205 drop: Top 10 things I demand in my sports podcast

What is a sports podcast, you might ask? Well, as today's drop indicates, for the most part it's mostly another excuse for the World Wide Lemur to lead the way into a new technology by recycling the same formula they've used in other mediums, and for the most part, the same personnel. It's also, judging from the slow but steady growth of new offerings, something that's going to be with us for a long, long time, kind of like a genital wart. Now, that's not fair, really, in that the genital wart might have been acquired in a moment of pleasure. (Too much sharing? Probably.)

Anyway, I haven't really talked too much about sports podcasts here for a small but telling reason: I didn't want to tip off my league mates as to my source for juicy, juicy information. Well, after a half-season of false moves, missteps and mediocrity, I'm now opening up the vault. Have at it, competitors!

And as for the actual product that's slung by my podcasters... well, I can't say I'd do any better, because what's being done on a podcast is, actually, stunningly difficult. It's creating the same amount of content that a scripted show would do, only without a script, and for the most part, people just can't make that much (good?) content in a day without the existence of a large staff. Your only hope is to fill up the time with interviews, which, of course, means that the quality of your work is entirely dependent on your talent booking. And without a large audience, talent booking is entirely the function of a rolodex, which isn't something that most bloggers are going to have.

As with all things, learning by doing is a big key to success, and 90% of life is just showing up. But for anyone who is expecting podcasting (or, even worse, video blogging) to take over the world and make Blogfrica a more prosperous continent... um, not so much. Enjoy your niche status, learn to love your weird little product, and please, for the love of everything that's holy, take my sources. Please.