Some people say podcasting is dead. And that videocasting would kill it. They said the same thing about Radio when films and television came to be. And yet radio has survived and it has even gone digital – podcasts and digital radio.

I have been a podcaster on and off for a couple of years and I have found out that there is still a space for podcasting out there. Podcasts are for those who have the patience to download and listen to audio files lasting from fifteen minutes to even two hours.

And podcasts take on many forms:

1. Speech – At its most basic form a podcast could be a speech by the podcaster. A reading of his or her post. it could be a rant, an impassioned speech or a discourse and even story telling.

2. Radio/Magazine Show – A podcast can also be a radio show. A talk show, A magazine show with many features, interviews or even games. It could also be a time where music can be played – assuming of course it is podsafe music – free to be distributed to the public.

3. Radio Play – This is probably the most tedious of all podcasts but also when done correctly the most rewarding both for the podcasters and its listeners. Welcome to the Theatre of the Mind. A good template to follow for this type of podcast would be the radio plays from the Golden Age of Radio – Mercury Theatre’s War of the World is a fine example and even Vincent Price’s Three Skeleton Key Island.

And the beauty of it all is that all you need is a podcasting microphone, audacity , an open source software for recording and editing sounds – available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems, and time.

Podcasting is not dead.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.