"Podcasting" is a compound word that combines two parts: "Pod" and "broadcasting."

The acronym "POD" stands for Personal On Demand, so when fused with broadcasting, the result is Personal On Demand Broadcasting in its purest form. Podcasting has become popular allowing listeners to time-shift content. That is, they can watch and listen to Radio/TV-like programming when it suits them on portable devices.

Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed (such as RSS or Atom) to deliver an enclosed file. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using "podcatching" software (a type of aggregator, ex. iTunes or Yahoo Podcasts), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically.

Podcatching software enables the user to copy podcasts to portable music & video players. Podcasting is an automatic mechanism by which multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type.

How do I subscribe to an RSS Audio Podcast Feed?

1. Download and install a Podcast aggregator, such as iTunes, or Yahoo Podcasts.
2. Familiarize yourself with how the software works by reading the program's provided documentation.
3. Locate the Podcast XML feed that interests you on a directory, or on our site just click the "subscribe" button.
4. Add the address to the Podcast XML feed to your Podcast aggregator by either manually typing the address or by copying and pasting from the clipboard. For iTunes users, simply click the "advanced" tab at the top of your browser, then click "Subscribe to a Podcast," then cut and past the xml into the blank window and hit enter.

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Additional Information for Podcast Fans

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