Monday, January 23, 2006

''Northwest Progressive Institute begins podcasting''

"As most Kossacks are well aware, talk radio is one of the Republican Right's greatest weapons. Recently, authors like David Brock have skillfully chronicled how the Right has been able to master this critical, underestimated medium and use it to their advantage.

We have only barely begun to counter the Right's dominance of the airwaves. Air America, which is not even two years old yet, has had a promising start, but still we have a long ways to go.

The Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) is working to help build an infrastructure that will enable the progressive movement to take the country back from the Right. We believe the Internet is the medium that will allow us to do this.

We also believe that we need to offer more than text and graphics.

That's why, last week, we launched the first in what will become a regular series of podcasts.

Podcasting is basically using RSS to distribute audio content over the Internet, which can be listened to on both computers and mobile devices.

Today, NPI is pleased to announce that our podcasts won't just be distributed over the Internet - they'll also be aired on the radio. Our inaugural podcast is going on the air today on 94.5 FM in Seattle (104.5 in the rural cities of Fall City, Snoqualmie, and Carnation).

We are hopeful that other stations will also pick up our podcasts and air them. Future podcasts will likely be broken up into two shorter segments for radio, which means we'll be delivering four "mini episodes", or segments, for airplay each month. Each audio segment will run several times.
While the Internet is the only medium that is experiencing significant growth, radio remains important.

Our audio content will be different and unique. While existing shows and commentaries focus mostly on national politics and national news, we will have a strong focus on local politics and the Pacific Northwest.

Our regular episodes will focus on important issues and campaigns, offering vital information and refreshing perspectives. We will strive to make every episode entertaining and useful to our listeners.

Examples of possible episodes range from defending transportation funding from attacks by right wing anti-tax zealots to focusing attention on key campaigns for elected office, such as the race for Washington's 8th Congressional District.

We're also going to be working off your feedback and input. (Yes, that means we'll take suggestions for possible episodes).

We have a long way to go to take our country back from the Republican Right. Every piece of media infrastructure that we create helps us as a movement (and also as a Party) in the pursuit of our goals.

You can listen to our inaugural podcast here. And if you want to be notified so you can listen to future episodes when they're made available, you can subscribe to our multimedia feed. Our podcasts are also available through iTunes - just do a search for "Northwest Progressive Institute" and our podcasts should come right up."-from the post in the Diaries on Kos.

Congrats to NWPI for pulling this off. I hope live podcasting from Seattle's Tuesday night "Drinking Liberally" gatherings will soon follow. Let me know if you can help.

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