How RSS Lets You Get Your Radio to Go

Listen up: RSS now comes with sound. RSS's ability to handle enclosures, or attached files, has led to "podcasting," a way to capture the latest audio Webcasts on an iPod or other MP3 player. Net-radio stations and traditional broadcasters have been streaming live and archived content for a while. But without the time and software to capture, compress and offload the stream, you're tied to a terminal. RSS software such as iPodder lets you subscribe to, say, a weekly jazz podcast, an MP3 of which is downloaded every seven days and then dumped on your player next time you sync it.

Bloggers have been keen, but the appeal is also strong for public radio stations like Boston's WGBH, which posted its first podcast last month. "We're doing it to learn more," says Robert Lyons, head of new media initiatives at WGBH. Stations with advertisers to satisfy have been slower to react, but don't rule out a future featuring radio with promo videos attached.