Viacom's radio unit Infinity Broadcasting announced that beginning May 16, their San Francisco AM radio outlet KYCY will become KYOURADIO, the programming of which will consist of podcasts sent in by the public.
Joel Hollander, Infinity's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said Wednesday, "There is a profound shift underway in the way we use technology that allows everyone to have a voice. KYOURADIO harnesses that power by serving our listeners with content developed by them for them and offering a platform to share it with the rest of the world.
"We envision KYOURADIO not only as a place to hear a fresh and new perspective created from the outside, but an outlet with which to foster the creativity of undiscovered talent from all walks of life."
Podcasting technology allows users to create and upload their own audio programs on the Internet which can be downloaded to multimedia players at a later date. Check out our regular Blogcritics podcasts by Duke de Mondo, and Eric Berlin (other contributors welcome, by the way).
The software also lets users subscribe to their favorite podcasts and have them sent automatically to their players for listening at their convenience.
Prospective contributors to KYOURADIO can upload their podcasts of varying lengths, where they will be eligible to be selected for broadcast. Programming on the station will be "determined by listener interests and feedback, and evaluated on a daily basis," meaning they have no idea how they're going to handle it.
I wonder if they realize the flood of material they will be receiving. It will also be interesting to see if they develop dayparts and regular contributors, or whether they will emphasize a continual influx of new contributors.
Lots more on podcasting here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
I missed this post, Eric -- very cool. I was actually going to write a story about this as I heard the news from Cary Tennis, an advice columnist for Salon.com... Since You Asked... it's called.
Tennis is going to have a show as part of the radio station and therefore will be delving into the podcasting scene. I'm not sure how that will work in with the listener/podcaster submission model.
Nonetheless, Tennis is a great writer whom I have admired for years. If all goes according to schedule, I'll be interviewing him this week.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks EB, sound great about the interview. It will be very interesting to see how much interest this radio station generates and how they handle the particulars