Video may have killed the radio star, but podcasts are bringing the audio-only medium back.

Podcasts are similar to radio shows, but there’s no need to tune in at a certain time. Instead of twisting a dial, listeners swipe to apps like Stitcher and Soundcloud, download a podcast, and listen at any time.

Then came Serial, the mystery-solving show that turned “podcast” into a household word. On Tuesday night, “Serial” co-creator Sarah Koenig will discuss the creation of the iconic podcast as part of Syracuse University’s University Lecture Series.

But creating a podcast doesn’t require a sound-proof studio or NPR airwaves. With just a microphone and an idea, anyone can create a podcast and post it online.

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The title of Kelvin Read’s “In the Closet” podcast doesn’t have more than one meaning. It’s simply a description of where he records his shows.

When Read decided to start a podcast last November, he found that his large closet made for good recording sound. Since then, the senior television, radio and film and finance dual major has turned out 22 episodes of “In the Closet” from his makeshift studio.

In the closet, no topics are off limits. Read tackles subjects from sports to movies to First Amendment rights.

Read typically gathers topics from friends and people on campus — and frequently brings those people on the show. For one show, Read had a roundtable discussion based on the Star Wars movie. On another episode, he did a show with his dad, who he described as “an interesting character.”

In one of his favorite shows, Read met up with Roy Gutterman, an associate professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, to take on a more serious topic. They discussed freedom of speech, especially in the wake of protests at the University of Missouri.

Since graduation is quickly approaching, Read said he’s had to slow down on podcast production. But because he’s running his own show, he’s had the freedom to do this.

“It’s not based on viewership like a radio show,” Read said. “It’s a fun, self-motivated medium.”

And after he graduates, Read plans to move to Los Angeles. He’s not sure who will appear on the podcast, but he is sure of one thing: The show will keep going.

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In 1903, Pope Leo XIII recorded an audio clip of him reciting the Ave Maria. He passed away before the recording was released in 1904, and was never able to hear his recitation broadcast on a public airway.

More than a century later, this audio clip can be heard through the public radio module Sound Beat.

Sound Beat is a daily 90-second radio show that allows listeners to hear archived recordings of everything from vaudeville music, to spoken word poems, to iconic speeches. All recordings come from the Belfer Audio Archive, a division of the Syracuse University libraries.

Each episode focuses on one audio clip ranging in time from 1890 to 1990 and beyond. The show was created and developed by SU employees, and was launched in 2011.

Jim O’Connor, head writer and producer of Sound Beat, said the goal of the show is to explain each recording’s place in audio history. Sound clips are accompanied by a backstory of the artist, a related story or other bits of information.

The show airs in about 360 different radio markets in North America and reaches approximately 5 million people, O’Connor said. Additionally, each day’s show is posted online as a podcast.

It is important to understand the place in history each audio clip has, O’Connor said. For instance, the recording of Pope Leo XIII was the first recording many listeners in 1904 had ever heard.

“It’s kind of lost on us now, because we’ve grown up listening to the voices of dead people,” O’Connor said. “But for people at that time, it was staggering. So much so that is was billed and advertised as ‘Science triumphs over death.’”

In this way, Sound Beat allows people to hear history come alive, if only for a minute and a half.

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Connor Hakan hauls a 50-pound bag of equipment around campus every other week, hunting for somewhere to record and film his podcast. “The Super Gaming Podcast” has been live for nearly a month, and was inspired by podcasts Hakan had listened to throughout high school.

“A lot of the times in high school when I didn’t really have a lot of true friends, the people I was listening to on the podcasts I thought of as friends in some way,” Hakan said. “Even though I didn’t have any direct social interaction with them, listening to their opinions, I would get really excited every week.”

Hakan is the creator and host of “The Super Gaming Podcast” which discusses news and topics in the video game world. Each one- to two-hour episode is available on Soundcloud and YouTube in both audio and video format.

The gaming podcast has a fairly small following. Hakan said this is because the two-hour broadcasts have a very niche audience.

Segments presented on television or radio only scrape the surface of a topic, Hakan said, but podcasts go in-depth on a topic. He added that broadcast journalism is more robotic, whereas his creation is more of a random stream of consciousness.

The junior broadcast and digital journalism and political science double major said that although his show is just for fun, he may keep producing it forever.

Hakan believes podcasts are more accessible than radio.

“Podcasts will eventually replace radio as the new medium,” Hakan said. “This is the future — radio is dying.”

-compiled by the Pulp Staff

Published on April 11, 2016 at 9:24 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu