The CBAA is proud to announce the arrival of C pod, the CBAA's podcast hosting service, a brand new feature for CBAA member stations.

The service is free, easy to use, advanced in its technical capabilities, perfect for radio content and a user friendly system with no advertising or pop ups – so why not cast your stations content now!

Everyone has heard about podcasting over the years. The CBAA has featured articles on their website about how stations can podcast, a popular podcasting workshop was held at the 2007 CBAA Conference and now we're launching an exciting podcast hosting service, C pod!

As a new service free to CBAA member stations, C pod is a fantastic way to enable your station to share content online - allowing your listeners to download programs and segments, or subscribe to a feed to receive new files automatically. CBAA's podcasting service, C pod, is simple, easy to use and convenient. The purpose of the service is to help member stations jump on board the new media technology highway with ease and minimal previous knowledge. Anyone with basic web browser experience is able to use the hosting service. Your content can be promoted to your community in a way that suits your stations programming and broadcast style.

C pod Casting Steps:

1. Activate your account by contacting the CBAA (contact details below)
   
2. Create feed/s for your station
   
3. Add item/s to each feed
   
4. Choose a skin which best suits your stations look
   
5. Create a link in your station's web site to an automatically generate page for your listeners to subscribe to the feed and automatically receive the content (or download individual items); OR
   
6. Embed the feed page in your own station web site

C pod is:

• Is easy to set up and use - the technology and infrastructure is already there and it's free!
  
• Is a highly flexible system that allows you to manage your podcasts with ease.
  
• Contains no pops up or embedded advertising
  
• Features a clean interface which isn't bogged down with flashy graphics and effects
  
• Includes a step-by-step user manual
  
• Can be seamlessly integrated into your stations existing website
  
• Is compatible with iTunes, so your station is able to register podcast feeds with podcatchers, enabling your content to be easily sourced
  
• Spoken word segments, interviews and talk back material are perfect for podcasting.

A major feature of C pod is that it can be seamlessly integrated into your stations website. CBAA will provide four uniquely designed web interface skins (display pages), which you can choose from according to your stations colours and branding. This means listeners will be virtually unaware they are accessing your podcasts through C pod, but it will appear as a useful feature of your website. To make the process even more effective we are able to discuss ways to customise the design of the skin to meet the aesthetics of your existing website. This is not to say that you cannot use C pod if your station doesn't have a website, you just have to supply your listeners with the feed address from the C pod site. The only thing your station then needs to be able to podcast is interesting content, that's it!

While some believe the current restriction of not being able to podcast music, unless copyright release has been sought, is constricting, there are also some benefits. Rather than uploading entire programs as podcast items, you are able to package spoken word segments, interviews and talk back material, targeting them to people's interests. For example, if you have a pre-recorded music interview no further editing is required and the interview can be simply uploaded to your "Music Interviews" feed to be downloaded by listeners who have subscribed to the podcast.

To make your stations podcasts reach a wider audience, we have made C pod compatible with the popular podcatching software, iTunes. This means you can register your podcast feeds with podcatchers like iTunes and your content can be easily sourced. So when someone on the other side of the country, who is not within your stations frequency range, searches through the podcatcher 'music interviews' for example, your stations content can be downloaded and subscribed to. Just think how much your listener (subscriber) base has the potential to increase and diversify.

If your station is a member of the CBAA and has content that would be of interest to community broadcasting listeners and new ears interested in innovative radio content, C pod is the perfect opportunity. Get in touch with the CBAA to take advantage of this fantastic member benefit!

For more information visit www.cpod.org.au or contact Andrew Devenish-Meares on 02 9310 2999 or email adevenish@cbaa.org.au.