Islander bringing the podcast hits on national radio show

Podcasting is a growing industry with higher and higher standards, but the really good stuff can be hard to find.

That's where Podcast Playlist co-host Lindsay Michael can help.

Michael, a P.E.I. native, works with her co-host Matt Galloway to sort through the podcast universe and bring the very best to the national CBC Radio show.

"The biggest problem that people say in the industry is that there is a discoverability issue; people don't know how to find podcasts," Michael told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier while back on the Island for a holiday.

The program's producers start with the iTunes charts, but they are also scanning blogs that focus on podcasts, and as Podcast Playlist grows in popularity there are recommendations coming in from listeners as well.

Popular genres

Podcast Playlist recently published a list of 400 Canadian podcasts, but Michael said they know they are only scratching the surface.

As podcasting becomes more of a professional endeavor, the difference between podcasting and broadcasting are becoming clearer, she said.

As its name implies, broadcasting needs to aim at a wider audience, keeping in mind it has to have the potential to grab the interest of anyone who happens to turn their radio on. Podcasting can be more specialized, because interested people will actually seek it out.

"If you want to talk about different kinds of car ignitions for three hours, you can, and you'll find your audience on a podcast, but you could never put that on a broadcast," said Michael.

While there is space for highly-specialized programming, there are certain genres that rise to the top in popularity.

• True Crime
• Science
• How stuff works

Audio fiction is also growing in popularity, said Michael.

Podcast Playlist runs Saturdays and Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and on Wednesday at 11 p.m. on CBC Radio One, and is, of course, available on podcast.

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