Q: What is a podcast?

A: A podcast is essentially a radio program, delivered via the Internet, that you subscribe to using specialized software (a “podcatcher”). If you want more technical details, please check out this article on Wikipedia. The idea is that if you find a show you like, you subscribe to it using the podcatcher, which then automatically downloads the show you are subscribed to when new episodes become available. Once it is downloaded, you can then listen to it on your computer or put it on a portable music player like an iPod or an iRiver to take with you.

Q: I tried streaming your show, but there are always lots of skips. What’s the problem?

A: The problem is that podcasts are not meant to be streamed, especially by people on a dial-up connection. The whole purpose of podcatching software is so that you can download the shows and then listen to them without the pops and skips that have always plagued streaming audio feeds. Simply put, dial-up connections cannot download the information from an audio file fast enough to allow for uninterrupted listening. Podcasting solves this problem by making sure that you download the entire file before you attempt to listen.

Q: Okay, I want to check out the show but I don’t know exactly what to do. Can you help me?

A: Yes, here are step-by-step instructions on how to enjoy Radio Free Upstate and all the other wonderful podcasts out there:

1. Download and install podcatching software- If you already use iTunes as your media player, upgrade to version 4.9 or higher. If you do not use iTunes, I recommend checking out Juice Receiver (formerly iPodder Lemon). It is a great free program that runs on Windows 2000 and XP, Mac OS X, and Linux, and generally it’s pretty easy to use. Also, we have heard from some blind podcasters that Juice Receiver has very good accessibility for the visually impaired (compared to iTunes).

2. Subscribe to our podcast- In iTunes 4.9 (or higher) this can be done by clicking on the “Advanced” item on the top menu bar and selecting “Subscribe to Podcast.” A window will pop up that asks you to enter the URL of the podcast. Copy and paste our RSS URL (http://glamb.freeshell.org/podcast.xml) into the window and click the “OK” button. At this point iTunes should show you the list of podcasts that you are subscribed to and start downloading the most recent episode of Radio Free Upstate.

In Juice Receiver this can be done by clicking on the “Podcast Directory” button/tab. Once the screen is up, you will see an address bar appear in the upper-middle portion of the screen (it’s the thing that looks like where you would type in a web site address on web browser). Copy and paste our RSS URL (http://glamb.freeshell.org/podcast.xml) into the bar and click the “Add” button next to it. Confirm that you wish to subscribe to Radio Free Upstate, at which point the program should add us to your subscriptions (you can see them by clicking the tab labeled “Subscriptions”) and it should begin downloading automatically the latest show (which you can check on by clicking the tab labeled “Downloads”).

If you have any additional questions about Juice Receiver, they offer an excellent support forum on their site. If you have any more questions about subscribing or listening to podcasts, please feel free to e-mail us. We can’t guarantee that we will know how to fix your problem right away, but we will do our best to make sure that listening to our podcast (and others) is as pleasant and easy as possible.