Digital Audio World

Musings and information on podcasting, digital audio, online streaming audio and home studio recording from Tim 'Gonzo' Gordon of DigitalAudioWorld.com

Friday, February 15, 2008

Trying to Subscribe to a podcast a KINK .FM


Here in Oregon's Willamette Valley, I spend a fair amount of time
listening to radio, and one of the best stations in Oregon,
according to my own admittedly biased opinions, is KINK-FM 102.
You can find them online at KINK.FM.

They're what you might classify as Adult Alternative, playing
artists such as Collective Soul, Crowded House, Feist, Green Day,
Maroon 5, John Mayer....my kind of music, mostly.

Their announcers are generally pretty solid, even though I'm a
pretty harsh critic, having spent 25+ years behind a radio mic.
So I feel I can be picky :-) So thumbs up there...

They also heavily promote their podcast page on their website at
http://kink.fm. Lots of great audio there: interviews, morning
show snippets, music. Good stuff.

As a listener and a podcast subscriber, I would be interested in
subscribing to their podcasts.

But it's virtually impossible.

I've been podcasting since early 2005. I've taught podcasting.
Still do (http://podcastingadventuresonline.com). And I know that
for a podcast to exist there has to be a way to subscribe,
because that's what makes a podcast: the ability to subscribe to
the RSS feed that contains the audio so you can automatically
download the audio whenever you fire up iTunes (or any other
podcatcher).

KINK doesn't get podcasting.

I've written to them numerous times, trying to explain it. Their
webmaster either doesn't get the e-mail, or doesn't bother to
reply because -- well, I don't know why. It's a mystery to me.

So I put together a short three minute video demonstrating how
difficult it is for visitors to subscribe to their podcasts. I
even sent the link to the afternoon guy, who's an acquaintance of
mine.

I'll be curious to see if they ever figure it out and make it
easy for you and I to subscribe to their podcasts.

Here, watch the video for yourself:
How NOT to get podcast subscribers: 3-minute video

...and see if you don't agree.