The recent guests on my ITC interviews have challenged our thinking about the direction of podcasting and it’s future. While I do not generally agree with these guests. They do share a perspective about radio and podcasting that has shreds of truth. We all just need to think and open our minds as these guests have many years of experience in media. While it may be true that these guests are 50% or more incorrect and do not really understand what is really going on with podcasting. The fact remains that these are influential media people who many high level media decision makers trust with giving trend advise and have been doing it for many years.

My advise is to listen and learn as you just might be surprised in a couple of years to find out that some of what these guests said turned out to be completely or partially correct.

Rob Greenlee
WebTalk Radio

Street-whorish? Delusional? Moronic? Clueless? These are really cogent expressions, alrighty.

You know, Dave, you are spot on correct about one thing. Podcasting for the sake of it is fun. That’s undeniable. But then again, we have our college eds and our Macs and our aggregators and our Starbucks on the corner and our pseudo-hip retro apartments. It’s fun to talk wine, music, tech, comedy, drugs with the chior. We got our blogs, man.

Podcasting is NOT the flip side of mass media as many would have us believe. It’s an ugly extention of the same sick American consumerist model cloaked in a new cheap suit.

Podcasting by the so-called “indies” is a rich white-boy/geek/vanity endeavor for the most part. Of course, there are exceptions, but pardon moi whilst I take a longer view here. Podcasting is a techno-culture toy urged into existance by a millionaire washed-up former VJ. The other original player in the game is talking today about re-locating to the Rockie Mountains where he can ski betwixt thinktank conferences. Where are the blacks, the poor, the bumpkins, the real “mass” who have no access or iPods? No Rockie Mountain software Labs? Where are the freaks and homeless? Where are our street-whores we so harshly criticize and categorize from our cute home-offices with all the latetest acoutrements? Perhaps they didn’t get the citizen-media memo. They sure as hell are not getting their fixed-wing papers between Virgin Air flights to San Francisco.

Any jackass with a little mad money can have a vanity book published for chrissake. Same’s true for podcasting. Whoopeee. But that hardly qualifies for empowerment now does it?

What I see developing is not a vehicle for the masses but rather a rich-boys’ technoculture more vehement, more radical, more close-minded, more narrow, more ugly and more vindictive than that which preceeded it. What’s really funny is that so many of these newmedia self proclaimed cutting edge pinheads are being scammed by their own ilk with promises of “You, too. can be a Star!” software products.

Sorry to be so forthright as I opine. It must have been the tea I drank.

Coursey is indeed an old school asshat. But truth be told, he does not come close to identifying the real nature of the Next Big Thing.

Podcasting is becoming so yesterday and Steve Jobs is so laughing up his sleeve tonight. Pardon me while I join the mirth.

I like you, Dave Slusher. I know you know what I am saying is true. I read your stuff. And I respect you.

as for the groupings, yea you’re right – wasn’t fair to put katz, who’s trying to salvage his business model while at the same time listening to his customer’s desires (usually) – w/ coursey and ramsey who are simply living in alternate realities, one clueless and one delusional…

i actually have a hard time w/ all of rob greenlee’s interviews though – i think it’s a style thing…

What I liked about Ramsey was his thumping the glories of radio without noting that all the trends are the opposite way that he implied – broadcast listenership is at a 30 year low and dropping. Most of what Ramsey said was, uhm, counterfactual. Even Doug Kaye, who is like the Swiss banker of these programs, felt compelled to chime in with disagreement on that one.

TE, Let’s give Rob some slack here, re guest choice. I think he deliberately strives to get guests that shake things up and much more than I do, gets people that disagree partially or totally with his views. Sometimes I’ll react to KJO articles and later soften on that opinion later on. Here, listening to him express what he did in his own voice, it confirmed to me that what I originally thought about him was slap on correct.

James, I figure as much. I’ll probably be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.

– Guy

I expect the Johns will be coming out of the woodwork now.