"Radio is springing free of the regulated gatekeepers who've managed what you can hear since radio was invented. It's jumping into the hands of someone with something or nothing at all to say."

Stefanie Khaw

That’s an excerpt I heard on Adam Curry’s Podfinder (a podcast on podcasts). Podcasting, deemed as this year’s blog, is a word derived from "iPod" and "broadcast". It only started becoming popular during the later part of last year.

Heck, it’s still so new, the word processor I’m using doesn’t even recognize it as a legitimate word so I keep getting these annoying red wavy lines every time I type "podcast" or "podcasting".

Podcasting enables you to download audio files (usually in MP3 format) and listen to them at their convenience. Select any program that tickles your fancy, decide where you’ll listen to it and choose when you want to do so.

Ben Hammersly of The Guardian, coined the phrase in February 2004. He had observed the strong growth of the MP3 player, the easy access an average home user had to audio production software and the establishment of blogs on the Internet. He concluded that these were set to cause "a new boom in amateur radio".

Despite the origin of its name, podcasting does not necessarily require the use of an iPod. Most podcasts are recorded in MP3 format so you can tune in with your PC or some other MP3 device. The growing synonymous link between MP3 players and the iPod was probably why the term podcasting came about.

It’s easy to get started. All you need is some sort of client software which will enable you to automatically download new podcasts whenever they come out. Ipodder (ipodder.org) was until recently the most popular client software available. In June this year, Apple came up with iTunes Version 4.9 which provided a more user-friendly and aesthetically-pleasing interface for users.

The client software frequently checks on something called an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. An RSS feed is an announcement of everything that’s new on a particular site. For example, when CNN churns out its latest hourly news report, the RSS feed will take note of this and update its podcast, giving you access to the latest news.

So who’s using it? Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Edwards talk politics on their podcasts. Paris Hilton had one to promote her recent movie, House of Wax. Hit TV show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has a ‘Hip Tips Podcast’ which I highly recommend.

Subscription fees to podcasts are free for now but Glenn Fleishman of the Seattle Times predicts that it won’t be long before users will begin to be charged for premium content. I have my doubts that many people would pay for even premium content because everyone’s so used to getting stuff free from the Net.

Since podcasts are unregulated, I would expect further violations of music copyright laws. Including a song you like on your podcast MP3 would mean giving listeners a free copy of it, something that most musicians and record labels would be furious at. But are they able to stop it? Not sure.

The thing with podcasts is that like blogs, you tend to get a whole lot of podcasts which sound like amateur chatfests. In researching for this article, I actually stumbled upon a podcast which was a high school reminiscence conducted in Penang Hokkien, interjected every now and then by some very high-pitched laughter. I guess that’s what Curry meant by podcasting being in the hands of anyone with something or nothing at all to say.

Since podcasting is Internet-based, almost anyone with a microphone, a PC and some downloaded software can produce a podcast. If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own radio show, here’s your chance- it’s cheap and no one’s going to tell you what you can or can’t say to the masses.

I have yet to find a good Malaysian podcast. Judging from how quickly blog culture was absorbed by our locals, perhaps it won’t be long before we hear local bands featuring excerpts of their music along with our very own Pak Lah giving weekly updates to the nation. Maybe I’m being too idealistic.