Podcast vs. Traditional Radio

Podcasts can be original or rebels that broke away from something, campus radio for example. It happens all the time in business. Hair stylists abscond with valuable clients to start their own hairdressing salons. Brokers break away from finance houses and take lucrative clients with them.

College radio is also called community radio stations because anybody can go ON AIR, not just students. Before the internet, they were the alternative, if listeners wanted alternative music, politics or sports.

Example. I was once a Program Director at a community radio station which broadcast from one of Ontario’s universities. I approved a proposal for a show to update listeners about cricket, which is extremely popular in the Caribbean.

The host of the station’s sports show objected vehemently. He said cricket should be on his show which was mainly hockey, baseball and basketball.  

I had a more national outlook of Canada’s DNA, because I was the Program Director. He didn’t know that cricket is a whole culture in countries like Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad etc. They compete internationally as the West Indies.

College radio stations are still there, but podcasts are more popular because of content flexibility. You don’t have to worry about following a radio station’s license rules. The government takes stations off the air if they violate rules set by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.