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The emergence of podcasting brought about a reinvention of the talk show, and with it a revitalization of the format. This talk show, Cinema on the Radio, has been on KRLX for two years, and is both broadcasted terrestrially and streamed over the Internet. The show, like all of KRLX’s orginal content, is recorded digitally, making the episode available as a podcast immediately after airing.
In this piece, we see how the show would look if it was available through video streaming instead of audio. If the show could be streamed visually, then it could also be recorded and available as a video podcast as well. this would be a wise move for any station as more people have portable mp3 players with video capability.
Many college radio stations of KRLX’s size currently have webcams that allow listeners to see what’s happening in the DJ booth during the show. In this demo we have two web cams on both of our hosts at all times, with four other webcams placed throughout the station. With advancements in technology, and the subsequent lowering of costs for such products, this appears to be a reasonable possibility in the future.
Like this and other talk shows that air on KRLX, there is one engineer operating this show in the FM studio, who we see briefly in the bottom right corner. Currently, this engineer operates the audio levels for the program, plays station ID’s, and chooses music to play during air breaks. With the addition of multiple webcameras in the station, this engineer could also decide which camera the audience is viewing, and enter text that appears in the bottom left window. The engineer would also supply clips readily available on the Internet, by embedding them into one of the screens. In this demo we see clips from a music video and a trailer that are hosted by other sites like YouTube.
Many radio shows like Rush Limbaugh’s, Howard Stern’s and even public programming like "Democracy Now!" and "This American Life" have ventured into the visual sphere in recent years. Now that the technology to produce these programs is cheaper and the means of distributing them are more readily available through the use of the Internet, this seems like a practical and feasible way to attract a bigger audience for smaller stations like KRLX, especially if more personal players and even cell phones have viewing capabilities for podcasts.