Boston.com: Podcasting faces growing pains

There’s yet another article on podcasting out, this one from the Boston Globe:

Podcasting is in the same place today as the Web was in 1994. These personal radio broadcasts, designed to be downloaded to an iPod or similar MP3 player, are homespun, rough-edged, and — let’s be honest — not all that riveting.

And isn’t that what makes them powerful? Isn’t that what makes blogs powerful? Obviously we are starting to see professional blogs, and we’ll eventually see some professional podcasts (probably a lot quicker than blogs) but I think part of what makes podcasting a powerful medium is that it’s honest. It may not be as riveting, but it’s a whole hell of a lot more down to earth than my local FM station.

I am picking apart one paragraph of the article, and I suppose that’s not fair. It’s actually a really well-written piece, different from most cookie-cutter articles on podcasting, as Dave Winer noted.