After the success of The Alternative Source podcast, Spokane Public radio is now starting to release some of its programming to the podcast world. Movies 101 has releaed it’s second show. Movies 101 is a roundtable review of movies by Spokane reviewers Dan Webster, Bob Glatzer, Mary Pat Treuthart, and guests. You can get the feeds here: RSS 2.0, iTunes one click, Yahoo Podcasts

Starting later today, selected Musicfest Northwest students performence from this week’s classical music morning program with Verne Windham will be podcasted on “Live from the Studio.” The annual Musicfest Northwest competition brings some of the finest young musicians and artists in the nation to Spokane for a week. It was organized more than 60 years ago to encourage and aid young people in the study of music and the arts.

On top of the Musicfest Northwest, Live from the Studio podcast will have Classical music, jazz, folk, and music defying traditional labels, performed live in the studios of KPBX Spokane Public Radio. Performers will range from visiting professional artists to regional music students. You can get the feeds here: RSS 2.0, iTunes one click.

Right now Spokane Public Radio does not have blog so please feel free to post here your feed back or what you think they should do next. (Yes, I am helping them enter the new media world). Also, if you enjoy the shows, please remmeber to support them with your pledge

Technorati Tags: Spokane Public Radio, KPBX, KSFC, Moives 101, Dan Webster, Bob Glatzer, Mary Pat Treuthart, Musicfest Northwest, Live From The Studio, Verne Windham, Music, Classical, Jazz, Folk

There is a definite technology and attutide gap between the two reigning political parties and their use of technology. The Republicans have hit the ground running as usual and are fully embracing new kinds of technology, like RSS, podcasting and video blogging. Yes, Senators Edwards and Obama are podcasting and I applaud their efforts. But the GOP understands the value of this technology to lower office holders like city council, state house and state senate.

Unlike the federal offices which Edwards and Obama hold or have sought in the past, there are not any federal laws requiring TV and radio stations to sell time to local office seekers. Plus, in most areas the costs of buying time during congressional campaign years and the fact the prime spots, mostly likely, have already gone to higher office seekers, make podcasting and other media media more valuable to those who seek these local offices. Plus most local office seekers are only guaranteed to get coverage of their kick off for seekeing office and election night coverage these days. On top of that, the venues to have true debates in front of people have been getting smaller and smaller in most parts of the country

Also the GOP is working hard to buck the six-year itch, a historic trend of congressional losses by the party of the White House incumbent. The way they are going about is by using technology at the grassroots level, as a matter of fact it is a party mandate for 2006.

“Speaker after speaker during the RNC’s summer meeting stressed the importance of nurturing that volunteer network as well as maintaining a technological edge over the Democrats.”

You can go here to read about Political Podcasting at the RNC. Heck they are doing video too.

South Dakota State Senator Royal G. (Mac) McCracken, you guessed it a Republican, did the welcome and introductions for the XML. National Association of Legislative Information Technology. RSS is a form of XML and is the engine behind podcasting and Video blogging.
There was a session about Podcasting and RSS in Minnesota by Mike Speiker, Web Manager, House of Representatives, Minnesota. Here is the description of what was covered:

Take your existing data and deliver it to users who want it when it’s needed, immediately. Using RSS to deliver legislative status, member information (bill introduction, press releases, and audio), committee audio, schedules, and public information to users when the information is new.

We have to do everything by committee as Democrats and even then things do not move-at least here in Washington State. I told the state party chair to jump on this even before iTunes had podcasting in it. I knew, as others did, it would have podcasting support within six weeks. I offered to get them set up for free. This was during a court case where even many Democrats thought the GOP candidate for governor did win, even though the third recount had the Democratic candidate legally declared the victor. Think how much more detail you can go into a podcast than you can in 30 seconds (if your side get that much time) on the nightly news, where a TV or radio editor gets to frame your message. Think how great it would have been during the launch of iTunes 4.9 to have the Washington State Democratic Party Logo on the screen behind Steve Jobs as he did the keynote on podcasting. Now even months later the Washington State Democrats are not podcasting, but the party does have a 15 page report on it from its technology staff.

I’ve had Republicans approach me with checkbook in hand to assist in these efforts. They are local candidates, many of whom are aged 60+, are all about wanting to get the message out in every format possible. The GOP still operate the old Reagan fax network from the 80’s because it reaches a particular constituency. Whatever the means necessary to get the message out, they are on it. They not only want to talk to their supporters but voters, who can be turned into supporters. I’ve had Republicans approach me with checkbook in hand to assist in these efforts. This has happened to a couple of my friends and competitors who identify themselves as Democrats. These events have initiated the discussion, particularly in a situation where you have partners and investors about what the ethical thing to do is. More and more the scale seems to be tipping toward going to where the money is, and more importantly, to people who understand what your business and industry is about.

Democrats are having a hard time getting moving on new technology, especially at the local levels. Most think having a basic web site and mail list is getting the job done. I’ve offered to work with Democrats but only one from out of state took up on the offer of free help. This matches results my friends, who have offered to help local Democrats in their areas with new media. Democrats say that the younger demographic should vote Democratic, but we don’t do anything to incentivize it. In the 2004 election the Republicans ran Reggie the Registration Rig an 18 wheeler equipped with kewl stuff like Xboxes to attract young voters. While podcasting is more of the 28 to 50 age group, with more males than females at this time- a demographic the Dems have had a hugh problem with in the last 20 years. The fact the GOP is willing to package its messages into formats that the young use, showing how they are in the position to only grow their base, even with Bush’s popularity dropping fast than a stone. The take away is the GOP uses new standards in media and technology before they become main stream, so when the audience comes the message is already there and the learning mistakes were done when only the faithful would see them.

The Democrats had to play catch up in text blogging, and despite Air America, have been decimated in Talk Radio. Air America still begs for money. Something Rush and the EIB Network does not need to engage in.

When Democrats lag on technology, we lose elections. The success of the Swift Boat Veterans disinformation campaign was due to their penetration first on alternative media on the Internet then they moved it to conservative talk radio, the TV ads merely cemented their victory, and heleped to discredit John Kerry.

Hello Democrats, anyone home? The audience will be listening but may not be your message if you continue to committee and plan it to death.

On another new media note, Yahoo! has launched a massive new directory for podcasts. Yahoo! Podcasts indexes both podcast series and individual shows from across the Web.

Technorati Tags: Podcasting, Politics, Democrats, Republicans, New Media, Yahoo! Podcasts