Newsmaker: The man who's got mainstream radio quaking

Adam Curry's name rings a bell for a lot of people who came of age in the 1980s watching the former video jockey, who was a mainstay on MTV.

But Curry, who left the music channel in 1994 and moved to Europe, may be remembered by even more people for his pioneering work in the emerging field of podcasting.

Curry, who dabbled in various Internet ventures after leaving his television gig, resurfaced last year as perhaps the most well-known face associated with podcasting, a technology that's opened the door for thousands of amateurs to create radio programs and find an audience for them on the Web.

Podcasting is more than a hobby for Curry, who has used it to launch a return to the airwaves this week with "PodShow," a new program he's hosting on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show, which is designed to showcase the best from the podcasting universe, is also Curry's own personal attempt to shake up what he sees as the homogenized landscape of corporate radio.

For 20 years, we've been listening to the radio, particularly in America, and it's all the same crap.

But is podcasting indeed part of a radio revolution in the making, or is it just another affectation that won't live up to the frisson of momentary attention? Curry talked to CNET News.com recently from his home in Guildford, England, where he podcasts the "Daily Source Code."

Q: I was able to listen to a bit of your podcast, the "Daily Source Code," the other day. It sounds like you're having a lot of fun with that.
Curry: Oh, yeah. I like it very much. I've been doing it for almost a year now.

Isn't podcasting a bit overhyped, though? After all, who wants to listen to some guy in Duluth waxing poetic about his tube-socks collection, for example?
Curry: Whether you're listening to or reading about someone talking about his tube socks, that could be deemed interesting to one or not interesting to most. But there's also some other stuff in there.

A lot of people are decent enough writers, and so the blogosphere is thriving. Aren't broadcast skills harder to come by?
Curry: Have you ever watched "The Osbournes"?

I haven't actually seen an episode, but I have heard about it.
Curry: Have you seen any real-life programming, what they call reality TV?

Sure. I've seen plenty of reality TV..."Supernanny," "The Bachelor"...
Curry: The first time you saw it, there was something interesting about it, right? It was probably because you'd never seen that before on TV. You're like, "Wait a minute. This is a different way of doing it. Something's changed here." Because there's actually real-life situations. Pretty much like the first time "Cops" came on. That was pretty exciting. You know, we've been beaten to death by it and it has nothing to do with reality programming because it's all sliced and diced and edited to pieces. But the first time you actually saw one camera unedited, following someone around, it was pretty interesting.

Now for 20 years, we've been listening to the radio, particularly in America, and it's all the same crap. No matter what market you go to, there's always a top 40 station, and then you have the light station, and then there's the news station--it's all the same.

What about NPR? It's pretty normal. It's sort of the exception.
Curry: No, I totally disagree. People aren't normal. And by the way, when you turn on NPR, you have the whole weekend filled up with pledge drives. It's normal, but it's the same. There is no difference. The NPR format has not changed...You may find it more normal and that's probably true, but it's still the same type of show, same type of station.

Now all of a sudden, you're exposed to that same, "Wait a minute." Here's something else, here's something new, here's something a little raw around the edges. It's not quite as polished--that's interesting.

You're obviously really passionate about it. How did you get so involved in technology and the Internet?
Curry: I've always been involved and interested in technology. I built my first radio transmitter when I was 14 and made my mom drive me around the block to see how far it would reach. And then by certain circumstances I started to work in radio...not as an engineer but as someone who was behind the microphone. And in the meantime--this is when I was 15 or 16--when I was that age I had a part-time job at an electronics store and the first Commodore, before the 64, came out. And it was interesting. And so I just kind of learned about it through that.

A guy named Danny Gregoire came up with the name podcasting, and it stuck.

I understand you were actually involved in creating some of the podcasting technology. In fact, some news outlets are calling you "podfather" and credit you with inventing it. Did you honestly invent podcasting?
Curry: Well, it depends on what part of invention you're talking about. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I didn't come up with the word. But I did tie all the pieces together. There was technology out there built by a number of people, including Dave Winer.

Speaking of Dave Winer, he was sort of ranting on his blog recently about all the credit you're getting around podcasting. Have you guys had a little fallout recently?
Curry: I asked him to create that last piece. He didn't. I programmed it. I'm not a programmer, so I had to learn how to program. It took me quite a while. And then I put it out in open source and said here's this

More Newsmakers

[kirk95]

When we look back 10 years from now

11 years ago, I was working in the TV ad business and one of my
managers said to me (I was an early Internet geek back then) in a
very condescending manner "David do you honestly believe that
people are really going to access the Internet in any meaningful
numbers ever?" My reply was, YOU DON'T? It was obvious to me
at least.

There is a similar tone from the Interviewer in this article.... and
it's so obvious to Adam and all in the Podcast community!

So anyway I left that company very shortly after that and helped
start the first Internet Advertising Network - DoubleClick. 12
months later everybody from my old company wanted jobs at
DC....and today I guess there are a few folks using the WWW....

Adam...." do you honestly believe that people are really going to
download little mp3 radio shows to their iPods in any
meaningful numbers ever?"

Answer: YOU DON'T? Here we go again! Go Adam go...

Blogs, Podcasts, Podsafe music, Video Podcasts, Podsafe
videos... The content creation tools are now in the hands of the
viewers, readers and listeners. Media oligopolies beware and
marketers looking for upscale, highly educated, influencers and
early adopters, 18 to 34.... they're ain't watching TV no mo!

The Internet was about communication, community and content
distribution(old media content), the next wave is about personal
content creation, personal content distribution and community
around personal content creation and consumption..... stay
tuned!

all for podcasting

I think podcasting is great, and I wish all involved lots of luck. If I appear skeptical, it's because I think it's more interesting to put an interview subject a bit on the defensive and get them fired up.

Good on ya, Adam

I like it that one of the pioneers of the media that put rock in the box came along to take it back out again. Good on ya, fella.

As an aging markup geek and musician, these are the days I've been waiting for. "Free at last, thank God Almighty!"

len

[Darwin Hall]

Beware The Apocalypse!

Or at least get ready for all the other things we had hoped for and
almost given up on. Remember early Star Trek:TNG, and the first
time you saw the holodeck. Picard commenting how TV and the
passivity of people to 'receive' their entertainment as opposed to
actively claiming and participating in life? Giant leaps begin with
small steps.

[LFlood]

A Start, but to what?

I agree with Darwin, I doubt that the Joe Blow podcasts will entertain us for long. Just as the reality shows aren't entertaining many except the very young who haven't seen much else. But, some high quality content is beginning to move to podcasts - This Week in Amateur Radio, public radio offerings, more to come. Also, there is a staggering amount of very diverse, quality material on some of the netcasts, like Live365. It's not just for Gen. X, Y, etc. There's becoming more and more available for us old farts.
We haven't even really looked much in this country at Digital Radio Mundiale. We really can cancel our subscriptions to the pig (cable tv) and pretty much ditch AM/FM commercial radio.

[taylor71]

Correction on name of podcast coiner

It should be Dannie Gregoire. Not Danny. Thanks.