Congratulations on your new iPod, part three

Last year at this time, I was in your shoes, unpacking my new iPod, burning the other CDs I owned that I didn’t yet have in iTunes (my brother suggesting I do that back at Thanksgiving should have been a hint to me that I was getting an iPod for Christmas, but it somehow wasn’t) and wondering what else I was going to do with this thing.

I started downloading podcasts a few months later, which makes me a relatively early adopter (I did it before iTunes could get podcasts), but not a bleeding edge ubergeek. (And a good thing, too. All that was available early on were podcasts about podcasting or about Linux or Apples. Zzzzzzzz.) My choices have waxed and waned, but the roll-your-own-radio-station notion of podcasting has always clicked with me.

Here’s my current list of podcasts. Whether you use Juice or iTunes, just copy these addresses into your podcasting software and add them to your subscriptions.

• APM’s Marketplace – A weekly highlights show of the great public radio on business, nationally and internationally.
• Bill Handel – Highlights from the Los Angeles talk show host’s KFI morning radio show. This is the one feed I have trouble with, and I seem to miss about half of the podcasts as a result.
• Channel Frederator – A great collection of independent cartoon shorts. If you own a video iPod, you owe it to yourself to get this one.
• Dave Cusick’s Post Modern Rock Show – It’s already become more important to me, musically, than my local radio station (if KROQ in Los Angeles starts podcasting, that might change, but probably not). A great eclectic round-up of new music each week. It’s not always stuff I love, but it’s always stuff that’s interesting.
• Inside the Net – A fairly geeky podcast, this features two professional broadcasters interviewing industry leaders about new Web software, such as Firefox 1.5, Flock and other programs.
• KCRW’s Film Reviews – The first of many shows from LA’s amazingly cool NPR station. It turns out that NPR doesn’t have to be dry and self-satisfied. It can be really hip, fun and self-satisfied. This is a strong set of weekly film reviews by Joe Morgenstern, the Pulitzer-prize winning film reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.
• KCRW’s Martini Shot – Funny weekly reports from television writer Rob Long.
• KCRW’s Minding the Media – Not the best media-on-the-media report, but short and often incisive.
• KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic – Interviews and live performances from the legendary music show. Rights issues prevent the rest of the music from being podcast, but you can hear it streaming at KCRW.org.
• KCRW’s Music Exchange – KCRW and the BBC talk about breaking bands on both sides of the Atlantic.
• KCRW’s The Business – Forget Entertainment Tonight. This is the best show about the entertainment industry. It even has a cool theme song.
• KCRW’s The Treatment – Great one-on-one interviews with entertainment industry figures. Much more interesting than the typical interview circuit subjects.
• KEXP Presents Music That Matters – A music show from a northwest NPR station.
• KFI Tech Guy – The commercial-free version of Leo Laporte’s syndicated tech help call-in show.
• Liz Phair Podcast – She hasn’t done a new episode of Uplands in a while, but it mixes music, interviews with people she meets and her reading her short fiction. Come on, you knew I’d have this, didn’t you?
• NPR: Books – The week’s NPR stories regarding books.
• NPR: Health & Science – A weekly round-up of NPR health and science stories.
• NPR: Most E-Mailed Stories – Ah, the democracy of the “E-Mail this Page” link. This tends to assemble a great 30 minute news podcast each day, although you sometimes end up capturing more of the NPR listeners’ zeitgeist than you might want. And, guys, stop recommending that awful Slate guy’s smarmy movie reviews round-up. Ugh.
• NPR: Movies – You can probably guess. It’s also amusing because the intro’s reader seems amazed that NPR would get interviews with movie industry folks, which suggests that NPR has people working for them who have never listened to their shows.
• NPR: Music – Stories about music, and sometimes some performances.
• NPR: Open Mic Music – Every weekday, a performance by an unsigned artist. Typically very, very good.
• NPR: Technology – A relatively un-nerdy round-up of the week’s tech stories.
• NPR: World Cafe Words & Music – Highlights from the weekly music show.
• Official Disneyland Podcast – Originally created by an obsessive SoCal fan, this is a surprisingly interesting show. (I discovered once I moved to Southern California that I really, really like Disneyland.)
• On the Media – An excellent media-on-the-media show. Great criticism, a great examination of the business and the calling.
• PRI’s Studio360 – Highlights from the weekly interview and performance show.
• PRI’s The World – Geo Quiz – Inexplicably, they’re only giving us one of these a week, but it’s the most fun part of the great daily international news show. Hopefully PRI will put more of The World online as a podcast at some point. It’s not like it’s a commercial broadcast anyway.
• science friday podcast – All of the segments from the great science feature on Talk of the Nation. Interestingly, each of the segments on Science Friday is a separate podcast, allowing you to listen to just what you want to.
• SuicideGirls Radio – The pierced-and-tattooed pin-up girls (I couldn’t make this stuff up) do a surprisingly warm and sweet call-in talk show once a week on an LA rock station.
• this WEEK in TECH – A highly geeky round-table by professional broadcasters and pundits on the latest tech news, but a great show.
• Tiki Bar TV – A very silly sitcom and drink recipe show by a group of folks having way too much fun. Another must-subscribe show for video iPod owners.
• Various and Sundry DVDs – Augie gets snarky about the week’s new DVD releases. He’s one of the first podcasters, and is a great example of how podcasting has opened up radio to the masses like the World Wide Web theoretically opened up the print media to the masses.

2 Comments »

1. Thanks for the shout out!! Watch what we do in 2006 – happy holidays!

   Joe Robot
   CRO
   Channel Frederator
   http://www.channelfrederator.com

   Comment by Channel Frederator — December 28, 2005 @ 15:13

2. Thanks also for the shout out! I’m totally flattered to be considered more important than not only KROQ, but apparently KCRW and Indie 103. Also, my New Year’s Resolution is to always write my playlists each week.

   Take care,
   Dave
   postmodernrock.com

   Comment by Dave Cusick — January 16, 2006 @ 14:39

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