The Return of Podcasts: The Future of "Serialized" Content

In his post on Medium, Jason Fried [not to be confused with the co-founder of 37signals / Basecamp] shared his vision of progress in the field of podcasting. We pushed off his comments and wrote our material on the topic.

A bit of history

At the turn of the century, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi invented the first commercial radio system. A few years later, a priest from Brazil became the first to start broadcasting voice messages. In 1920, decades after the invention of the first radio, the first commercial radio stations began broadcasting in the United States.
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In this case, it is appropriate to list the oldest radio stations. A brief history of broadcasting in Russia can be found here . Next, we briefly review what happened with us compared to what Jason said.

During the 20s radio engineering developed rapidly. By 1933, in the USA, the radio had made its way onto the stage and the books had faded into the background. By the end of the 1930s, the radio drama became popular. This is how many American playwrights, scriptwriters and writers began their career.

If we talk about what happened with us in these years, it is worth noting the broadcast of the (first) All-Union Radio (Radio-1) under the auspices of the All-Union Committee on Radio and Radio Broadcasting (USSR State Television and Radio Committee since 1957, later reorganized ).

The world is ripe for this kind of entertainment. Families dined together, and after that they spent time in the living rooms, listening to the radio, expecting to hear what the presenters had prepared for them. Radio was at the top of popularity, and the American public could not “get enough” of it.

During World War II, Americans were chained to the radio. Of course, the direct relationship to the Second World War set the country's most complex tasks, some of which were solved by the broadcasting industry. On June 24, 1941, the Soviet Information Bureau was formed, which compiled reports for radio, newspapers and magazines on the front conditions and the work of various structures of the rear.

After the Second World War, televisions began to appear in American homes, radio began to make its way into the automotive industry. Families no longer surrounded the radio — instead they sat around their television sets. Radio for motorists has set itself other tasks due to the changed context. A couple of presenters in a small studio were enough for broadcasting - music and talk radio came to the fore. Soap operas and other “serialized” content moved to television, and the radio grew into something new.

What happened at the same time in our country: the 2nd program of the All-Union Radio began its broadcasting in 1945, and from a historical perspective it became known as Mayak radio station. There were radio receivers with a large number of bands and then already 3 radio channels on ultrashort waves, along with international programs like Voice of America and others.

Trust format

This went on for 60 years. Much has changed, but not the radio. Music went all the way from vinyl to cassettes and then to CDs. We began to “take” our music with us in the cassette player, and later - in the CD player. Finally, the mp3 format (and, of course, Napster) arose, and everything changed. Around 2000, the first “podcasts” appeared on the Internet and in our mp3 players. Apple supported, introduced to the market and advertised this format along with several other “players”.

Many people associate the beginning of the era of podcasting in our country with the " samzdatchiki " of the 80s, who were not able to get on the state radio channels. Others cite Vasily Strelnikov and his podcast terminal as an example. Now there is such a thing as Web radio .

Since that time, more than 10 years have passed. Radio now is not some kind of frequency, it is a format just like music that you can “take with you” and listen when it’s convenient. Podcasts about podcasts? Yes, that happens. Web radio? Yes, you can talk about it. Roman Mars, a participant and author of the 99% Invisible project, created (together with PRX ) his own podcast network called Radiotopia .

An interesting fact is that there are quite a few podcasts that use the format of the series, but, apparently, he likes the listeners. This brings us back to the 30s-40s radio. Podcasts make it easier for you to establish trusting communication with your audience - after all, students themselves choose your niche content from thousands of other programs. And this is worth talking about.

PS Here you can listen to the latest release of our podcast. Of course, we are ready to help with the technique for recording our own programs - for this you should familiarize yourself with our professional audio section.