"Podcast Help" for KPFT web site
What's a Podcast?
A podcast is an audio file (MP3's for the KPFT archives) that you can download from a web site with your personal computer. You can download podcasts to your computer using special software that plays the audio files while you're at your computer. Free podcast software is available for Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. (See below) After downloading, you may also transfer the audio files to a portable MP3 digital audio player.
Podcasting lets you listen to your favorite shows whenever you want. In addition, just like regular downloading, you can pause playback, back it up, skip forward, etc. to listen to the parts of the show that interest you the most.
Once you subscribe (free) to podcasts of your favorite KPFT program(s), the software will automatically download the shows to your computer, whenever your computer is on and connected to the Internet (and when the podcast program is running, of course). You may choose whether to keep just the most recent shows on your computer's hard disk, or you may keep old ones too, depending on options you set in your podcasting software.
You can use your computer for other things while the files are being downloaded, so the download process can go on in the background while you're checking e-mail, surfing the web, using a word processing program, etc.
What if I just want to listen to a single show and not subscribe to its podcast?
This is even simpler.
If you want to just listen to the show online (stream it), click on the "Play" link to the right of the show you want. This should let you listen with the audio player for your web browser.
If you want to save the show on your computer's hard disk so you can listen to it later, or transfer it to a portable MP3 player, do the following:
'For Windows, right- click on the "Download" link to the right of the show you want, and select: "Save Target as".
For Macs, click on the "Download" link and hold the mouse button down, then select "Save link as..." from the pop-up menu'.
This will let you save the audio file on your hard disk, and you can double click on it later to listen, or you can copy it to your MP3 player.
What does a podcast subscription cost?
All KPFT programs available for podcasting, streaming, and downloading are free to you -- there is no charge to subscribe to them. It does cost money for the station to provide the computers and Internet bandwidth to support this, though, and your donations to KPFT help pay for them.
Free podcasting software for your computer:
How do I get/subscribe to podcast programs listed in the KPFT archives?
- On the KPFT web page, click on the "Audio Archives" link (currently on the left side of the page)
- Find a program you want automatically downloaded to your computer.
- Click on the "RSS" link by the name of that program.
- The next web page will have a bunch of strange text on it that you can ignore -- all you need is the URL (Internet address) in the address bar at the top of your web browser window. This will start with "http://archive.kpft.org/xml/" followed by additional characters that identify this program. Select this entire line, starting with "http://" and copy it to the clipboard (Control-C on Windows, Command-C on Mac).
For example, for Democracy Now!, if you click on the RSS link you'll get a new browser window that with the URL http://archive.kpft.org/xml/dn.xml
- Start your podcasting software program (Juice, iTunes, etc.)
- In your podcasting program, select the menu command for adding a new podcast and paste in the URL for the program to be added, as follows:
- In Juice, click on the "Tools" tab in the Menu Bar, then select "Add a Feed...", then paste in the URL you copied to the clipboard in step 4. Then click Save.
- In iTunes, click on the "Advanced" tab in the Menu Bar, then select "Subscribe to Podcast...", then paste in the URL you copied to the clipboard in step 4. Then click OK.
- For another podcasting program, check the help or documentation that came with the software for how to "add a feed" or "add a podcast".
- Repeat steps 2-6 for any other programs to which you wish to subscribe.
- Set the options in your podcast software to make sure it checks for new audio files regularly. For example, you may have it check every hour or every 4 hours or once per day, depending on how quickly you want your favorite shows to be checked. If you are only connected to the Internet for an hour or so each day, then you'll probably want to have the software check each hour.
- In Juice, do this by clicking on the "Tools..." tab in the menu bar, then select "Scheduler..."
- In iTunes, do this by clicking on the "iTunes" tab in the menu bar, then select "Preferences", then select "Podcasts".
- To listen to the shows you've downloaded, see the help or documentation for your audio playing software program.
- For iTunes, which handles both downloading of podcasts and playing them, all you have to do is to double click on the show you want to hear.
- For Juice, make sure you select the player software that you want to use (and which is installed on your PC) by going to "Preferences", then "Player".
Be sure to check all the options and preference settings in the podcasting and audio playing software that you use.
- Enjoy listening to your favorite KPFT shows whenever you want!
Listening to Podcasts with a Portable MP3 Player
To listen to your favorite KPFT programs when you want, but when you aren't at your computer, you can transfer them to an iPod or other MP3 player. Refer to the documentation for your MP3 player for instructions on how to do this. It's usually just a matter of connecting the player to your computer with a USB cable (your player will appear to your computer as an external USB drive), then copying the files that you want to your player.
Be sure to select Eject (on the Mac), or select "Safely Remove Hardware Device" or Eject (on Windows) before you disconnect the USB cable. If you don't do this, audio files may be corrupted on the MP3 player.
More information on podcasting:
Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting