Podcast Radio

Yesterday, Robert MacMillan wrote on washingtonpost.com about a story from wired.com of Infinity Radio's plans for an "all podcast" radio station in San Francisco. Infinity will convert AM station from a talk radio format to one that plays "podcasts" content sent in on their web site. This is an interesting development, but is it positive? Will Infinity pay the podcsters for their content? Seems like Infinity will just be soaking up free content? What kind of model is this?

MacMillan says Bloomberg out'ed Viacom's declining ad revenues. If the station's ratings are already in the dirt, then they have nothing to loose with the new format. But will this appeal to listeners? Won't the "all talk" listeners jump ship to another station? What about new audiences? I don't think it will play well with people already listening to podcasts. A podcast radio station "undoes" some of the advantages of podcasting: the listener choosing the content, choosing which to listen to and at what time to listen, and not being encumbered by geographic proximity or reception range. In their new model, Viacom/Infinity will still pick the content and play it at a time of their own choosing -- just like the regular radio. So the question is whether podcasts will appeal to radio listeners at large....

An interesting move, but it seems to me like a shot in the dark.