‘Close your eyes and be absorbed by the storytelling,’ urged Jon Manel (the new head of podcasting at BBC World Service) as we settled into our chairs. We were just about to hear the ‘world première’ of the latest podcast from the BBC World Service, launched dramatically in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in front of a packed, expectant audience, with full surround sound, every raindrop magnified (and there was a lot of it). It was odd to realise quite how far podcasting has already transformed radio. Along with the usual Radio 4 crowd (who were surprisingly enthusiastic about the chance to hear this latest podcast), there were hosts of young people, podcast devotees, not bound by schedules and controller-led programming, who trawl the web or follow Facebook to find the latest trend. There’s even a Podcast Brunch Club who meet in central London – it’s ‘like a book club’ but for audio (other branches meet in Bristol and Leicester).
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