A Few More Podcast Suggestions

A couple weeks ago on this blog, I mentioned a number of podcasts related to shortwave and DXing that I've been sampling. While I don't have time to listen to as many I'd like, I thought I mention a couple other podcasts I try not to miss. 

If you don’t already know, “podcasting” is a very simple method to “subscribe” to an ongoing radio show or audio program and have your computer automatically download each new one as it is posted online. For years, it’s been possible to capture or digitally record streams and snatch audio archives from the internet-- IF you knew what you were doing. Now it's much easier. I use a PC program called iPodder (which is now called “Juice,” I hear). Very simple. There’s others I haven’t tried, but in general it’s not hard science. However, if you don’t have an “always on” broadband connection it could be problematic. With dial-up, you won’t be able to subscribe to many programs, and downloads could take a lot of time (and cost you some bandwidth).

Podcasting allows you to time-shift listening to radio shows you can’t usually catch, and gives you access to all sorts of amateur programmers who are going online with a wide variety of good, bad, and ugly programming. While lots of mainstream radio content is either unavailable as a podcast or requires you to give up some money to do so, there’s PLENTY of choices when it comes to subscribing to free podcasts. Too many really.

So, here’s a few shows that have been landing on my hard drive lately. And I thought I’d share...

The DX Podcast (feed, blog)

Wow. I just found out about this one this week, and it’s quite impressive (to me). Readers of my “Adventures In Amplitude Modulation” series should check this one out immediately. It’s a program dedicated to medium wave (or AM radio) DXing. These guys are serious. Armed with meaty receivers, the two hosts of this show (and many of their DX confederates) offer up recordings of exotic AM radio reception, along with propagation reports and the current state of the weather in outer space. The medium wave passion is palpable in this podcast, and the sport of hearing AM stations from other continents is celebrated and explained on this show. So far, the podcasts have been monthly, but now short interval programs appear in between the full shows.  And if you didn’t already guess, this is an internet only homemade show. But the show is concise, filled with information and fun to listen to. If you’re prone to AM DXing, after hearing a couple of these podcasts you may be tempted to save up for some high-end radio equipment.

I also talked about a few other podcasts related to DXing and shortwave listening in this post.

The Keener 13 Podcast (feed, blog, website)

Way back in the mid-1960's, WKNR (otherwise known as “Keener 13") was the biggest top 40 station in Detroit. And since I grew up with Keener on my transistor radio, this is a rather appealing podcast for me. The station is long gone, but Scott Westerman’s podcast celebrates the glory days of WKNR and features air checks, interviews and stories about the artists and Detroit jocks in 60's.

Even if you didn’t grow up near Detroit and don’t remember the 1960's at all, you may find something to love in this tight and informative podcast. It’s not just nostalgia, it’s a love letter to AM top 40 radio, 60's pop, and the Motor City itself. And the airchecks are a treat. In fact, last week the Keener 13 podcast featured an extended uncut interview with the late Gene Pitney from 1965. When this podcast is good, it’s great.

Lionel (feed, download page, his website)

I know, I've talked about this show at length on this blog, but it's so damn good that I'm going to mention it again. What's really amazing to me is his network provides a high-quality commercial-free podcast for free to the browsing public. Not only that, but the podcast is edited and posted very quickly. I’ve seen it download to my PC less than two hours after it's over. I applaud the WOR Network for being so charitable and prompt!

I’ve been listening to Lionel off and on since 1991, and over the last couple years I’ve heard a rather apolitical and irreverent talk host evolve into a eloquent gadfly relentlessly skewering the Bush Administration and the Iraq War, all without losing his warped sense of humor. And more than most, he understands the tricks and dynamics that can make talk radio compelling and powerful.

The Marc Maron Show (blog, listen here)

Set for Air America syndication at the end of this month, Marc Maron’s new nighttime show is already underway at his new home station in L.A. With co-host and wacky satirist Jim Earl, Maron’s show is much like his work on Morning Sedition (which I wrote about here and here). It’s a funny and freewheeling two hours which is part lefty talk radio, part late night TV talk show, and a good bit just the zany off the wall mess that Maron and Earl put together in the morning with former mates Mark Riley and Kent Jones on the Air America Network. Actually, some of Jones’ “characters” call in to Maron's show for old time’s sake.

In the few weeks this program’s been on, it’s become my favorite show on Air America. There’s a musicality to Maron’s spirited and neurotic rants and rambling that's not unlike free jazz at its most melodic. Let’s hope a bunch of Air America stations pick up the program once it goes national. To be honest, The Marc Maron Show never gets on my nerves or makes me run for the knob, like a few other Air America shows I won't name. But I will say that I'm baffled and saddened that Jerry Springer is still on the network at all. It’s obvious that some of the bigwigs at Air America must not be listening to the radio, or they just have no shame or pride. It's embarrassing.

Speaking of that, while Marc Maron’s show IS a podcast, it is not free. In fact, Air America would like to charge you about the same price to receive Maron’s podcast as you cough up for some crap like Rush Limbaugh on your hard drive every day (like seven bucks a month or fifty dollars a year). And considering the fact that Maron built up a huge following on Air America here in New York and around the country-- and he’s currently only on in L.A., the Air America brass know they have Maron fans by the balls. And hey, if you have some spare dough and feel generous, go ahead and pay up if you like. However, there are alternatives...

You can sample big chunks of Maron’s new show at this site, and if you have some bittorrent software and know how to use it there are places on the web where you can easily find archives of The Marc Maron Show.

Meanwhile, I heard a rumor that Air America has possibly found a home for Mike Malloy’s program in the New York market, at WWRL at 1600 AM. Maybe they’re just waiting for Alan Colmes’ contract to run out. As you may recall, they decided to air the vapid and moronic Satellite Sisters program at night on WLIB instead of Malloy’s because Disney/ABC held out a fat wad of cash and the Air America honchos turned weak in the knees. If Maron’s show was to run live locally it would conflict with Gary Byrd’s (non-Air America) overnight show on WLIB. Maybe, just maybe, Maron could follow Malloy on WWRL as well. One can hope.

Also, there are a number of ways to still subscribe to Air America podcasts (or at least download them) for free if you look around on the web. For example, the excellent “Ring of Fire” program (with Bobby Kennedy Jr. & Mike Papantonio) is available as a high-quality podcast on their website. And The White Rose Society site offers free podcasts of Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann (which is also one of the better lefty talk shows around). And archives of almost any Air America show can be found as torrents (or on Usenet), if you do a some searching.

Oh and in case you weren’t aware, WFMU podcasts a nice spread of shows these days. And we don’t charge a dime. You can take your pick here, and there's plenty of FMU shows I would suggest. But just to name one, I'd recommend a recent addition to the WFMU lineup-- "The Dusty Show.” It’s only one hour, and it’s good for you.

Comments

[Olivier]

In France there is Podemus.com
a french 2.0 website about podcasting !

[Jeff T]

I've been enjoying Penn Jillette's podcast. He doesn't have great radio chops, but he does have great stories and interesting views. The podcast appears to be the full show minus the ads. http://penn.freefm.com/

[blatherskite]

Thanks for the pointers to Maron goodness.

"The Marc Maron Show never gets on my nerves or makes me run for the knob, like a few other Air America shows I won't name."

Man, do I agree with you there. I should be pretty close to the bullseye of their target audience but nearly every show they air except for Maron gets on my nerves at least occasionally (Franken when he goes all boring Goo-goo or talks about a sewage plant in Minnesota; Janeane G. when she substitutes dimestore psychoanalysis of rightwingers for political talk--which she does about 90 percent of the time it seems; Randi Rhodes most of the time. I don't even bother to turn on Springer anymore; at best he's he's dead boring.)

I also agree about the Satellite Sisters. WNYC ran their insipid program for a while a few years ago -- abysmal pap. So the reason they are on instead of Malloy on WLIB is because they're syndicated by Disney and the Mouse is paying LIB for the slot?

Is that really the case or just a surmise? I wondered why Malloy went away to be replaced by that horrible show.

I'd also prefer Maron over Byrd, but I suppose there are other issues there, too.

I'm not about to pay AAR for their content; naif that I was, I got Sirius back when AAR started up because they carried all of the AAR schedule and XM only carried parts. That ended when XM got exclusive rights, so I figure AAR owes me money from that deal and I'm not about to cough up more to them.

I guess Air America has a hard row to hoe, but I sure hope left-of-center talk radio (AAR and non-AAR) gets in gear soon.

[the man in lumberjack vee]

That Dusty show rocks!

Thank you, WMFU!

I listened to it while I was getting my teeth drilled. It made the experience enjoyable. When the dentist was done, I sat in my chair, daydreaming.

[Guest]

Don't forget The Ed Shepp Radio Experiment on WFMU. Last three scheduled shows on his archive page have dealt with Drugs (Opium, Marijuana, and this week's Pschedelics). Although it's odd...the podcast page shows 3/31 as his last show but he has had two since (April 7 and 14).

[Guest]

I discovered A3 Radio out of Ann Arbor, an Internet only, multi-channel radio station. I started listening to the latest podcast of From The Vault With Jim Heddle and was kind of perplexed. Between the vintage commercials and newscasts, I did detect some decent music, too. I also noticed the volume changes were a little unnormal across the broadcast.

A3 Radio Podcasts, navigate to bottom for From The Vault

Heddle's show is described as "50's thru 70's, the way it was when DJs picked the tunes from a stack of 45's. Jim was a WPAG DJ in the studios where A3Radio is now (Main & Liberty)".

Hope the sound quality can be improved a bit above current 64 Kbps (96, 128?).

[Parq]

>> there’s PLENTY of choices when it comes to subscribing to free
>> podcasts. Too many really.

My point exactly. I was drowning in content even before they came up with this. I subscribe to four FMU podcasts and rarely does a week go by in which I get to listen to all four. I've gotten used to ignoring 99% of the online content that interests me, just to keep from nervous collapse. By the way, I have the same problem with the Sheppcast.

[Bigjime]

Regarding From The Vault: The show that you heard was a re-broadcast of a program that originally aired on WPAG in 1980. The guys at A3 asked me to send them mp3's of the songs used in the show so they could add them to their library. Unfortunately I no longer had some of the records, but I sent them what I had. They decided to dub those records into the show, so that is why the volume changes from song to song. Most of the From The Vault shows are newly recorded and have much better sound quality without the volume changes.
-Jim Heddle