Episode 1

Well, it's official; Episode One of the Dark Asteroid Radio Program is in the podosphere! Perhaps not the most exciting broadcast of all time, nor the most professional, but we're pleased with it as a start. The audio shows the results of having been recorded on a cheap microphone and maybe "playing it by ear" without a script wasn't the best idea, but sitting around waiting for a podcast to create itself wasn't getting anything done, either.

Finally taking the bull by the horns, we just gathered together some podsafe music, loaded it into PodProducer, and away we went! Let us know what you think — but be kind; we will get better!

Here’s what you heard on today’s program:

(Artist) — (Title)

Tools — Down to the River
Tools — Long, Long Way From Home
Tools — Better Love Next Time
Tools — I Don’t Got You
Tools — Teach Me How to Dance With You

Tools is the name used by Jim Tullio when he took some of his songs and put them up on GarageBand.com to see how they would do. Jim is a session player of long standing, and in his own words he has “been producing records for over thirty years. Worked with John Martyn, Mavis Staples, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richie Havens, Steve Goodman, John Prine, David Bromberg, Dave Mason, Chevere, Sonia Dada, Los Lonely Boys, Phil Roy, Bill Miller etc... Am currently working with some young new artists such as Liz Longley, Nyco, Todd Carey and Courtney Jones. Decided to throw my own song demos up, just out of curiousity.” For more information, go to http://www.garageband.com/artist/tools.


You may click here to download this episode.

The Dark Asteriod          

About Podcasting

So what’s all this “podcast” stuff? Anyway? It sounds like the invasion of the Pod People! Well – to put it quite simply, a podcast is any audio content in the form of an MP3 file that can be delivered automatically to your computer or to your MP3 player. You don’t have to have an iPod or any particular brand of MP3 player; for that matter, you don’t have to have an MP3 player at all. You can just play the file on your computer, using the Windows Media Player, RealAudio Player, QuickTime Player, WinAmp, or whatever MP3-playing software happens to be your favorite. Windows, Macintosh, Linux, BeOS – makes no difference!

How is a podcast different from the streaming Internet Radio that’s been around on the web since the mid ‘90s? It’s quite simple… to listen to the Internet Radio feed you have to be there, at your computer, while it’s happening. You can’t save it for later and you can’t take it with you. A podcast has been recorded by the podcaster and saved as an MP3 file which is then automatically sent to your computer for you to listen to when and where you’re ready to listen to it. You control when you’re going to listen to it, and whether you will listen on your computer or on your MP3 player. Since so many people use iPods as their MP3 players, the name podcasting was just kind of inevitable.

So how do you get these podcasts coming into your computer? The answer lies in software called a podcast aggregator; what many people call a podcatcher. A podcatcher is just a program that lives on your computer. Its job is to maintain a list of podcasts which you have given it and check the Internet sites where those podcasts live; you decide how often it should check for you (it could check every half hour, for example, or just once each day). When it finds a new show listed at that site, it will download it automatically for you and put it into a folder which you have specified. You tell it which shows to check by subscribing to them. Don’t be confused by this term; “subscribing” in this sense just means that you’ve set up your podcatcher to receive the RSS feed from that site and to automatically download any new shows that it finds posted there. (An RSS feed, in simple terms, is a specialized Web page, living at the site that publishes the podcast, that tells your podcatcher where to find the MP3 files.) There is seldom any actual cost involved in receiving a podcast, since most are free; only a handful at this time request a payment from their listeners, and simply “subscribing” through your podcatcher is always free.

As of today, the three most common podcatchers are iPodder Lemon, iPodderX, and iTunes. iPodder Lemon and iTunes are free; iPodderX offers a free 30-day trial; if you want to use it after that time the cost is $24.95.

Once you have your podcatcher installed, all that’s left is to find some podcasts that you like and subscribe to them… how about starting with the Dark Asteroid Radio Program?! Find the menu item for subscribing to a new podcast, and enter the URL of the program: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DarkAsteroidRadioProgram and start enjoying the show!

Wanting to find others? Well… there are a lot! The Rocky Mountain News for September 23, 2005 reported that iTunes as of that date listed 15,000 podcasts and was adding new ones to the list at the rate of 1,000 a week. Podcast Alley, another popular podcast directory, has more than 7,000 podcasts listed, with at least 400 waiting for approval. With those kinds of numbers, it’s nice to have some kind of directory to help you look. Here are three the Dark Asteroid personally likes, along with the information from their sites’ front pages.

Podcast Alley: “Podcast Alley is the podcast lovers portal. Featuring the best Podcast Directory and the Top 10 podcasts (as voted on by the listeners). You will also find podcast software, the podcast forum and great podcasting info.”

Podcast Pickle: “The world’s BEST podcast community and directory.”

Digital Podcast: “Podcast directory and podcasting news.”