inluminent

Prompted by my buddy Josh’s latest lament on the failings of Podcasting (and radio in Austin, for him), I figured I’d write up my feelings about Podcasting, and a cool little tool I’ve found that I think will help my iPod serve me better.

I too don’t really listen to many Podcasts for very long, primarily because most of them are pretty shodily produced.

I’ve tried listening to the ones that I think will hold my interest, but I can’t get past the poor recording quality or the utter lack of a script for the personalities creating the podcast. It just doesn’t cut it.

There are three podcasts that I subscribe to, that I haven’t deleted:

CNN’s Marketplace Update
The World’s Technology Podcast with Clark Boyd (from NPR)
On the Media (from NPR)

I also just subscribed to the President’s Weekly Radio Address (because I never listen to the radio on Sundays, and think that it’d be interesting to listen to).

As you can see, I like to listen to really well produced podcasts, primarily, with the goal of learning something new. I’d love to also listen to new comedy oriented podcasts, if I had the time to investigate them to find the good ones.

In the meantime, I’m left waiting for a podcast of some of my favoriate radio programs, like “A Prairie Home Companion” which doesn’t offer a podcast, or paying for Rush Limbaugh’s podcast (which seems more than a little silly to me).

Or am I?

Enter RadioTime. RadioTime is a little application that runs on your computer (Mac or PC) that records internet audio streams for you, turns them into MP3s, and puts them in iTunes, ready to be snyced with your iPod.

Just yesterday, I captured 3 hours of Rush Limbaugh, that I’m listening to right now. This Sunday, I’ll get my first A Prarie Home Companion podcast. I’m loving it. While this isn’t “Podcasting” perse, my iPod just got a whole lot more useful.

Hat tip to Mike Orren for pointing the way to RadioTime for me.

updated on 8/21: Just bought my first year’s subscription to RadioTime… loving it so far.