By all accounts PodShow has always been the one to watch in the podcasting space. They started out by leveraging the audiences of some of the biggest stars in podcasting with Adam Curry and Dawn & Drew. They've even broken bigger shows like GeekBriefTV. Top it off with $24 million in funding, some good sized brand advertisers and you've got a can't miss venture. Well, not so fast.

PodShow has had a wee bit of trouble solidifying their space as the be all, end all of podcasting driven companies. They have been struggling to find a big hit since they brought Cali (not her real name I believe) Lewis and the GeekBriefTV squad on board. In fact, many of the top shows on the Podshow owned Podcast Alley are not produced in association with PodShow. So if you believe that success in podcasting is based on killer content then it can't be good to have so few of the top shelf content channels in the podosphere.

Today another stake was driven into the San Francisco based company when it was announced that the host of a PodShow produced show called Textra was quitting to work for CNET.

The young lady sings the sweet mantra that so many people who leave web2.0 startups belt out upon announcing their departure when she states, "...I want to make it clear that my departure from Podshow is not an indication of the state of things at Podshow. This is just the next logical step for me and I owe a lot of it to Podshow." Oh what a great way to repay Adam and the PodShow team for their hard work and investment. That's the working world though. I have no problem with someone leaving for greener pastures. But lets face it. If things were rocking at PodShow there would be no reason to move to a cold, hard town like New York City.

It is a sign of bad times coming when you see relatively new (less than a year in Natalie's case) employees leaving startups for old media companies. This is a trend we will see more of in the coming months. Remember when the highly touted Jeremiah Owyang left PodTech for Forrester Research after less than a year? Hey, good for Jeremiah but bad for PodTech, despite Jeremiah's claim that, "I’ve had the most amazing experience..." Smart people like that just don't up and leave young companies on the rise. They do depart companies that are stagnant or declining.

So are you going to shoot the messenger? We need a dose of reality here. Podcasting is not about getting funded and getting advertisers. Its about using the web to build relationships that create opportunities and value that may not be initially quantifiable. Dave knows what he's talking about when he states, "I see podcasting, for bloggers, as just another way to communicate with a few people who are interested in what they know and think. I also see it as a way for professional news organizations, esp non-profits, to flow reports to people in a very convenient and powerful way."

The fact is that what podcasters really need is education and support on how to create a great user experience and build communities on the web. We don't need free web hosting with annoying pre-roll advertisements. And podcasting certainly doesn't need venture capital funded networks or even the myriad of associations and pseudo-unions that want you to pay them dues. These are all distractions from the real meaning and power of this technology.

Consider this a weather report. It is what it is.