From audio library to podcast: Analysis of the Spanish talk radio’s main programs in open repositories

Abstract

Digitalization is transforming radio like the rest of mass media. Disregarding the innovations introduced in the routines of production or in the quality of the sound, one of the most significant changes is the possibility to listen on demand to any content broadcasted on air, breaking the nearly century-old dynamic of traditional broadcasting. This podcast modality has become a new means of dissemination to Spanish general-interest radio stations and, especially to those programmes with highest listening figures: Monday-Friday morning magazines. By qualitative and quantitative techniques, this article aims to identify the strategies websites apply that, in barely a decade, have become open repositories. The results reveal that radio operators consider this means of distribution as essential in order to cater for an audience in transformation and to attract a new generation of radio listener, using cell phones. In this way, important improvements are observed in processing the content and in the use of social networks and alerts to multiply audience figures.