"U.S. Republican Senators Begin Weekly Podcast
Posted by Shawn Cruikshank on 21 Jun 2005 - 02:58

The Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus has launched a new program allowing state residents to listen to weekly podcasts on state issues. The group is hoping the trend will catch with tech savvy users, allowing it to become another form of communication between politicians and voters.

"Podcasting will improve our ability to provide in-depth analysis, up-to-date information, and insights from individual members about crucial topics affecting people and communities around the commonwealth," said staff representative for a Pennsylvania state Senator. "[Podcasting is] revolutionizing the way information is disseminated, and we want our members to be at the front-end of that," he said.

Though the Republican Caucus says it will use the podcast to "address legislation before the Senate and issues of importance to Pennsylvanians," the innovative technology is expected to bring about concern. Podcasting, with the intent of furthering political ethics by a party, could be construed as government propaganda if used the wrong way. The Bush administration came under fire last year for 'fake' news reports posing as adverts on US TV networks.

The first podcast is available this week through the Pennsylvania Republican Caucus' website.

View: Pennsylvania Republican Caucus Website"

Clear Channel Expands Podcast Offerings
June 23, 2005
By Ken Tucker and Katy Bachman

Buoyed by the success of its "Phone Tap" podcast downloads on WHTZ-FM, Clear Channel's Top 40 station in New York, the company announced Thursday it will expand its portfolio of podcast feeds. The accelerated rollout will offer nearly 20 new podcasts of popular on-air content from 12 more stations, with an additional 10 expected to launch later this week.

Less than two weeks after the podcast launch on June 3 of the "Elvis Duran & The Z Morning Zoo Phone Tap," listeners have downloaded or streamed from the Z100 site 20,500 pieces of content, according to the company.

"The early results from Z100's 'Phone Tap' validated our theory -- there is a huge appetite for station-created, short-form content via multiple-delivery formats," said Evan Harrison, executive vp of CC and head of the company's online music and radio unit, launched last year.

Downloadable content will vary by station, but may include artist and celebrity interviews, prank calls, "best of" shows, commentary and comedy bits.

In addition to WHTZ, the CC stations that will make podcasts available on the web sites are: Classic rock WAXQ-FM, and Rhythmic Top 40 WKTU-FM New York; Adult Top 40 KYSR-FM in Los Angeles; Classic Hits KGB-FM, Top 40 KHTS-FM, Active Rock KIOZ-FM in San Diego; Top 40 KKRZ-FM in Portland, Ore.; News/Talk WLW-AM in Cincinnati; Rock KRZR-FM in Fresno, Calif.; Rock WDVE-FM in Pittsburgh; and Rock WZZO-FM in Allentown, Penn.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000967413

"Sub Pop Records Says Podcast Our Music, Before We Change Our Mind
June 07, 2005

Sub Pop Records, home of bands like Nirvana, Afghan Whigs, Combustible Edison, The Reverend Horton Heat, Sleater-Kinney and Soundgarden, has announced that they are encouraging podcasters to use their promotional tracks within podcasts.

The label has added a podcast of their free music.

According to Sub Pop's Dean Hudson, "We've basically set up our MP3 downloads (which we were offering as promotional freebees already) as an RSS 2.0 feed, so folks can suck them into their iPods ala iPodder and the like."

Their FAQ elaborates on their somewhat tentative approach to podcasting: "You may incorporate any of the songs that are freely available as MP3s in the multimedia section of this website into your podcasts. HOWEVER, we do reserve the right to change our mind about the availability of any song for any reason at any time. Fickle, no?""

"Infinity To Podcast 9 News Stations
June 02, 2005
By Ken Tucker, Billboard Radio Monitor

Following its launch of all-podcasting KYCY (KYOU Radio) San Francisco, Infinity moves even deeper into the fledgling medium by announcing it will offer free daily podcasts from its nine news stations, with flagship WINS (1010 Wins) New York set to lead the way in July."