--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Meiser" > > I've been meaning to bug Andy Carvin about this as he's working with > NPR on their new media strategy... or as I like to put it... on > finding new ways to interact with the people formerly known as "the > audience". Hopefully Andy's listening now. >
You rang? :-) > Here's a little example... > > My friend got be hooked on Cartalk which is always on on Saturday and > Sunday mornings on NPR... I don't know why... it doesn't matter why... > and I haven't owned a car for over 10 years... the point is Cartalk hs > a very NICHE market... it's to guys with thick boston accents talking > about car problem solving for an hour a week. That's one hour a week, > and you have to catch it on a radio at 10am on Saturday or Sunday. > > It occurs to me... weekly ritual aside... that not only would I MUCH > rather enjoy CarTalk via podcast ANYTIME I liked but that they would > have an inifinitely greater opportunity to reach this tiny niche > market segment of listeners if they made themselves accessible via > podcast on the web. > > Not only would their listners be able to listen to them anytime and > anywhere... but they'd be more accessible... more available to a whole > world audience... like say an American Expat in Tokyo... or China, > Africa or anywhere in the world. They could reach this tiny sliver of > audience anywhere that audience is around the globe. Of all the possible things I'm thinking of doing at NPR, that particular request might just be the hardest to pull off. Not because it's technically difficult - it isn't - but because of a larger resistance within the entire public radio system to podcast full programs. Why? Because that would undermine the individual radio stations that rely on shows like Car Talk to create an audience for themselves. And NPR is a membership org of stations, with stations represented on our board. So you can say Long Tail til your pass out from exhaustion, but it's not going to change these cultural and political challenges within pubradio overnight. This was a major topic at the social media gathering I hosted this week, because many of them, being outside the pubradio system, see podcasting all of our intact shows as a no-brainer, whereas within public radio it's generally a taboo. Thing are slowly changing - take Fresh Air, for example, which now has its own podcast. But these things take a lot of negotiating, particularly when a show like CarTalk isn't produced by NPR - we merely distribute it. So as I help roll out social media projects in the coming months, I wouldn't hold your breath for a Car Talk podcast. Community features on our website? I certainly hope so. But the podcast battle is one that's above my pay grade.... -andy
