Untapped Media: What is a Podcast?
by Ken Warren

If you are like nearly every other angler who is passionate about the sport of bass fishing you look forward to the new fishing magazine arriving such as this one. You probably also look forward to watching an occasional fishing show or tournament news coverage and I bet you have a DVD or two of bass fishing techniques, right? As competitive anglers we realize that our tournament performance can depend on our access to this media and the information it contains. With this in mind, I have been continually surprised how few are familiar with the various bass fishing radio shows that are available such as: On the Water with Keith Nighswonger, Ultimate Bass Radio, Bass Zone Live, BassFan Radio, Black Water Bassin’, Tight Lines with Sammy Lee, or Bass Champs Journal? These, as well as many other news and talk shows dealing with Bass Fishing, are out there but it seems that this is one of the last untouched resources that we have access to. 

The reason most of us are not as familiar with these shows is that, while they are not hard to find, it is not as easy to access as those magazines that shows up regularly in the mail box or tuning the TV to ESPN, OLN, or the Outdoor Channel. Most of these radio shows, as they are called, are not truly on the radio. They are available, however, as streaming audio or via what is known as a podcast (more on this later). Some are actual radio shows that air in a local area such as Bass Zone Live. This show is on a radio station in Oklahoma City area but if you do not live in Oklahoma you can still listen on the Internet. The other nice benefit is that you can listen when you want as well as review the show whenever you like and not have to watch the schedule for the actual airtime.

 To access these shows you only need to find the show on the Internet and click the link for the show. If things are installed correctly on your computer these should automatically launch and play through Windows Media Player, Real Player, or another audio program. Be patient, these shows may take a few seconds to start playing depending on you access speed to the Internet.  After it begins you should hear the audio through the computer speakers or in your headphones. This process is very easy, and most of you are probably already familiar with this, but it does have a serious drawback. These shows are only available while you are sitting at your computer and you will not know when a new show is out unless you check the website again or it has a regular schedule and most do not.

 Over the last few years there has been a growing number of shows available as what is known as a “podcast.” This is a show that is generally in a MP3 format and these can be automatically sent to your computer or even an MP3 player such as Apple’s iPod. This process is very simple but a little scary for those of us that are less computer savvy. If you find yourself in this category you might want to grab your teenager or grandchild to help. Despite what they think they do not know everything, but I bet they know all about MP3 players and would love to show you a thing or two.

If you take the plunge and buy a MP3 player such as I did a few months ago, you will be able to download many hours of these shows onto one of these small units and take these shows with you to listen while you are driving or fishing. These are small enough to go anywhere, fit in your shirt pocket, and will hold an amazing amount of audio.  

During the 2006 ABA National on Kentucky Lake I listened to my iPod during the 3 practice days. Before driving to Tennessee I filled it with enough music and fishing shows to last through all 3 days. I did not even need to charge the batteries. It is one of the most convenient devices I have ever owned. OK, enough of that, I do not want this to sound like an infomercial. The goal here is to walk you through this process and allow you to have easy access to this valuable new media.

 The first step is to obtain a program for your computer that will accept these podcasts. While there are many out there, I am only familiar with iTunes. Surely others are similar but they may not work exactly as I describe here for iTunes. One of the best parts is that this program is free and can be downloaded from Apple at http://www.itunes.com. I should also mention that even though this comes from Apple it works fine on either a PC or a Mac. I have a PC like most of the world so some of this might be slightly different if you have a Mac.

 Once you have located and downloaded iTunes follow the instructions to install this program. Then you can begin your search in the iTunes store. You may browse in the “Podcast” section for a show on any topic you like. In this case you can search for “fishing” as shown in the top right of figure 1, or you could also search for anything you are interested in and the process is the same. For instance, I love premium cigars and single malt scotch and I found shows on both of these topics as well as fishing. One of the great things about podcasts is that they are very cheap to produce and show is not limited to a small geographical audience like it would be on regular radio or TV. This allows us to find shows that have too small an audience to ever be considered for either TV or radio but these can flourish as podcasts because they reach a national or worldwide audience with little expense.

 Once your search has completed you will probably have news shows mixed in with music and other stuff. Click on the “podcast” tab shown in one of the red circles in figure 1. This will show only the podcasts and make the selection easier. You may then click on the show name in the list and start listening on the computer. If you click on the little arrow beside the name you will get more information about the show and you may decide if it interests you. If you think you want to listen to the show regularly and have each new shows automatically sent to you click the “subscribe” button beside the show name and it will place the show into your library under “podcast.” This is accessed via the list on the top left also shown in figure 1. Once subscribed you may also choose to get the older shows and catch up. Now you may click on these anytime you want to listen without having to search for it every time.

 The last step, if you choose to take it, is to purchase (or borrow from your kid) an MP3 player so you can take the shows with you into your car, boat, or anywhere. These units can run anywhere from $100 to $400 but you do not need the more expensive ones unless you want to download video. I have an iPod Nano (shown in figure 2) and it has 2Gb of memory and ran about $149 as I recall. The shows are roughly 60Mb per hour so if you do the math this is about 30 hours of content that can be held in memory.

 Once you buy, borrow or steal an MP3 player you simply plug it into you computer via the USB port and the player will automatically sync with what you have subscribed to in iTunes and charge the battery of the MP3 player. Once iTunes tells you it has finished you can unhook the MP3 player and you are ready to go. Now you are able to listen to the shows anytime and anywhere you want.

 Many more of these shows can be found outside of the iTunes store. You may find them at other sites such as http://www.podcastalley.com. If you locate shows here and click “subscribe” and you will be given a link to the RSS feed. (This stand for Real Simple Syndication.) This is a web address that gives the location of the shows archives. You will simply need to copy this link and then go into iTunes under the “advanced” tab circled in figure 1 you will find a selection “subscribe to podcast” click on this, it brings up a box, you then paste the link here and click OK. Now iTunes knows where to find the show and the automatic updates will work even though it is located outside of iTunes.

This really is as easy as I make it sound. If you are like me and never get enough of bass fishing it will fill the voids between the monthly magazines and TV fishing shows. If you get stuck you may shoot me an email and I will get you over the hump. Then you can begin enjoying this new technology as I have. I would also like to mention that I have recently begun my own show that will report tournament results for my area as well as some general commentary on the fishing industry. I have been amazed at how easy this can be done and would encourage all directors to use this new media to gain publicity for your tournaments. All it costs is time. If you want to know more about how to do this feel free to contact me and I will direct you to the free software and put you on the right track.

Contact Info: 

Ken Warren
kwarren@riverratpromotions.com

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