01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 19, 2005

BY RODNEY HO
Cox News Service

ATLANTA -- The Internet has spawned yet another outlet for navel gazers and egotists to share their pontifications on any topic with the whole world.

Podcasting -- a word that didn't exist two years ago -- allows everyday Jacks and Jills to be know-it-all deejays, loudmouth shock jocks or opinionated political talkers.

In Atlanta they are gabbing about everything from global domination to crop circles to losing their jobs. Once a podcaster posts his personal ponderings on a Web site, anyone can listen or download to an MP3 player to play back anytime.

There are even subscription podcasts, which download automatically when a new one is created. A few weeks ago, Apple added podcasts to its latest iTunes software, making it even easier to subscribe to thousands of free podcasts.

"The possibilities are endless," said Greg Willits, 34, a computer programmer who hosts a podcast called Rosary Army (www.rosaryarmy.com) to spread the Catholic faith. "You can create content-specific shows you'd never hear on AM/FM radio."

And mainstream radio is quickly jumping aboard. BBC and National Public Radio offer podcast versions of their most popular shows.

ABC provides podcast highlights from TV shows such as Good Morning America and Nightline.

While most podcasts are free, radio talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are hawking theirs for a fee.

"A lot of national companies and radio broadcasters are interested in exploiting the technology," said Ted Schadler, an analyst with Forrester Research of Boston. "But podcasting is still a very bottom-up kind of phenomenon. It's like the wild, wild West."

In Rhode Island, where Citadel Broadcasting operates several radio stations, podcasting has not yet been implemented, although it's been considered.

"The problem is if you download a talk show that has podcasting, you won't be listening in real time," said David Bernstein, director of operations and news for WPRO-AM. "That prevents you from calling in, which is a big part of talk radio."

The same situation applies to radio news broadcasts, according to Bernstein, where information becomes dated and less relevant. Although, Bernstein said, podcasting is "good that it gives people more choices."

Measuring such a new phenomenon is difficult. Schadler estimates a relatively modest 300,000 households will actively use podcasts this year. (Already, Apple said users subscribed to more than 1 million podcasts the first two days iTunes made them available.)

But Schadler sees podcasting becoming a standard feature used by 12.3 million households by 2010 as MP3 players become more popular and broadband Internet access becomes more prevalent.

Already, according to iTunes, top podcasts include ESPN, CNN and Air America's Al Franken show.

The term itself, which came into use just last year, merges the word "iPod," Apple's popular portable music player, with "broadcast." The software that automatically downloads podcasts also became available only last year.

Roswell, Ga., engineering executive Derek Colanduno and his roommate Robynn McCarthy recently created a podcast dubbed "Skepticality," which picks apart the paranormal, the supernatural and urban legends. By namedropping the podcast in select chat rooms and mentioning it to friends, they have built 5,600 subscribers in two months, an impressive number in the burgeoning podcast world.

Using $200 professional microphones and a mixing board, they tape their shows about once a week in their shadowy basement room packed with four Macs, two PCs and two TVs. Colanduno facetiously calls it Batpig Studios, an oblique reference to their pet French bulldog Remy, who quietly chewed a toy in his bed on the floor while they recorded their show on a recent Friday.

"We're just big nerds," McCarthy said after interviewing paranomal skeptic James Randi.

Colanduno used to be a rock radio DJ in Las Vegas. "The advantage I enjoy now is I don't have to worry about everybody else's preconceptions on how to get more advertisers or ratings. I have total creative control," he said.

While podcasters so far are heavily skewed to self-proclaimed nerds, companies are coming out with podcast software to make it easier for even relatively low-tech people to podcast.

For example, GarageBand.com, which provides more than 200,000 songs for free streaming or download, last month introduced technology so musicians can record, mix and publish podcasts of their work.

"Podcasting is going to replace FM radio for this current generation," predicted Ali Partovi, 32, and GarageBand.com's chief executive officer. "Commercial radio has lost touch with the listener and is not performing the role they want it to perform."

One possible problem with podcasting: music copyright issues. Because podcasts are similar to file sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America -- a record label trade group that has sued thousands of illegal music file downloaders -- has not given podcasts a legal thumbs up.

As a precaution, outfits such as NPR and Limbaugh have stripped out any music when transferring their on-air shows to podcasts.

Many businesses are looking to use podcasts to enhance their Web sites by providing speeches, testimonials and product announcements, to name a few. Penny Haynes, an audio editing specialist offers an online, five-week podcasting course for entrepreneurs.

Her base of operations is a small tan couch in an alcove off her living room.

"The people I'm dealing with are podcasting for profit," said Haynes, who works off a Dell laptop. "With audio, people can build trust with clients that you can't do with just text. It's basically free advertising."

BUT WITH FREEDOM comes dross. Michael Earls, 33, an Atlanta software programmer, said he has sampled 50 podcasts and thinks only three or four were worthwhile.

"A lot of people have no business yapping," he said. "There's no value in some person jabbering about nothing."

Curtix Six, 26, and friend Keith Pilgrim have no qualms podcasting as silly squirrels, Informer and Snitch, hellbent on ruling the world. With artificially speeded-up voices, they sound more like chipmunks acting like '90s animated characters Pinky & the Brain.

"It's to rant and rave about the idiosyncracies of crazy people," said Six, who runs a Web hosting company and lives in Marietta, Ga. "We talk about people from a third person, squirrel point of view."

Pilgrim, a retail backroom employee, said it's just a way for the two pals to amuse themselves. "Podcasting is just a novelty for people right now," he said. "I don't expect this to last."

In a technology column on publish.com last month, David Coursey said he isn't keen on podcasting's future.

"Over time, podcasting will be dominated by professional content, if not in quantity then in share of audience," Coursey wrote. "This won't make podcasting a real mass medium, either. People just don't want to work very hard for their content, and I'm an example."

Coursey notes that many people are developing podcasts because "content creation can be fun, sort of like fingerpainting was back in preschool, but people also run out of creative energy, and the maintenance of a site, blog or podcast becomes a chore. And the content gets boring, and the audience goes away."