Wouldn't you like The News from Lake Wobegon delivered?

Me!

No, not really.

But then others might like it.

Hi rick! I think other people will like it.

I think it is very generous of the show to make these available. I'd have to have an ipod though, which I have been thinking about. Considering all the fun I have with CDs and CD cases, there is something very appealing to having my music library on a piece of equipment the size of a checkbook.

Well Julia Star, I can't recommend an iPod or mp3 player highly enough. I love mine - it holds audio books, tons and tons of my music and some video. Best part, I'm able to make playlists that celebrate "Tuesday"! Please do let me know if you get one, I'd be interested in your review of it and how you use it.

Ultimately you don't really need a player to get the audio delivered to your computer via podcast. There are several podcasts I subscribe to that I do NOT have automatically updating to my iPod, but rather I listen to them right there at the keyboard.

Great news, great idea.

hi ` Greeley ~

Love your picture

Glad you like it Greeley - I'll pass that short but sweet feedback along!

Thank you Richard. I've had it for a while. It kinda suggests my relationship with a lot of things... ;)

Yes, Julia--it is a great idea. I know we can go and listen up over at APHC and all that, but having a podcast via iTunes is a boon to us lazy and disorganized folk. Don't even have to think about it--it'll just be there in my iTunes whenever it updates. Very nice. :)

You know, it's also pretty cool that APHC and Mr. Keillor have taken to the Internet they way they have. No neo-luddites there.

"You know, it's also pretty cool that APHC and Mr. Keillor have taken to the Internet they way they have." - ~ Greeley ~

You gotta know I HAVE to pass that along. Their Web producer needs to hear it.

But now you've got me in a curious state: what other podcasts do you subscribe to?

I'm very eclectic. Some of the things I've been listening to lately:

The Writer's Almanac
TAPS ParaRadio (Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson--funny show; they play it with a light touch)
Darkness Radio (friend's radio program)
This American Life
The Diner (James Lileks)
Mystery Train Podcast (Roots/Blues)
and
Foamy The Squirrel (very explicit--sometimes very funny too)

The rest of my online listening is spent looking over Old Time Radio broadcasts--mostly the old mystery shows. I'm interested in the evolution of mystery/supernatural storytelling--how it has changed, or remained the same, as it moves from medium to medium--print, radio, movies, television, and now the Internet. Fascinating stuff. Fascinating people.

That is a nice variety. Most are familiar but I'll have to check out TAPS & Darkness Radio.

Greeley I'd love to hear more about what you discover or determine about following the line of storytelling. It really IS a fascinating evolution.

Variety is a nice way to put it. :) It's a mix of high-brow and low-brow stuff. The main thing they share in common is that they (usually) have the charming quality of *not* being a slick, commercial-type, focus group driven, predigested program, but more like a very personal effort--a work of love with warts and all.

That's one of the great strengths of Internet broadcasting--you have a chance to find the jewel in the rough.

It may seem a little odd to lump Mr. Keillor's work in among the list--but again, there's that quality--home grown and not slick--so maybe it makes sense.

And I'll be happy to share what I've learned so far about that kind of storytelling--it'll be a little later, at the right time and place perhaps. :)

Thank you for posting this. I had already bookmarked the site for the auspicious moment when I was (a) at my desktop PC where my iPod software was and (b) actually remembered to bring my iPod in from the pocket of my purse where it has been residing for months since I took it out to the car (last fall) to see if I could figure out how to make it play through my speakers. You can tell I spend a LOT of time not listening to my iPod. In general I think it is a pain in the rump and I wouldn't have one at all if I hadn't won it somewhere.

On the other hand I adore PHC. I detest Mr. Keillor's politics but adore the rest of the show. In fact, my ex-Husband had Mr. Keillor propose to me (on his behalf) while we sat in the audience of a PHC broadcast. Oh dear. Perhaps my memories of PHC are not so fond after all. I am looking forward to having PHC join the family at XMPR next month. If I can find my XM2GO, I can download the whole show then.

I wish there were a way to make the whole show into a podcast. I've read their reasoning that getting rights to distribute the performances of musicians on the show would be difficult to impossible, and I understand it, but still...

I've even tried to figure out ways to save the show's stream as a mp3, but haven't figured that out yet. Real seems to do a pretty good job of making that a challenge.

Anyway, yes, it'd be great to be able to download the news, but why not make a podcast of all the non-musical elements of the show? Get Dusty and Lefty in there, and Guy Noir, plus the Ketchup commercials. It might not flow so well, but it'd be far better than the nothing we have now.