Changes to the podcast

By now everyone knows it's been forever since I put together a new podcast. The simple fact of the matter is it takes a whole lot of time to do podcasts, and time is always in short supply in my world. Heck, it even gets in the way of drinking wine! :-) So here's what I plan to do. I always felt that what set my podcast apart from others was the educational focus. In the future, I will do occasional podcasts that focus on learning more about wine. I will start fresh as I begin reworking my wine appreciation class at Indiana University South Bend. I will also host all of the episodes long term so that people can get the episodes they want, and not necessarily have to listen to a podcast about something they are not ready to delve into yet. So, to those listeners who have enjoyed the podcast and sent along your praise, I am sorry that my decision may disappoint you. The decision doesn't make me completely happy, either but I really do not enjoy putting out a lower quality product and not being able to put out a good product on a regular schedule. If I had the time, I would do so, but podcasting takes significantly more time than blogging. A couple of hours can go into writing the script, recording it, editing out mistakes, running the sound files through various effects to improve the sound quality, and then mixing everything together so it can be converted to an mp3 file and uploaded. All that work makes a 15 minute show. Blogging is still a great deal of work, but it can be done any time and from virtually anywhere (sometimes it even makes a good break on a Monday afternoon to help clear the mind before getting back to work projects!). I feel that blogging is a stronger suit for me, so that's where I will spend most of my time. As holidays occur and I find myself with extended periods of time, I'll put together better shows about the world of wine to help novices learn more about this enticing subject. Many, many thanks to my faithful listeners. I hope you'll continue to enjoy future episodes--no matter how infrequently they may show up. For those who absolutely need to have their regular wine podcat fix, I strongly recommend Tim Elliott's WineCast or the gang over at Grape Radio. There are many other good podcasts out there that are worth your time. See my entry from a week or two ago about the great Australian wine podcast as well. Thanks again, and stay tuned!