Rush Limbaugh has been working with Apple Computer and plans to introduce a new podcast service for his show available via Apple’s iTunes Store. Limbaugh is currently heard on nearly 600 U.S. radio stations by approximately 20 million daily listeners on the Excellence In Broadcasting (EIB) Network. Limbaugh’s transcript:

I have a technological advancement from the EIB Network and Rush 24/7. It is about our audio and video podcasts. We podcast the entire radio program without commercials each afternoon. You can get it automatically downloaded to your computer with our free media center software. You can download it manually from the website if you wish, and at the same time that download comes automatically, the video podcast, video of the next Morning Update, is included in the package. Well, since we started this, many people have said, “How come you just don’t make it available in iTunes?”

Well, because iTunes only allows content that’s free, and of course we are a business, and so you have to be a subscriber and a member. There’s no additional charge for the podcast service, but it’s only available to members, and so having it downloadable via iTunes was not compatible with Apple’s method of doing business. Well, that didn’t stop us. That didn’t stop us, ladies and gentlemen. No siree, Bob. We have been working with the powers that be at Apple, and we have reached via technological advancement and software the point to where Monday, and I just tested this. We’ve been feverishly working on it; I just tested it, and it is flawless and it is so easy that if you are not a member you’re going to become one and just be able to access the podcasts this way.

What will happen, when we go live with this on Monday — we still have a few little programming tweaks to make, and we want to put it through rigorous testing, but this is as idiot proof as anything I have seen on a computer. What will happen on Monday if you are a subscriber at Rush 24/7 you will go to the new page that we will set up, and there’s a link there, and when you click on that link, automatically your iTunes will open, be it Mac or Windows: iTunes will ask you for your user name and your password. You enter that, you click the box that says “remember my password,” and you never have to do another thing again. The following day, or that day, later that day, the next day, every podcast will automatically download to your iTunes as long as your iTunes is open and running.

You don’t have to click the link on our software every day. Do that one time, tell the computer to remember your user name and your password, and voila, our podcasts, audio and video each day will be automatically installed into your iTunes and ready for transfer to your iPod. It’s just cool. I’ve been trying this. Now, we’re not going to be able to make available all the podcasts that have been downloaded and made available since we started the program, but you should have transferred those to your iTunes yourself by now, and to your iPod to get it there. But let’s say you don’t try this ’til Tuesday. You will get Monday’s and Tuesday’s next week, Monday and Tuesday’s podcasts, audio and video — and if you sign up on Wednesday, you’ll get Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday’s.

So we’ll work backwards up to this first start date when you sign up, and all of your podcasts will be in your iTunes for as long as you want to keep them there and that’s how of course you sync up with your iPod. Our page will have full instructions on how to sync with your iPod, if you’re new to this, but it’s really easy, and we have nothing to do with that. That’s all controlled through your iPod software and your preferences, use iTunes for it. But I am thrilled about this. I am excited about this, because when we first started this everybody said, “How come you can’t put it in iTunes?” It was tough to explain, so rather than go interminably with explanations we worked out a way to make this possible, and use a combination of RSS feeds and so forth.

You don’t need to know how it happens because you only need to do it one time, and, bam! It will happen at the same time every day as long as you have iTunes running. Yeah, it is cool. It is really cool. (interruption) Well, no. The people at Apple were great. I mean, they realize there’s a lot of podcast content out there, and they’re just trying to find ways to drive traffic to the Apple music store and iTunes is the way you do that. So, no. It’s a win-win for everybody. Win-win for everybody. I’m really excited about it. I’m going to continue my own rigorous testing but it worked for me the first time. Engineers sent me an e-mail, I’ll tell you, three minutes before the program today, I got an e-mail from the engineer, “Okay, the link’s ready.” He told me about it last night, told me they were going to have it ready today, last night. They gave me the link. I tried it. It took 20 seconds. It took 20 seconds and it was done. So that will be coming Monday and forever thereafter.

Transcript and more info here.

MacDailyNews Take: This is a new development: a fee-based podcast for a third-party that’s sold from within iTunes Music Store. A podcasting store-within-a-store. Interesting.

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