AirAmerica/Al Franken Podcast

[catpodder]

I've downloaded about 3 of the Air America/Al Franken Podcasts. When playing on my iPod, they sound very tinny and almost have an echo to where I can't listen anymore. The Dawn&Drew show and a few others I've downloaded sound fine. Any others notice problems with Air America? I know it's a huge file since it's around 1 hour and 52 minutes long.

[ethornber]

I had no audio problems with any of the Air America podcasts - I just found the content boring. :)

How recent were the shows? From the beginning of the archives, or the newest ones? A lot of podcasts show dramatic increases in sound quality as they get some experience, although I'd imagine the AAR shows should be pretty professionally handled from the get-go.

[dcmacnut]

I also listen to these podcasts, but you have to understand that this is not a traditional podcast. Air America is an AM radio station, and the audio files are recordings of the AM broadcast, which isn't hi fidelity to begin with. The MP3s are only going to be as good a quality as the source material. Also, there are two different feeds for each show that you can subscribe to, one encoded at 16kbps and the other at 32kbps. Both are in mono, too, which also affects quality.

Finally, the podcast isn't even hosted by Air America. A different site (www.walgran.com) hosts the feeds, which points Air Americas own radio archives. I doubt you're going to see any improvements unless Air America starts posting higherquality files.

[catpodder]

Okay, that helps explain it. Thanks! I'll try again sometime in the future to see if the quality improves.