NPR = National Podcast Radio

[Oscar Madison]

Pew Research's 2015 State of the Media reports...

NPR Podcast downloads up 42% for 2014 over 2013
Podcast sponsorship revenue doubled.
Unique web site visitors up 35%

Terrestrial radio listenership down 04%.

http://current.org/2015/04/pew-stat...hlights-nprs-gains-in-podcasting-website-use/

NPR, at the insistence of local stations, continue to withhold Morning Edition and All Things Considered from podcasting but for how long? That's where the audience is going, especially younger demos NPR keeps wanting to attract.

 

[TheBigA]

You seem to imply by your post that commercial radio doesn't podcast. That isn't true.

There are several companies that specialize in it, and CBS Radio just established a division to handle it internally.

Also, I clicked on the link to the Pew study, and didn't see demographic data anywhere. So there is no information that supports your opinion that NPR podcasts are attracting a younger demo. Just because they use new media doesn't mean they get younger audiences. Lot of grandpas like to listen to podcasts.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

NPR, at the insistence of local stations, continue to withhold Morning Edition and All Things Considered from podcasting but for how long?

Are you sure about that? I and my daughter are fans of Shankar Vedantam who has a segment in Morning Edition... what once a week? That time of morning I am "in and out" and sometimes sleep through his segment and I will get an email asking: "Did you hear Shankar this morning? It was classic."

Now maybe to the purist the mechanism Shankar uses does not meet the strict guidelines of 'podcasting' but I have have no trouble downloading or listening on line to his segment later. Other feature segments in ME and ATC seem to be readily available. If the affiliates have a campaign to keep this from happening, it seems to me their campaign is one big failure!

 

[Oscar Madison]

Yes, I am sure. NPR even has a "help page" attempting to justify this (apparently people have asked).

Yes, you can download segments or the whole show but that's different than a podcast or RSS feed. NPR has podcasts for other shows. Fresh Air. Here & Now. On Point. On The Media. Diane Rehm. These and others have RSS feeds. Put the URL in your podcast client and it automatically updates with new episodes. Just not the NPR news magazines. For that you have to go and download manually.

There are ways around this. NPR has them and keeps them pretty well hidden. If you want to subscribe to all of Shankar Vedantum's pieces, enter this in your podcast app:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rss/podlayer.php?id=137765146

Funny that local stations promote their own podcasts but block podcasts of ME and ATC. Even delayed updates until after the shows run (just as they delay audio streaming for these shows) are not visibly offered.

Also funny that NPR when they do promote podcasts, also promote iTunes as THE way to subscribe. For some reason, NPR has an inexplicable pro-Apple bias. All smartphones are iPhones. All tablets are iPads. And "subscribe on iTunes." I haven't heard an Apple underwriting credit, so I wonder what the deal is.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Funny that local stations promote their own podcasts but block podcasts of ME and ATC. Even delayed updates until after the shows run (just as they delay audio streaming for these shows) are not visibly offered.

Also funny that NPR when they do promote podcasts, also promote iTunes as THE way to subscribe. For some reason, NPR has an inexplicable pro-Apple bias. All smartphones are iPhones. All tablets are iPads. And "subscribe on iTunes." I haven't heard an Apple underwriting credit, so I wonder what the deal is.

I think the deal is: "You are making up crap on the fly" which makes conversation quite difficult. I have APPS on my Android... and they came from NPR.... that allow me to do things you say can't be done. So much for their Apple bias.

I admire your vivid imagination.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Mr. Cowboy: I guess you have not seen the notice: "Please keep the following in mind when responding to someone or a comment/reply you disagree with." And maybe you didn't see the post about one user being banned after calling another a liar, which is tantamount to the statement you made here.

Just to be clear, which NPR Android app allows you to download ME or ATC as a whole program or podcast using pre-set instructions?

NPR had an Apple app almost a year before issuing an Android version and kept promoting the app "for your iPhone" during that time. I wrote and asked about this. Their reply was that (they think) most NPR listeners are iPhone users. Not sure what they base that on but Android is clearly the market leader in mobile OS platforms.

NPR's app is a variation on the website NPR Media Player. It allows streaming of selected segments from NPR news magazines. Unlike a true podcast client, it does not allow downloading. That means that for mobile use, you are going to be running up bits on your phones data plan. A podcast client allows the user to download content on wifi and then listen in the car or while out and about (running, walking the dog, etc.). And unlike the podcast client on my Nexus 5, streaming only allows the user to listen at normal speed. No VSC, which is how I prefer to listen. Therefore, for my purposes, the NPR app is too limited and unacceptable.

Further, the NPR app is not "set it and forget it," like a true podcast client (even the kludgy, iron hog iTunes, which NPR insists on promoting).

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Mr. Cowboy: I guess you have not seen the notice: "Please keep the following in mind when responding to someone or a comment/reply you disagree with." And maybe you didn't see the post about one user being banned after calling another a liar, which is tantamount to the statement you made here.

Yes, I after a review of the replay, I guess I skated right up against the s"foul line" or maybe crossed it a bit. So, can we engage in:

A discussion about discussion.

I've lived in multiple states and observed how the various cultures within the boundaries of our nation deal with "the discussion of controversy". (In the political scene of our nation today, we don't do it worth a flip!!!) And since some rather substantial cable networks seem to give us license, permission to shape and distort the handling of facts or things we claim are facts, the discipline of our speech patterns today has become a bit ragged.

Here is the mechanical problem of language that caused our bit of abrasive verbiage yesterday: If a speaker or writer quotes sources for a bit of information and I challenge the information, that is not ad hominem. I am taking it "to the source" not "to the man" or to the person with whom I am conversing.

But you didn't quote some magazine article. You did not quote a policy guide issued by NPR but I think you made claim that maybe the stations making up the NPR group have issued an edict to the network, but you did not quote the document.... if it exists.

I don't know is this term is in common usage or not, but may I suggest that what YOU DID constitutes AB HOMINEM. (FROM the man!) If we are going to have a discussion about something that you personally claim (AB HOMINEM) then there cannot be any discussion under your concept because the statement is from you, and to discuss or challenge the statement is to discuss or challenge YOU.

If you wish to bring us information that has a source, then we can freely discuss the information and the source and we have taken no skin off your back.

If you wish to bring us your opinion which has YOU as the source, we have to pretend your post does not exist and offer no commentary because anything we post "takes it to the source, the man" a.k.a. AD HOMINEM.

A post which takes us back on-subject follows.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I wrote my observations based on personal experience and usage. I did not "make it up."

When I use a "source," I cite it. In my experience, most magazine articles - especially those dealing with topics like those discussed here - are also someone's observations based on experience. That is the difference between journalism and science.

Remember:] everyone is coming to the table with different experiences that are their point of reference for why they believe what they do. That does not make them less of a human than anyone else for not believing or agreeing with you.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Yes, you can download segments or the whole show but that's different than a podcast or RSS feed. NPR has podcasts for other shows. Fresh Air. Here & Now. On Point. On The Media. Diane Rehm. These and others have RSS feeds. Put the URL in your podcast client and it automatically updates with new episodes. Just not the NPR news magazines. For that you have to go and download manually.

Language is sometimes fluid, and language sometimes changes.

It appears you are using a very correct, very narrow definition of PODCAST. It is NOT a Podcast unless it is mechanically delivered according to the strict, traditional mechanics of PODCASTING. And since Podcasting is named for the mechanical vehicle where it all started, the iPod, yes Podcasting is likely to be more APPLE centric than it is Android friendly.

I'm a bit sloppier in my understanding of gathering and harvesting audio content for listening later rather than live. I don't make that big of a distinction between automatic downloading and insertion into my mobile-device-of-choice and one where I have to jump through a few hoops to get my audio when and where I want it because my device of choice is different.

I personally have absolutely NO INTEREST in obtaining an entire hour of ME or ATC from 3 or 4 days ago and suffering through all the time sensitive content about weather and campaign events which are old history by now just so I can hear an interview or two with a well known author or political person.

Thus, I will grade the efforts (and lack of efforts) by NPR in this area much differently than what I gather you do.

NPR stations tend to also insert non-NPR content from various sources where the content has been produced to fit the schedule of NPR-centric stations. I am thinking of Minnesota Public Radio, WBUR, I am thinking of the sources in Philadelphia, American Public Media, etc.

It strikes me that to make any flat, all-inclusive observation about the practices of NPR stations gets be something of a Six Flags thrill-ride.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I don't agree that it's a "narrow definition." Podcasting is based on RSS (real simple syndication). It is not "Apple centric." RSS works with any operating system. The first podcast client was Applian's Replay Audio, not iTunes.

If you prefer listening "live," be my guest. I do not. I got a VCR in 1981. I got a Tivo in 1999. I almost never - ever - watch live TV. And, thanks to podcasting (and on-demand downloads), I almost never listen to live radio. (1) I prefer to listen when I want. (2) I prefer to select the segments in which I am interested and listen only to those. (3) I prefer to listen using VSC (live - especially live NPR - is sooooo slooooow). I get so-called "breaking news" from Feedly or AOL Reader (which also use RSS). I don't care to have NPR read to me something I've already read. I do listen to features and backgrounders from NPR, and those are still fresh "three or four days" later.

I don't consider local news and those non-NPR pieces local station stick in ME and ATC. They are not part of those programs, in my view. They are interruptions. When I did listen "live," I listened to KCRW's World News Internet audio stream so I could get ME and ATC with the full network feed, and anytime they are being fed, with interruptions. Now I listen to what I want, when I want, just as I once did when I read a daily paper. But I get the feeling (please note - I get the feeling) NPR likes playing "gatekeeper," they like playing "Outer Limits" and deciding what we hear. It seems to me that for them, podcasting and on-demand are like the inmates taking over. (Yes, your experience may differ.)

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thank you, Oscar.

You have probably noticed the threads on this site (and others) where people get in arguments about "What is Radio?" A lot of younger folks see ALL audio streaming on the Internet as radio, even when there is no FCC licensed originator for the audio content. Others stubbornly claim that ONLY aidio which is also being simultaneouslyrun through a transmitter somewhere can be called Radio.

As Kleenex and Xerox learned long ago..... language and the use of terminology sometimes goes where it jolly-well-pleases.

You have a rather firm understanding of the origins of what we call PODCASTING and I have no quarrel with your uinderstanding of the history and development.

My point is that like Kleenex and Xerox and Caterpillar, the general public often bastardizes original names of products, methods or schemes to fit the current level of development.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Interesting. According to the dictionary, "radio" is wireless and uses radiant energy. By that definition, cellular and wifi are radio.

It seems (to me) the definitive change is broadcasting versus on-demand. Some form of "wireless" will be around for foreseeable future but the age of the gatekeeper is ending (whether gatekeepers or broadcasters like it or not).

 

[TheBigA]

Some people want "curated content." They want to sit and have it delivered. Some people want it on their own schedule. It's the difference between having your meal served, and going to a buffet. Or even making it yourself. All those choices are available in radio. As I've said many times before, it's not a "one or the other" thing. But the issue for broadcasters is to find ways to make money from all the available platforms. Since we're talking here about Public Radio, the issue is to convert content users into members. NPR isn't as concerned about that as the stations, which may explain why the stations want to have input into online distribution. It's a very similar relationship between recording artists and streaming or downloading. If consumers are getting their content via those distribution platforms rather than CD sales, then the recording artists and songwriters should share in the advertising revenue. They do. But if the audience is there, and revenue is there, why shouldn't the stations expect a share of the podcasting revenue?