To understand the remediation of podcast and radio, let’s first start by understanding the differences. Most radio stations offer listeners a live talk show with music break intervals within the talk show. Amongst the music breaks, audio advertisements are common. The radio talk show is often set over a 12-hour window with multiple hosts throughout the day. Burroughs mentions that radio has a history of helping listeners feel a sense of connectedness through streaming, beyond being confined by place and locality, it can provide out-of-body experiences allowing listeners to travel mentally through space and time but at the same time, remaining safe and comfortable physically within their own homes. And with the radio running all day, it provides such feelings.

Podcasts don’t often include music, or if they do, it’s likely for minimal sound effects. Podcasts aren’t usually live, and they offer listeners the opportunity to pick up, pause, and put down the podcast at any point of listening. It has what is known as the pause feature. According to Heise, podcasts are technically considered converged media, bringing together audio and web infrastructure with portable media devices. Veale describes podcasts as a distinctive development produced by the online distribution of music, which was named after the iPod and became more popular following 2004.

Now the similarities. Podcasts can have similar aspects to radio, like advertisements, including more than one speaker, talking about various genres, all similar elements to radio. However, arguably, podcasts have the upper hand with more convenient and accessible features and benefits. An innovative aspect of podcasts is how they are distributed and consumed. Dubber states that it functions specifically as a podcast rather than downloadable audio due to the media enclosure within an RSS feed. Podcast subscribers will receive the podcast, as their software will automatically download it, and listen to it when they please, which further shows the convenience and availability of podcasts compared to radio. The RSS feed creates a personal and curated channel of audio content available at listeners’ convenience, claims Veale. Each episode of a podcast closely remediates the ways that radio broadcasts structured themselves. 

When it comes to advertising, podcasts rely on it, as with radio broadcasts’ popularity coming through sponsorships and alike. Advertising is done in the podcasts themselves, where the hosts recommend the sponsors’ brands. But as listeners download the podcasts directly, rather than listen live like with the radio, putting ads directly between the podcasts wasn’t possible at first. Veale explains that thanks to internet infrastructures nowadays, ads can be downloaded directly into podcast mp3s when the podcasts are downloaded. Sterne discusses the mp3 infrastructure, as it overtakes other media, like downloadable music and streaming services replacing CDs.

To add to how podcasts have remediated radio is drawing back to previous genres of radio broadcasts. Podcasts have reintroduced genres that were often forgotten about decades ago. I am a fan of podcasts due to their accessibility and convenience. Being able to listen anywhere, anytime, and pause and play when I want to is ideal. The concept of podcasts bringing back forgotten genres is also interesting to me, as is the advertising development due to developing internet infrastructure. While radio can be known for recording its shows and transferring them to podcasts, this is evidence of how podcasts have remediated radio. Both forms of digital media are consumable audio material available across different digital mediums within the media landscape. With one significant factor, as podcasts fill in the gaps of what radio is missing, the pause and accessibility aspect, and overtaking radio as the way of the future.

Halle Mitchell

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