At first I thought podcasting would hurt broadcast radio, but after listening to Dave and Adam I think the opposite is true. Podcasting frees the radio broadcaster from the constraints of transmitters and geography. WHen they podcast, I can reach any radio station, anywhere, anytime. I haven’t done the math, but I expect that with BitTorrent delivery, the per-listener cost to the broacaster will be less than via the AM/FM airwaves. I haven’t been able to listen to Terry Gross for a long time because I’m working during her show, I refuse to pay Audible.com $14.95/month for the privilege, and manually download MP3s is a pain in the ass. Now I’m going to get one of those radio-to-MP3 devices and podcast it to myself.

So if I’m going to spend even more time listening to audio content — I’m already in the studio at least eight hours a day, and boy are my ears tired! — where’s that time going to come from? It’s already coming from television. Although podcasting is less than two months old, I can get content that is more inspirational, educational and entertaining through podcasting than I get from the broadcast or cable TV networks. I’m spending no less time on the Internet, and I predict others will likewise find that podcatching (listening to podcasts) will cause them to hit the OFF button on their TVs as well.