washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

Monday, December 20, 2004; 10:11 AM

2004 is turning out to be the year of the iPod. Last week retailers reported that they`re running short on the popular digital music players. This week brings news of novel ways that people are putting their iPods to work.

No. 1: Homemade broadcasts. The Boston Globe today wrote about ``podcasting,`` a digital twist on the ham radio world: ``Richie Carey has heard the future of radio. It`s on an iPod music player. Carey, a 38-year-old website developer and marketing consultant from Sandwich, is among an early wave of fans for a new broadcast medium dubbed `podcasting` -- audio content that listeners download from websites to iPods or similar digital music player devices. ... Carey is not just a daily consumer of podcasted talk shows about technology and politics but a fledgling podcaster himself. He has a regular audience of about 50 people who download his `definitely not polished` spoken musings about life, personal electronics, and even the importance of getting your brakes checked -- a `podcast` he made and instantly posted from his cellphone while sitting outside the Sears repair shop one day recently. `This is technology that gives me a voice I never had a month ago,` Carey said. `It`s amazing how someone can now make a cellphone call that can be heard all around the world.` If Internet-based weblogs turned everyone into a potential newspaper columnist, and digital cameras let them become photojournalists, podcasting is promising to let everyone with a microphone and a computer become a radio commentator.``

• The Boston Globe: Computer, Microphone, IPod Make Broadcasting Personal