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Podcasts Deliver More Choices For More Voices

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By JAN NORMAN The Orange County (Calif.) Register

Published: October 1, 2007

Updated: 09/30/2007 07:00 pm

SANTA ANA, Calif. - One of the best examples of the speed of change these days is podcasting. The Internet tools that can make anyone an audio celebrity came together just three years ago.

One of the earliest podcasters was Laguna Niguel, Calif., resident Tim Bourquin, who created EnduranceRadio.com, programming for triathletes to listen to on their MP3 players while training.

The show was a labor of love, not money, still typical for podcasts, but Bourquin saw a money-making opportunity for his Mission Viejo trade show company, TNC New Media. In November 2004, he announced he would produce the Portable Media Expo the following September.

The annual conference, now called the Podcast and New Media Expo, took place this past weekend in Ontario, Calif.
Bourquin took a few moments to discuss podcasting while making last-minute plans for the expo this past week.

What was your introduction to podcasting?

I had an Internet audio site for triathletes, but they aren't the type to sit in front of their computers to listen to things, so I looked around for a solution to help these athletes get our content to their MP3 players. The term 'podcasting' popped up.

At the time there were probably 12 podcasts. There was all this stuff out there to make recordings ... so the trade show guy in me started thinking, 'ah, a trade show.'

What was the first expo like?

We called microphone manufacturers and portable media companies, and they said, 'What's podcasting?'

In order to sell exhibit space, I had to explain that podcasting opened a whole new market of individuals and companies to them beyond professional sound engineers. I had no idea whether anyone would even show up, but 2,000 people attended the first expo. It helped that Apple's iTunes added podcasts to its downloads in addition to music.

What has the expo become?

The second year attracted 2,500 people, and we expect 3,000 this year. We have registrations from every state and 28 countries. Probably half will be from Southern California.

People who attend the expo are of all levels of sophistication: people learning to podcast for the first time and people who want to take their video podcasts to the next level to make money ... to learn how to tell compelling stories.

The big and growing group wants to create content they're passionate about, and they want to make money with it. We will have a whole track on the business of podcasting. Anyone who's serious about creating audio and video online can learn something.

At first a lot of people recorded audio to put up on their blogs as something interesting. Over the past two years, we have seen people creating both audio and video. There's a lot more video now, so we added 'new media' to the expo title.

Podcasting is just a method of delivery; I mean both audio and video. You can buy a high-definition video camera for less than $1,000 and create serialized videos of quality as good as the television show 'CSI.'

Will audio podcasting disappear?

It's harder to create good video. There are fewer tools and less of a learning curve to do audio. And there are some topics that people won't sit there and watch video, like endurance sports.

Just as television didn't kill radio, Internet video won't kill audio podcasting.

How will that change new media?

I envision the time when you won't just have 300 cable channels, but you will have thousands of choices by these individuals creating programming.

As tools and distribution get cheaper, you will see independent media competing with traditional media. Online content can be hyperspecific. If you're a single mother skydiver, there will be programming for you. People watching TV won't know whether their programming is coming from NBC or EnduranceTV a reference to his earlier podcast, which he sold.

And how will that change the expo?

This is our last year in Ontario. Next year, it will be in Las Vegas. If I can grow the show 25 percent by going to Vegas, I'll be happy.

And we are removing 'podcasting' from the name. Podcasting is new media, and we have to grow beyond that core group.

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