I’ve listened to a few podcasts over the past few days, and they’ve all left me with a “bleh” feeling. The ones that seem to be popular all fit a certain mold. You either have a couple of guys yapping about technology, or a guy and his girlfriend talking about nothing anyone cares about.
Brian had always said that he has no interest in blogs, since he really doesn’t care to know what some random person he’s never met has to say about what he ate for lunch that day. I’ve since been trying to stick to issues that are not lunch-related in posting here. For example, I would only tell you about the ham and cheese sandwich I had for lunch if there was some other story around the ham and cheese sandwich that might be of interest. Because really, ham and cheese is not all that interesting to me.
But these podcasts, I don’t know. They start with a pretty firm idea, but then they roll off on tangents so wild that I wonder if their presenters really have a care for their audience. It’s a strange thing, putting the microphone in the hands of the people. Sure, you get a raw feed of the people, but it’s often so raw that it’s worthless. I think it’s for the same reason why you see a lot of girls flash for handheld video camera - the magic of being in front of the camera loosens clothing like it loosens the lips of podcasters.
The entire former cast of Tech TV has the same issue when assembling their podcast - they babble. Kevin Rose, Leo Laporte, Chirs Pirillo; they all babble so much that it’s difficult to focus on any particular voice or story cue. Every point they try to discuss runs directly into the next, or it’s hard to discern what the point is at all since they’re so busy yapping with their guests or co-hosts. It seems like they’re all going for an “in my living room” feel to their podcasts, trying to tap some “energy” that podcasting seems to be all about. (I get a mental image of Dr. Evil trying to show his son that he’s hip by doing the Macarena.) Really, someone should write a script and try to stick to it.
I’m not saying that a podcast should be dry and formal, but some semblance of order would be nice. A breaker or two (a sound between topics to clearly define the topic change) during the podcast would be nice. Don’t shoot for a half-hour running time; instead, shoot for 20 minutes. Let commuters run three small ‘casts in an hour with less babble, rather than an hour of listening to you buddy around with your co-host.
For the guy and girl shows, I don’t know what’s powering you. I really don’t. Is it that your girlfriend has a sexy voice? Is it that geeks see your podcast’s name (complete with the word “girl” or “vixen” or “whore”) in the list and choose that one to play? Maybe if I make a podcast named “Whip Me” it’ll have enough prurient appeal to draw a ratings-capable listener base.
