Macquarie Radio’s 2GB in Sydney is the latest radio station to jump on the podcasting bandwagon, with its popular morning show broadcaster, Alan Jones, the first in the company to trial the new service.
But whether the predominantly older demographic who listen to talk back radio will embrace the new technology still remains to be seen.
OMD digital manager, Tim Cooper said he’s not surprised by the development because of the time-shifting advantage it offers.
“This service will allow people to listen to the program at an hour of their choosing. The technology is becoming more available to all people regardless of age. I would suspect that services such as this will serve to increase the desirability of MP3 players in this demographic,” Cooper said.
Media agency, Initiative national buying director, Jackie Beck said: “Would an older audience download Alan Jones… to be honest I think it will take some time to reach critical mass but it’s certainly another way to get ‘Alan Jones the brand’ distributed”.
Would an older audience down load Alan Jones . . to be honest I think it will take some time to reach critical mass but it's certainly another way to get "Alan Jones" the brand distributed.
The 2GB podcast allows listeners to download segments from Jones’ program directly from the website and onto their computers or MP3 players. It includes a daily comment from the Jones, interviews, a cooking segment, movie reviews, health and technology updates.
The station’s director of business development, Beth Pullicin, claims the 2GB segments have been on offer for a few weeks now and are “already in demand from listeners of all ages”.
“Since we went live with our podcast offering, we’ve had hundreds of requests from listeners to increase the amount of content on offer…we’re encouraging our listeners to stay tuned for more exciting developments in the digital and podcast area,” Pullicin said.
So far, Austereo and ABC radio have also been actively dabbling in podcasting.
