before this? No real reason, honestly. I was on dial-up for a handful of years (until about 2008 or so) so that was part of it, but the other was simply that I wasn't all that interested; listening to an amateur broadcaster(s) drone on sounded, to me, like listening to a player describe his latest D&D exploits. The truth is, many podcasts are like that, but there are a handful that are entertaining or informative, and -- sometimes -- both.

Podcasts fall into two general categories:

1. Over-produced
2. Insanely amateurish

Now, to be fair, there are a few that fall somewhere between these extremes, and I have not heard every podcast out there, but the majority of the podcasts I've heard are either ludicrously over-produced or clearly made by amateurs.

Another blanket statement: Unless, and many times even if, the podcaster is wildly charismatic, one-person podcasts are rarely as interesting or entertaining as their multi-podcaster counterparts. I'm pretty sure this comes down to the fact that multi-person podcasts come across as more "interactive," for lack of a better word; you feel like part of the group with multi-person podcasts, whereas with one person, it sounds more like you're being talked at.

Now, I freely admit that I am a podcast newbie, so filter everything I say through that, but I've been listening to podcasts for several months now, and have picked-up on a lot in that time that I would like to discuss. Creating my own podcast is something I've talked about for quite some time, but I am nowhere near that yet, nor have I even taken steps in that direction, so -- once again -- filter my observations through that.

I am going to review some podcasts, and discuss the process in general, both here and across the other blogs. Here, I will largely focus on the technological aspects -- namely podcast receivers, directories, the process, and so on -- but I'd really love for more people to comment on this, because I'm really interested in podcasting!

© C Harris Lynn, 2010