#8-My Adventures in Podcasting

#8 - My Adventures in Podcasting (Mp3)

How did I get started in Podcasting? There were a series of events. I bought a Stereo Receiver from a local electronics store, which I turned out not to need. Feeling sorry for the salesman, I traded it in for a Creative Zen MP3 player. Now I had a player with quite a lot of memory in it and all kinds of features. so what could I do with it? I started collecting all sorts of things to listen to and I tripped over Podcasts. Now, I'd already started working with an aggregator, which is something that collects Podcasts. It just polls them from your list of preferences and downloads them, if that's what you want to do.

I started first with iPodder, now called Juice, which was free and it was good but not completely what I wanted. I discovered an aggregator called Feed Demon, which I actually paid for, and which I liked better because it gave me more control and didn't automatically call up the iTunes Player, which I find intrusive.

Then I found out that some Podcasts were too long. I preferred to listen in shorter bursts. Maybe I have a short attention span and, sometimes, when traveling the shorter Podcasts are better.

On Replay Radio I discovered something called MP3 Magic which allowed me to take an hour long Podcast and break it into 15 minute segments which were more or less seamless. I didn't notice when it I went from one segment to the another. If I was interrupted while listening it didn't matter because I could go back or on to the next segment without fiddling too much with controls.

I started to refine my interests. I liked documentaries, so Radio Netherlands was a natural for that and the BBC, of course. Some BBC programs and many CBC programs, like Quirks and Quarks, are available as Podcasts.

I also monitor a few Blogs. Folks think Podcasts are Blogs but Blogs usually don't have downloadable sound files.

I went further afield and discovered a Blog that operated out of New Orleans. They were operational during the entire time of the flood and gave daily, sometimes hourly reports from inside the city. It was operated by an Internet Service provider who kept their site up and their clients sites up and started rescuing other company's data from their computers which were in high rise buildings well above the water line. The fellow that was running the Blog, his actual job was security He was ex Special Forces with a technical background. He had a wonderful ability to communicate in simple language just exactly what he was seeing, no frills, just what it was like being there on the ground as it were, although they were ten floors up, in New Orleans.

Back to Podcasts - I discovered WNYC's Morning Stories, Mark Blevis, National Public Radio and all kinds of things. Then I got into vintage radio programs. I discovered that listing to Charlie McCarthy and Fibber McGee and Tallulah Bankhead and Bob Hope was really, really interesting. I felt like I was back in time in a place where I was quite safe and some of the bad things that were happening now weren't happening any more. It seemed like an innocent time. I got into really early music through a Podcast called Thomas Edison's Attic on WFMU "Edison cylinder and disc record rarities, many not heard since “the old man” himself stashed them away, featuring: Tin Pan Alley pop songs, ragtime, vaudeville comedy sketches, flapper dance bands, old-time country tunes, historic classical music, laboratory experiments and other artifacts – all dating from 1888 through 1929"

Because I used to listen to Jeff Healey's “My Kind of Jazz” on Jazz.FM 91, which is jazz from the 20's to the early 40's, I regained my earlier appreciation for the fine musicianship back then. I was able to download some vintage big band Podcasts with Harry James and Red Nichols and His Five Pennies and so on. The commercials were interesting too. My goodness, did they ever talk up cigarettes in those days. It was almost seductive how they went on about how round and firm and fully packed they were.

I listen to the Podcast programs at night mostly. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, and they put me to sleep. Certain kinds of voices on the radio will do that. They'll lull me off to dreamland. Lord knows what subliminal messages I'm taking in :-)

In the morning I delete the programs I've listened to and add some more from the Podcasts I'm downloading on a regular basis.

I've started my own Podcasts, a series of small sound files, I keep them short. I put them on line and a small circle of fans enjoy them quite a lot. I bought a nice Sennheiser mic and I'm busy re-recording my earlier Podcasts to improve the sound quality. For the technically inclined I record in Mono at 44100. Not all MP3 players can be heard properly in stereo. Plus it save some bandwidth/download time.

I have lived a longish life. I'm 71 and gaining. I've had some interesting times, living in the Canadian north and Chatham, Ontario, and Detroit and New York City. Now I'm back in Toronto. I'm combining my experiences to tell stories about my life, hopefully in an interesting manner. It's my audio biography to share with my daughter, my family, friends and perfect strangers who stop by and listen in.

Note: That small circle of friends and family has expanded to 7,000+ hits a month. I had a nice note from a lady in Brazil telling me she enjoyed my Podcasts and used them to help her learn English because I spoke slowly and clearly. I guess that explains why my Statistics who I have 8% subscribing from China.

My Podcasts can be accessed on line in MP3 format at http://www.soniabrock.com/index.html

and the Feed is located at

http://www.soniabrock.com/Podcasts/chatham1.xml