|
|
|
Hunting & Fishing Podcasts are great to take information with you, virtually anywhere
|
Every so often, technology revolutionizes the way we communicate, and one such innovation of recent note is growing not only a large subscriber base but also encouraging people to put themselves out there: providing tips, stories and news in all arenas. From ESPN to CBS, all of the major network and cable broadcasting companies are establishing audio and video programs, called “podcasts,” that can be downloaded by computer users around the world. Following suit, anyone who can pick up a fishing rod, shotgun, rifle or bow is putting their outdoors know-how on the web for download via podcast.
Get hooked
While many podcasts can be found through a Google (www.google.com) or Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) search for the topic, most people turn to the originator of the personal broadcasting format – Apple Computers (www.apple.com). Through Apple's free program iTunes, users can download software which allows them to link up with thousands of podcasts - hundreds of them focusing on outdoors pursuits.
|
|
|
Fishing & Hunting Podcasts can be played on many newer phones and PDA's.
|
By searching the podcasts in the iTunes database, listeners can narrow down their area of interest. Type in “pheasant hunting” to get the latest reports from HotSpotOutdoors or Reels and Rounds Radio. If you're looking to fill some gigabytes on your personal media player, type in a more general query such as “Fishing” and get up to 150 results per search. Downloading is fast and easy through cable or DSL, and in no time your PC or MP3 player will be loaded with great outdoors shows to listen to at your leisure. While the quality level of each podcast may vary between studio-taped programs done by media professionals and headset shows done by low-tech podcasters; nuggets of information are available straight from the mouths of avid hunters and anglers.
Casting call
As tying flies and building rods generally follows an indoctrination into fly fishing, an interest in producing podcasts usually follows the first few downloads. Reactions such as “I can do this” (or “I can do better than this”) are common place. With the Internet being available to all, the tools to produce your opportunity to prove it is just a few clicks away.
Through sites such as Podcast People (www.podcastpeople.com) and Podbean (www.podbean.com), podcasters can create and upload podcasts on their favorite subjects. In most instances the audio and video podcasts can be created on a PC, saved in a standard format and uploaded to these sites when an account is created. The management process on both sites is user-friendly, and - unless you need more space for your podcasts – free.
The production of such podcasts fills a void in the world of the outdoors and helps spur conservation in a way that was not possible 18 months ago. With the constant competition for the attention of teens and young adults, outdoors participation by these age groups has declined over time due to increased use of computers, video game systems, television and other distractions. As a result, podcasts do more than just convey information – they provide an in for the outdoors into the electronic lives of today's society.
“You have to adapt your message, be more compact and easily transportable and podcasts do that,” says Doug Leier, North Dakota Game and Fish Department Outreach Biologist and outdoors podcaster, “it is now easier for people to take a podcast with them than it is to carry a magazine.”
Being adaptable is part of Leier's job, as is planning for the future of outreach communications. His vision is of a world where everything the average person needs for work, home and entertainment will be beamed to a hand-held device similar to a cellphone. With the advent of the integrated iPhone and Blackberry cellphone-PDA hybrids, that future apparently is now.
Podcasting is just the beginning, and as it develops it will accellerate the learning process for all outdoorsmen to the point that knowing how to target springtime bass or rattle in a whitetail buck could be as simple as turning on an MP3 player. Technology is changing the face of the outdoors, and the information one needs can be found in a matter of seconds. This column is no exception. Log on to www.nicksimonson.com for the digital version of this article and the premiere podcast episodes of...our outdoors.
