Thanks for Nothing!

I believe that Bill O'Reily started the stupidity. What am I talking about?

The 10 minute free podcast. Joining the ranks of the worthless ad for membership to get access to my full show was Dan Patrick (ESPN) and Keith Olberman's Big Show. A few weeks back ESPN Radio offered this gem of a radio show (part of) as a podcast to members in the ESPN Radio Insider. Last Friday, they start advertising to check out their new podcenter. To my delight I found the Big Show was on of the podcasts included and15 minutes later I discover they include a lousy 10 minute preview of the Big Show and you still have to become a member for the whole show (which is only one hour).  The worse part was that the 10 minutes they include is the tease for the rest of the show.

My thought is that if they broadcast it over the air, on satellite radio, and over the web real-time.  They can provide the entire content as a free podcast.  I do realize that downloading a podcast does cost money in the way of bandwidth, but I am fine with leaving the orginal advertising on the show, especially for shows that are of high quality. 

This whole trial free podcast thing has to stop or at a minimum needs to be clearly stated before you subscribe to it!