Mike's NBC-TV stories

Podcasting: Megaphone to the World

Some people are calling it the Golden Age of Radio. Except it isn’t radio. It’s digital audio – podcasts. And though they’ve been around for a decade,  there’s a massive new surge in the popularity of podcasts thanks to the power of apps.

The trend jumpstarted earlier this year after Apple started including it’s new Podcast app on the iPhone and iPads, There are now so many podcasts out there on the iTunes store – almost all of them free – that you will find podcast shows aimed at whatever interest, whatever passion you have.

Then there’s Stitcher, which works on Apple and Android devices. It’s like a huge catalog of podcasts, all downloadable, free to mobile devices. Those are just the big ones. Do a search on pocast apps and you’ll be overwhelmed – that’s how big podcasts have become.

And one of the most popular of the podcasts out there is… you guessed it.. a podcast about podcasting… by a guy named Cliff Ravenscraft…known as the Podcast Answer Man. His show has spawned thousands of other podcasts, including many at the top of the podcasting charts.

Why so many podcasts? Because anyone can try their hand at reaching the world, with podcast gear that consists of not much more than an electronic megaphone in the form of a headset and Internet connection.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.