Brilliant or pathetic, only time will tell

Update: fixing up mangled text. I'm really struggling to decide if this is brilliant (in the sense of a way to make lots of money) or pathetic (as in totally clueless). It could be that this is the next Reality TV. While I don't personally watch any of the reality TV shows (no really not a one), I know that a huge number of people do and that the production costs are a fraction of "real" TV shows.

Infinity Broadcasting to air podcasts on the radio

From the same company bringing visual radio to the States comes another, um, creative stab at salvaging flagging revenues: putting podcasts on the air. Infinity Broadcasting will be launching the world’s first all-podcast radio station on May 16, dubbed KYOURadio. They’re converting previously talk-radio format 1550 KYCY, a San Francisco AM station, to entirely listener-submitted content. Podcasters will submit digital audio files for consideration, which will be reviewed for quality standards and FCC guidelines before being simultaneously broadcast over AM and streamed online at KYOURadio.com. Infinity is going to cover licensing fees so podcasters can use major record label music in their shows, although this won’t really benefit those who play primarily indie and unsigned artists. Plus, licensing complications have prevented Infinity from offering downloadable program archives, which misses one of the essential aspects of podcasting: the time-shifting element. The whole reason many of us find the time to listen is because we can download shows and take them anywhere on portable players — so while we think it’s a positive trend that the airwaves are being opened up to the great unwashed masses, it’s really a different animal from podcasting proper.