Why Serial is the future of radio

The fuss may now be over, the last episode of Serial revealed. But if the global success of WBEZ Chicago’s latest weekly podcast is a portent, then the future of radio lies not in static daily programming but in the fleeting pursuit of the latest internet download. No scheduling necessary. Listeners can just choose what they want to hear (based on what’s trending online), sign up for the podcast, and listen to the episodes any time they want, once they have been released for download.

Just imagine how much easier and cheaper this could be for production companies. Non-stop, live, on-air programming would become redundant. The listener would no longer be dependent on the whims and prejudices of those malfaisant programme controllers. All the broadcaster need do is create a stable of thoroughbred programmes (there’s no denying the professionalism behind Serial, although I could have done without the thumping background music, as distracting as the soundtrack to a Bond film). The rest would be up to the listener, to choose what they wanted to harvest. No longer that chance encounter on the airwaves with a voice, a fact, a piece of music. No danger either of being bored witless by yet another dismal comedy show or panel game well past its sell-by date.

The American media company behind Serial is used to podcast success having established This American Life as a weekly listening event (podcasts are by definition episodic, available week-by-week for a week, or other specified time, only). It resurrected the values of old-school radio broadcasters like Studs Terkel and created individual stand-alone episodes that take us inside the heart of what it’s like to live in an ‘ordinary’ American town, where you might think nothing much happens until you take a look from the inside-out.