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Muriel Grey and the BBC Scotland Podcast Documentary (featuring Me!)

Posted on June 10, 2006
Filed Under Broadcast Radio, Podcasting |

UK readers of The Musings will be able to pick up the BBC Radio Scotland podcast documentary on the BBC Listen Again service (others should consider using a UK proxy). While not a brilliant documentary, it is much bettter than a number of others in the last 6 months.

Scottish broadcaster and journalist Muriel Gray, who starts off knowing nothing about podcasting records herself interviewing and exploring the space. It’s a very light documentary, with a nice humourous tone. I was glad that it never really descended into the normal “ooh you’re all wannabees” depreciation that other mainstream media documentaries have used to portray podcasting.

I loved the quick what is podcasting - Gray describes it as either “The new voice of broadcasting” or “a cute radio program on the internet,” take your pick. She spends probably half the 30 minutes of the show talking to Mark Hunter over a cup of coffee in his kitchen.

My section focussed on The Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (which I’m pretty sure is coming back for August 2006, I do feel mad enough to try to cover the Festival again). I think I came over a bit defensive, but Mark assures me it was fine. Given the question of “is it worth it for a hundred thousand listeners” was coming from a mainstream Radio Staion which broke one million monthly listeners this year for the first time, I thought it was a bit unfair and missed the point - podcasting is all about reaching the smaller niches, focusing on specific tight markets - it’s not a mass market shotgun approach to hit everyone in a geographic region. And she’d just praised Mark and The Tartan Podcast for reaching ten thousand people with new scottish music. Hmmmm….

A quick point, why does every UK journalist decide that someone doing a music podcast wants to be the next John Peel? Gray actually asked Mark how it felt to be “a Sub John Peel from the 1960’s.” It’s an easy comparison, but what’s wrong with remembering Tommy Vance and his Friday Rock Show once in a while?

Gray wants it to be a little bit crazier, which leads into (strangely) Adam Curry and his mimicing normal radio with the Daily Source Code. And a lovely dig from Gray on Curry’s label of the Podfather. “No he doesn’t leave the severed head of horses in the beds of people who don’t get on with him… as far as we know.” Adam points Muriel towards “Dawn and Drew” for something punk and outlandish. Cue the BBC adding in Dawn taking about making Gummi Bear boxes.

And her summary? It’s just Boys and their Toys who want to be famous.

I think it’s a bit more than that, but it’s nice to see a mainstream documentary that at least makes an effort to understand a sea change in audio.

Comments

2 Responses to “Muriel Grey and the BBC Scotland Podcast Documentary (featuring Me!)”

  1. Fresh Podcasts on June 11th, 2006 0:43

    Muriel Grey and the BBC Scotland Podcast Documentary (featuring Me!)

    [Source: The All New Ewan’s Musings] quoted: UK readers of The Musings will be able to pick up the BBC Radio Scotland podcast documentary on the BBC Listen Again service (others should consider using a UK proxy). While not a brilliant documentary,…

  2. Alan on June 13th, 2006 0:52

    Never liked Muriel Gray but i guess i’ll give the podcast a listen. I’m planning on podcasting the Edinburgh Festival too so maybe we’ll bump into each other, Good Luck

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