First I Reconnected with Music, Now It's Radio

A while ago I followed my early adopting friend Sully and aquired an iPod. And I feel that my realationship with music got a major shot in the arm after a bit of neglect. I had moved to New York, didn't care to tote a diskman and CD wallet, so left the music for when I was home. But then suddenly I had 100s of albums (well really the best of 100s) with me, and much smaller than a diskman and I reconnected, especially to those songs stranded on otherwise awful albums.

But in this same time, relationship with radio has also steadily declined.... bad reception at work or home, a tendency to listen to my music rather than the radio. I tried to save some radio habits...listening to streams, particularly of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. But many other shows only streamed lived and not archived, and it was tethered to a computer. I thought Audible was a good idea for on the go, but I didn't want to pay to listen to This American Life.. maybe twice. So it really wasn't good to go. But today... today is the release of iTunes 4.9 with it's podcasting support. My first impression is: awesome.

In a few minutes, it was easy to find, subscribe and download podcasts. I'm choosing to listen at my desk. You can easily find and download older shows. If you stop, it bookmarks where you left off. It's brilliantly easy. It looks like new broadcasts will be easy enough to add. So I'm looking forward to the Prairie Home Companion et al. And to think of all the PHC shows we recorded on tape growing up...