Despite the doubts I raised in the previous post, there is plenty of podcast cream rising to surface. In the interest of balance, I thought I should mention a couple:

The Castrol SYNTEC folks hired Funkmaster Flex to host their Unlock the Power podcasts. The Funkmaster is a DJ and car customizing expert who hosts tv shows like ESPN2’s All Muscle and Spike TV’s Ride with Funkmaster Flex.

I listened to a 13 minute interview with NHRA driver Ashley Force. About half-way through Ashley puts in a plug for Castrol but it flow nicely with the interview and sounded…honest. Much more effecitve than a produced thirty-second spot. Be interesting to see how they work in the sponsor if the interviewee is not a driver. [via Micro Persuasion]

MommyCast is a couple of moms “holding the world together, one child at at time.” They just about They’ve produced 72 shows and generated enough of a following to attact a sponsosr (Dixie). The one I listened to was about dads who stay at home, or wish to take an active role in raising their children much to the dismay of their employers. The sponsor got a quick mention in the open and again at the close and a “brought to you by Dixie” graphic on the website.

Stephen Baker (Blogspotting) says the novelty of podcasting has worn off (for him, perhaps others). He prefers “pure music” when he works out (not Coverville). He points to a recent consumer survey conducted by Bridge Data that indicates more 80% of podcast downloads never make it to a portable player or another device – they are consumed on the PC (or, worse, never listened or deleted).”

I subscribe to half a dozen favorite podcasts (Diggnation, TWIT, Business Week, Podcast 411) and listen to them on my nano. But I’m not surprised that most folks can’t/don’t choose to do so. I thought about this a good deal this past week as we met with various businesses and organizations to talk about podcasting and how it could be used to communicate with a variety of audiences (internal and external). Imagine a bunch of grown-ups calling some teenagers into the conference room: “We’ve decided we want to hold a company rave and we’d like for you to tell us what this is all about and how to do a good one.”

While it’s relatively inexpensive to produce a podcast, it’s damned hard to do a good one. Companies think in terms of ROI and I’m not sure podcasting will pass that test when you are conditioned to buying “spots” in radio and TV shows with ready-made audiences.

Here’s what I think will happen. A few really savvy businesses or organizations will find someone that really understands podcasting and trust them enough to produce a good one for them. They might hire this person or “sponsor” an existing podcast. Over time, the podcast will develop a following. But we’re talking hundreds of listeners (maybe thousands if it’s REALLY good)…not hundreds of thousands or millions. How much trouble and/or expense will a company go to in oder to reach this relatively small, albeit targeted, audience?

Another possible scenerio is what I think of as the “homegrown podcast.” Some guy that works at Lowe’s, for example, starts doing a weekly home improvement podcast. He’s pretty good at it and gets a little following. He plays it for the boss who likes what he hears and agrees to pick up the costs and buy some better recording equipment. In return for a couple of brief –non-intrusive– mentions about this week’s specials. In the Hollywood version of this story, Lowe’s corporate jumps on the bandwagon.

My gut tells me this is a bottom-up medium. It requires a lot of passion…some juice. People have “passion” and “juice.” Corporations do not. Corporations have spreadsheets. Really good ideas come from individuals, not organizations and institutions. I wonder if that isn’t true of blogs and podcasts as well.

Chuck gave me this one at lunch and I couldn’t wait to try it on a couple folks when I got back to the office.

Our company produces the play-by-play broadcasts for some of the top colleges in the country. We pull audio highlights from each game and end up with dozens by the end of a game day. Arguably, the very best moments of the game.

I’d put a couple of sports goofs in a studio with 30 or 40 of these little nuggets and just have them play them, one after other. Just a little set-up on the front end and maye a few seconds of react. Lay some funky music under the entire thing. No mind-numbing analysis or second-guessing. Just play the highlights. And then put it up as a weekly podcast. I think fans would eat this up with a spoon.

Reaction was mixed. I used to pitch ideas like this as though my life depended on them. These days, I toss them out like cheap beads from a Mardi Gras float. If you catch one, good for you. If not, they were only cheap beads.