UCF alumnus Tom Kuhn started his podcast talk show in June 2006 with 30 new listeners tuning in each month.
Kuhn, a podcast listener himself, was looking for a place to discuss topics that interested him in hopes that others might be interested in listening.
"Two years ago, I started listening to a few podcasts and thought this could be a pretty fun thing to do myself," Kuhn said. "I talked to John [Elias] about it, and he thought it was a great idea."
Since that time, Spilled Whine - a variety talk show on which Kuhn discusses a multitude of topics over a bottle of wine with co-hosts John Elias and UCF alumna Teresa Dahl, who joined on after the second episode - has grown substantially and continues to log more new listeners every month.
"We still have a pretty limited audience, but it's definitely growing," Kuhn said. "We've seen it grow from where maybe we would see 30 unique addresses a month to upwards of 2,000 hits a month."
Kuhn runs the podcast out of his home in Altamonte Springs, in a bedroom that once was his office, now transformed into a studio with three condenser microphones, two computer monitors and professional recording software.
When Kuhn and Elias first began recording Spilled Whine, they had a much more basic setup, demonstrating the relative ease with which a podcast can be created.
"Originally, we had a tiny Yamaha mixer board," Kuhn said. "It had eight channels, one mic per channel, maybe an input for computers and then headphones to listen to, but eventually I started getting the bug and started to buy bigger and bigger mixer boards to try and add more effects."
Spilled Whine is just one of many shows jumping on the podcast bandwagon.
Strictly speaking, a podcast is a Web-based audio broadcast available by subscription through a host such as iTunes.
Recently, the term has come to mean any radio-type Internet broadcast in MP3 format that can be downloaded for use on a computer or MP3 player.
This relatively new communications medium, and the number of people using it, has experienced unprecedented growth since its inception at the turn of the century.
A recent survey by Forrester Research found that more than 700,000 homes in the U.S. use podcasts.
"Podcasting has grown exponentially," said Lou Mongello, host of the Walt Disney World Radio Show, an unofficial Disney podcast that he delivers from Scotch Plains, N.J.
"As an example, almost overnight we went from three or four Disney podcasts to a search in iTunes that will bring up almost 100," he said. "Not all podcast searches are on the same level, but there is something out there for everybody. Podcasting in general has become much more recognized then it was."
Podcasting offers a number of benefits that broadcast radio does not. Podcasters have the freedom to say - uncensored - whatever they want, and they have the ability to direct their content toward whatever audience they desire.
A podcast is also a user-friendly communications medium, and it gives anyone with the time and the desire a chance to be heard in a radio-style format, Mongello said.
"Anyone can be a podcaster, that's the beauty of it," he said. "It can be anyone from a 14-year-old kid in his basement all the way to someone who wants to put out a really legitimate form of media."
That benefit, however, is the reason podcasting may never reach the status that broadcast radio enjoys. With so many amateurs able to start podcasts every day, even the best ones are easily overlooked.
"The Internet is so vast that a podcast is kind of like a drop in a large body of water," Elias said. "Sometimes it's tough to come across or find what you want to listen to."
Technological generation gaps may also limit the number of potential podcast listeners.
"The tough part is getting every demographic to have access to it," Mongello said. "You tell people 'podcast,' and not everyone knows what that is. It's especially hard to reach people in the older generation who don't have an iPod or don't know where to get iTunes."
Nevertheless, Forrester Research predicts that by 2010 12.3 million U.S. households will use podcasts.
"Podcasting is going mainstream to a certain degree," said Tim "Gonzo" Gordon, a 25-year radio veteran and host of the podcast Communication Steroids, which he runs from his home in Salem, Ore.
"It will never be as mainstream as online video, sites such as YouTube, but nonetheless, the future of podcasting is that it will just get bigger and bigger," Gordon said. "Anyone with a microphone and access to a computer can podcast. It's a great outlet for creativity and communication."
Kuhn of Spilled Whine predicted a slightly different future for the world of podcasting.
"I think what's going to eventually happen is you're going to see more video podcasts," Kuhn said. "You can already see that in YouTube and everything. A lot of people are making video shows. The audio podcast will always attract people because there is always the person who wants to listen in the car, but what's going to happen is you're going to see more video podcasts."
For now Kuhn, Elias and Dahl will continue to sip wine from around the world while they bring their discussions on a range of topics to all who are interested, and with 23 episodes and counting, Spilled Whine, like the podcasting phenomenon itself, plans to be around for a while.
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