What is a Podcast?

A podcast is an audio file (MP3's for Voices At Work from 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 Voices At Work (or 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), visit the Voices At Work section of the KPFT Archive and 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, including Voices At Work, 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:

• Juice (Mac, PC, and Linux versions): http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/
• iTunes (Mac and PC versions): http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
• Others are listed at http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html

How do I get/subscribe to Voices At Work from the KPFT archives?

For iTunes users, you can simply click on the icon below and iTunes will launch asking you to confirm the subscription.

For those using any other podcast software (or the above iTunes icon doesn't work correctly for you), you will need to refer to the instructions included with that application.  However, the instructions below will provide a general guideline of the procedure for most applications.

1. Select the following URL and "copy" it to your clipboard:  http://archive.kpft.org/xml/vaw.xml
2. Start your podcasting software program (Juice, iTunes, etc.)
3. In your podcasting program, select the menu command for adding a new podcast and paste in the URL for the podcast 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 1. 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 1. 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".
4. Set the options in your podcast software to make sure it checks for new audio files regularly. 
5. • 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".
6. 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.
7. Enjoy listening to Voices At Work whenever you want!

Listening to Podcasts with a Portable MP3 Player

To listen to the Voices At Work podcast 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