There have been plenty of comments about the announcement by Infiniti Broadcasting that they are starting an "all podcast" radio station. Taking a closer look at the site I found out that their definition of podcast is basically a recorded mp3 file that's uploaded to the internet. Their plan is to take pre-recorded segments submitted by listeners and use those segments as part of a free form radio format. The content will be broadcast over their AM radio station and streamed from their website.

Sorry folks, this is not podcasting. Why not? First off, I could find no mention of an RSS feed being offered. So there's no subscribe feature and that's a key element of podcasts. Second, you won't be able to download any of the shows. And third, if you miss a show then you missed it. There's no "time shifting" component. The combination of the first and second elements automatically enable the third one, so I see those two elements as key to defining what a podcast is. KYOU is not podcasting!

What KYOU is doing is very interesting. For the first time (that I know of) they are opening up the airwaves to amateur talents, thereby lowering their cost to acquire talent. The DJs union must love this one (not!) and we'll see if they take any kind of action to try to stop it. So the DJs go home and KYOU gets what appears to be free content. There was no mention on the site about payment for those whose content is used. It seems that Infiniti feels that the notoriety of being broadcast is payment enough. So if Infinity likes someones content enough, will they hire them to be a DJ? The situation could get pretty ironic if all this is a temporary talent search that generates publicity for a dying radio station.

This obviously a pure marketing play here. The use of the word podcasting has generated more interest than if they had said, "We're accepting mp3 uploads." Even the Wall Street Journal ran what I believe was their first article that mentioned podcasting as a result of this announcement. So I believe that the marketing tactic was successful, initially. The execution of their strategy will now be the tricky part. Because in order for it to mean something the radio station will have to see a bump in listenership and an increase in ad revenue.

Speaking of ad revenue. I wonder how people will feel when they realize that their content is having advertisements inserted in the middle of it. They probably won't care too much. But as Dave Winer asked on his Morning Coffee Notes podcast, "What if someone uploads content that has advertisements already included?" You can bet that either the content will be rejected or the ads will be edited out.

My message to podcasters is simple, "Don't believe the hype." If your content is worth it's salt then you shouldn't give it up to Infiniti Broadcasting for free. Hold out and don't upload a thing. Make these fodcasters (fake podcasters) recognize the value of the content for what it's worth.