Your Own Radio Show From Your Bedroom?
PORTLAND, OR, (NAMC) - 29 June 2005 -- Where do you find a network that combines a splatter comedy throw-back to National Lampoon's Radio Hour, an off-the-wall interview show that deals with nothing but recovery from addictions, a program hosted by a woman that poses nude with headphones on her breasts, and the introspective musings of a Minneapolis drag queen?
Well, you won't find a programming mix like that on NBC or on HBO. You will find it at purecastmedia.com, a network that hosts podcasts, personal broadcasts created by amateurs and professionals on home computers and in recording studios.
And purecastmedia.com wants potential podcasters to know that corporate sponsors like GM, Gatorade and Warner Music have gotten into podcasting. That means that there could be money in podcasting.
"Podcasting is the first personal broadcasting medium that allows everyone to participate. The only barriers to entry are a personal computer and an internet connection," said Marc Rose, President of purecastmedia.com. “And the fact that there is a potential to earn money in podcasting makes it a slam dunk for anyone with a home computer and an attitude or a genuine passion for something that they wanna talk about.”
Rose, who produces the XM Radio drama, Dry Smoke & Whispers, got into podcasting in February with the first upload of The Area 51 Show, a program that combines the dark humor of National Lampoon's Radio Hour with cerebral surreality of Firesign Theatre. "Douglas Scott (purecastmedia.com's CEO) and I had produced a version of A51 in 1996. But, before podcasting, there was no home for a show like this," said Rose, who provides all the sound design and many of the voices for the show.
As The Area 51 Show, rose in popularity (it’s currently the favorite of RonKat, bassist and singer for George Clinton and Parliament) and garnered a large audience in what podcasters refer to as the "podosphere," Rose, Scott and the show's producer, JR Sanson, saw a podcasting network as a way to create a stable business model for their show and many others. Then, with Caleb de Floriduh, the web presence guy for the show, they started to build a website that integrated functions that would make podcasting easy for anyone that wanted to get into the medium.
"We figured that downloading shows would get simple real fast," said JR Sanson, an audio engineer and producer that moonlights as the I.T. expert at purecastmedia.com. "So, we decided we would focus on the evolution of an upload process that would be seamless for podcast producers." The result of that work is what is called Easycast technology. Says Sanson, "It's a process that makes setting up a show and uploading it as easy as sending an email or buying something on Ebay.
But the real story, according to Caleb de Floriduh, is still podcasting itself. "With iTunes and Microsoft Outlook integrating podcatchers (podcast receivers) into their latest iterations, podcasting is going to move from a stable audience of around a million to an audience of tens of millions within the next few months. Which means that it’s a genuine phenomenon.”
The “phenomenon” of podcasting was born when Dave Winer and Adam Curry (the former MTV veejay) linked the ubiquitous mp3 (a compressed audio file) with the same RSS technology that drives the so-called “blogosphere.” The result was audio programming that was time shifted. Says de Floriduh, “It’s free entertainment on demand.”
And it’s a medium that allows anyone to broadcast from the privacy of their own home, or from a subway or a street corner or their car. “Plus,” says Sanson, “It’s a totally portable medium. You can play podcasts on your computer, on your iPod (the origin of the medium’s name), in your car, anywhere.”
Douglas Scott, CEO at purecastmedia.com, puts it this way, “Podcasting is part of a communications revolution. Skype made voice communication free by accessing the bandwidth of users’ computers. Ebay created a world-wide, buyer-seller-driven marketplace that bypasses all the old means of distribution. And podcasting has permanently shifted the power of entertainment and information programming from a few large corporate entities to the average citizen in her bedroom at two in the morning with a ten dollar microphone.”
As an introductory offer, purecastmedia.com is offering one free month of podcasting to anyone that would like to try their hand at becoming the next success at the network. The network is also offering the opportunity to earn money from podcasting as sponsors identify programs with a large or well-niched listener base.
Said Rose, “We believe that this change is to broadcasting what the printing press was to the written word. It’s that fundamental, that revolutionary. And we want to provide a portal through which anyone can enter.”
Contact:
Douglas Scott
PURECASTMEDIA.COM
727.502.7720