Monday, September 12, 2005

News radio (or TV audio) from the Web via podcast Podcasting pioneer Dave Winer posted a note in his weblog the other day asking whether any broadcasters were offering daily news programs as subscribable audio feeds on the Web (you know, "podcasts"). Weekly features and opinion programs are still more common, but I've been listening to some daily news podcasts too... so I dug up a few more and added their addresses to his comments page. (Here are Dave's post and my response.) I added even more to that page later, including some info from other folks who responded to Dave's request, then organized it a little better for a class discussion. (For now, the URLs are still visible on this page, but I may neaten this up later.) Here's the result: TV's PBS Newshour has an audio podcast: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/index.html So does MSNBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams: http://podcast.msnbc.com/audio/podcast/MSNBC-Nightly.xml and I see at least one other daily program on MSNBC's podcast list: http://podcast.msnbc.com/audio/podcast/ CNN's podcast links are here, including its hourly news update: http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/ Fox Broadcasting is even calling some of its podcasts "foxcasts," but I haven't had time to look for news among all of its self-promotional links to summaries of TV dramas: http://www.fox.com/foxcast/ Here is some information about Fox News RSS feeds: http://www.foxnews.com/rss/ And this podcasting directory exists, but I don't see links yet: http://www.foxnews.com/xmlfeed/podcasting/ Fox affiliate KCMO in Kansas City has a podcast, even if it could use some text-oriented proofreading, at "The 710 KCMO Podacst Page," http://www.710kcmo.com/podcast.asp Ironically, I haven't had a chance to listen to most of these programs. (There are only so many hours a week to be at the office, and I don't have a broadband connection at home.) A Fox affiliate in San Francisco, KTVU, has a podcast at http://www.ktvu.com/podcast/ and other RSS feeds at http://www.ktvu.com/rss/ For website management, KTVU is an Internet Broadcasting System affiliate, (http://www.ibsys.com) which makes me wonder its scores of other local TV websites across the country all will be on the podcast bandwagon shortly. http://www.ibsys.com/sites/ On television, the visuals carry a lot of the story... I wonder if any of the TV-news podcasts are supplementing the audio somehow, possibly with the audio track of a captioning-for-the-blind service. Dave mentioned noticing an ABC Nightline feed, but it looks like ABC News really has gotten the little orange [POD] bug, with feeds for Good Morning America Highlights, the Nightline news program -- and more than 20 other programs, including some from ABC stations in major cities. I haven't listened to the audio version of Nightline. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting/ On the radio side of the Web, I noticed that WWL in New Orleans is linking to KIRO, Seattle, for what they're calling an "audio blog" of reports from their guys in Baton Rouge and New Orleans: http://www.wwl.com/Article.asp?id=113214&;spid= I don't see a podcast feed, but when I first noticed the "Seattle" note, I expected one -- I mistook KIRO for Seattle KOMO, which got into podcasting a year ago, long before most of us. http://www.komotv.com/radio/podcast_explain.asp Closer to home, I've been checking out the WTOP morning and afternoon news updates from Washington, D.C., and their feed of the 40 minute CBS (radio) Weekend Roundup, which I hope to use (along with various PBS things) in some classes on radio news next month: http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=311915&;nid=404 See a related article in RadioMonitor: http://tinyurl.com/caz6o Incidentally, you don't have to subscribe to the podcasts for most of these feeds -- the broadcasters offer the option of playing the audio directly through your browser ("streaming") or downloading individual mp3 or m4a files instead of subscribing. (M4a is a newer format that Apple is pushing, in order to offer advanced features in iTunes. See http://phobos.apple.com/static/iTunesRSS.html and http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/07/how_to_make_enh.html) MediaWeek on WINS in NYC: http://tinyurl.com/a92hw "WINS is offering 12 separate podcasts, all new content (nothing repurposed from the station) and running the gamut from 1010 WINS Morning Podcast to the off-the-wall You Can't Make This Stuff Up. There is also a Spanish podcast, 1010 WINS Noticias Ahora... "Infinity announced in June that nine of its News stations would begin podcasting with WINS acting as the flagship." (Infinity is also the parent company of http://KYOUradio.com, which started an all-podcast format in the spring, including a few words from Dave himself on opening day.) For more on those Infinity affiliates... see http://podcast.medianext.com/ For instance, http://podcast.medianext.com/stations/wbz/ in Boston Or KYW http://podcast.medianext.com/stations/kyw/ in Philadelphia The Philly morning newscast sounds like someone gets the idea, but four minutes is shorter than I expected from the intro: "KYW Newsradio on the run. This morning's news brief to take with you on the way to work or school." Four minutes? Short commute! http://podcast.medianext.com/stations/kyw/ http://podcast.medianext.com/stations/kyw/?archive=34&;d=AM Separate feed: "KYW Newsradio in the raw ... full content from selected news events, news conferences, important speeches, live coverage and analysis." ... and many more, including a hint that they might be /listening/ too... "KYW How's My Driving?" "The management of KYW Newsradio answers questions and addresses complaints from listeners, along with a weekly behind-the-scenes peek at something you never knew about KYW Newsradio." CBC/Radio Canada is in the middle of a labor contract dispute, which may be why its podcasting page is currently unavailable: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/ However, its RSS page mentions a few podcasts: http://www.cbc.ca/rss/ Public Radio affiliates are feeding a lot of http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php weekly feature and interview programs, but not the main NPR newscasts. http://archive.scripting.com/2005/09/10#When:10:33:03PM Dave suspects that has something to do with the network's relationship with affiliate stations, which sounds reasonable. Local NPR stations weave their hometown reports into the Morning Edition and All Things Considered broadcasts, which may encourage some of the top-notch local news reporting by affiliates like our own award-winning WUOT here in Knoxville. I wonder if it would be possible for the local affiliates to put out the podcasts of the combined programs -- including their local news, rather than losing their local listeners to a centralized podcast of the national programs. That would be similar to the way the Associated Press feeds its stories through member newspaper websites, so maybe NPR could ask AP how well it's working out. 10:41:26 AM

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