Saying Goodbye to a Few Podcasts

I have been a huge podcast listener since first discovering podcasting in October of 2004.  Those were some exciting times.  While I was never a creator, I enjoyed watching all the shows grow and become very popular.  People were making shows for the fun of it — to be part of a community.  I was tempted to create some kind of show, but I was spending too much time enjoying everybody else to have time to create anything myself.

Times have really changed.  A lot of podcasts are making money now, and people are doing it full time.  That’s great for the people involved, but sad when business comes before the shows.

This week three of the podcasts I listen to are no more.  CNET’s Gadgetts, TWiT’s Maxwell’s House, and Geek Brief are all no more.

I will miss Gadgetts, but I am sure I will still hear from everybody on other CNET podcasts that I listen to.  Cali Lews has had some personal and what sounds like business issues with Mevio, but it looks like she is moving over to Revision3 with a new show called Geek Beat, which looks to be very similar to Geek Brief, so I won’t be missing much there.

The one guy I am really going to miss is Ray Maxwell.  He is like the grandfather I never had.  He has so many great stories from his life.  I was a little disappointed when TWiT wanted him to focus his show to aviation only.  I enjoyed his many other topics better, but now that I look back, I think they were hoping that having a specific topic would draw advertisers.

He said he is going to appear on other TWiT shows from time to time, but you know how that goes.  Who really knows how often he will be on.  I am hoping Dr. Kiki has him on Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour from time to time.

While it’s sad to see good shows go, I am sure they will be replaced by equally good shows.  It has been quite amazing watching TWiT grow.  I have listened to damn near every show the network has produced, and almost always have one of my three monitors on the live stream.

Podcasting has brought me so much education, and entertainment these past six years.  It’s almost total replaced my TV viewing.  I bet I only watch 5 hours of TV a week nowadays, and 2.5 hrs of that is Jeopardy.  Thank you internet, and thank you podcast producers.