On Monday, Hockey visits Absolute Radio for a live performance.  The show airs at 5 PM Eastern.

On Tuesday, tune into Radio Margaritaville for a replay of Jimmy Buffett’s concert from November 7, 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama.  “Jimmy Buffett’s Concert Replay” airs at 8 PM Eastern.

On Wednesday, Son Volt stops by the KEXP studios.  Hear the live performance at 10 PM Eastern.

On Thursday, Pete Yorn joins “Words and Music from Studio A” on WFUV at 9 PM Eastern.

On Friday, ESPN Radio 1100 hosts their annual radio marathon in conjunction with The UFC.  Many UFC fighters will be hosting shows throughout the day.  It begins at 1 PM Eastern when Al Bernstein is your host.  Following the well-known boxing personality will be Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Dana White, and others.

Changes include the first podcasting subscription feature. The RadioTime guide has included one-time podcast downloads for thousands of radio programs since the summer. Now, Windows users can manually subscribe to a podcasting feed (from desktop Settings). Soon, you’ll be able to subscribe with a single click from the guide. Later you’ll be able to manage podcast feeds just like recordings using the service. The goal is to remove the technical details so getting live broadcasts, archive radio on demand, downloadable files, or podcast subscriptions all work simply and consistently.

Our free podcasting client will work with any feed and any guide. The personalized podcast subscription feed will work with iTunes or any other podcasting client.

Version 2.2 also includes a new installer that is smaller and faster, and (finally) will just update an old version. We (finally) gave up on InstallShield and jumped to the NullSoft installer. For this change you’ll need to manually remove the old version, then run the new. Or wait and we’ll push out the new features with live update.

Version 2.2 can record in WMA format. The Windows Media format works on most devices and delivers much better quality for the same encoding rate. Especially for spoken programming you may be happy with mono mode at 20k which leaves far smaller recording files. Stay tuned for an AAC recording option which will offer bookmark and other audiobook features, especially useful on the iPod.

Version 2.2 supports an open SDK so you can integrate the RadioTime service and any of the recording or Player features through a powerful COM interface. Contact support@radiotime.com for details.

We’ve been moving carefully. Unlike other “bloatware” implementations, the entire RadioTime download is a tiny 1.7MB – covering podcast subscriptions, a powerful recorder, player, library, streaming player interface, and AM/FM hardware support.

See other improvements and steady progress on our Windows client through the release notes.

A spring Pew survey found podcasts are twice as popular when incomes rise above $75K.

Podcast users are much more likely to have broadband and enjoy public and spoken radio than their peers.

These demographics match TiVo.

These listeners don’t want audio blogs, they want TiVo for radio.

Podcasting is an exciting technology, great for listeners and RadioTime. It creates more selection which makes the even guide more valuable. Podcasting is part of a long chain of technology that extends radio, it won’t replace radio. This post has our perspective on podcasting and a little of our broader strategy to bridge old and new radio.

Podcasting is a simple way to distribute downloadable radio. We share the enthusiasm, but not enough to center around a pure podcasting model. The podcasting buzz validates our premise; radio listeners want personalized help chosing from a broad selection and on-demand use — just like they enjoy for books, music, TV, and movies. The podcasting buzz helps recruit new stakeholders who otherwise couldn’t imagine a better radio.

Like blogs, most anyone can make a podcast — some will be good. But the most popular podcasts are not amature postings, but broadcast radio programs. Since radio is “professional audio publishing” this is not surprising. Over the past 90 years radio has been building and monetizing an audience by grooming, marketing, and distributing the best audio programming across local and global markets.

Our contribution is a smart guide to connect programming with listeners. Our goal is making it simple to find and enjoy great radio when and where you like.

RadioTime content is information, not programs themselves. We organize broad content, offer recommendations, and simplify the technical details about schedules and distribution.

Great programming content comes from both old and new radio. Old radio is big. Over 98% of adults listen, on average we spend 21 hours each week with radio. Internet streams and satellite radio have a growing chunk but 95% of all radio listening is still AM/FM. Of course programs are broadcast live on a predictable schedule or a one-time shot. Some programs are available as on-demand archived webcasts, and occasionally as MP3 downloads.

RadioTime has been busy building software and process that structure all the options.

Podcasting is a another radio option. Today RadioTime has podcast download options for some broadcast programs. Podcasting uses a structured directory with simple downloads. The hurdles are lightweight compared to organizing old radio programming with so many variables including scheduling, coverage, and streaming problems. Scaling coverage of podcasting content will be a breeze by comparison. Apple made this clear by adding podcasts to iTunes over a few months without breaking a sweat.

If podcasting technology is cleaner, why bother with traditional radio? Content.

Quality Content. Radio creates compelling premium content earning a large audience. Almost none of the most popular and best quality programs are downloadable today.

Free Content. Radio is free to listeners through established models using advertising and public funding. The few popular programs available as downloads are also expensive. For example, Bob Edward’s program cost $3/day or $70/year. Baseball games are free broadcast but expensive over the Internet.

Broad Content. Traditional radio brings unsurpassed depth and breadth for every taste – if you can find it. RadioTime organizes over 100,000 hours every day in 140 languages. Even with the tremendous growth over the past year, radio listening is a million bigger than podcast listening.

Live Content. Radio is often best live, downloading is only for recorded programs.

Local Content. Radio is a local medium, small local producers are often last to adopt new technology.

Legal Content. Legal and copyright issues constrain when and what content can be delivered for download. Live or recorded broadcasts don’t face these hurdles.

Old radio distribution and advertising models fund all this great content. It will take time before the model can flip. The reason you can’t get Morning Edition on satellite is because it is the local stations who buy the program. Broadcast radio has survived many challenges, it will adapt to new ones and won’t go dark anytime soon.

As new radio options like satellite and podcasting grow, RadioTime will cover ever more content, listening patterns, and distribution details. We’ll work hard so you can easily find and enjoy programming personalized for your taste, the time, location, your device, and your connection. We’ll license the information broadly so device and services suppliers can easily integrate great old and new radio content in new solutions.

RadioTime.com is looking to become the next “TiVo of Radio” by consolidating radio content from around the world, and make it easy to aggregate and transfer to your MP3 player. They’ll be sporting a TV Guide-style listing of radio programming, allowing users to download and transfer webcasts of your selected programs, for only $40 a year.

Nice price and a great idea. The guide will provide content from actual radio stations from North America, and a whopping 20,000 stations internationally. Just set your recording schedule, plug in your portable MP3 player (it works through iTunes or WMP) and you’re good to go. Saweeet.