Pod wha?

You know it must be old news if local TV is doing a story on it. Today it was podcasting, with the usual TV news "we never heard of this, but we gotta sound knowledgeable" treatment. I admit, I get excited at first at each fresh digital phenomenon. But even I am getting skeptical about how big a deal podcasting is, or is going to be. There are people who've made substantial investments in it--this report contains a shot of a couple of moms in their quite impressive studio. Jeez, all you need is a computer, a mike and some reasonably priced software. There are also some quick snippets of podcast audio. Amateur stuff. I don't know. It's wonderful that the computer and the Web are making it possible for everybody to be a publisher-radio guy-TV producer-filmmaker, but you still have to have content to interest an audience. How much stuff can we get around to listening to? In a three-or-four-step process: find-download-transfer to Ipod-stick buds in ears-push start? [Link to KING-TV's video page--if you've got enough speed you can watch the story--Windows Media only. Free registration.]