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.
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Rush Limbaugh announces video podcasts for Apple iPod starting December 12th – November 30, 2005
Rush Limbaugh: ‘I am the hottest thing in podcasting’ – June 09, 2005
Rush Limbaugh and Apple Computer working to bring podcasts of radio show to iTunes Music Store – May 17, 2005
Rush Limbaugh says ‘Mac OS X Tiger Rocks,’ posts link to free Rush advertisement for Mac – April 30, 2005
The Hill: Put Rush Limbaugh on Apple’s board of directors; he could sell tons of Macs – January 26, 2005
Rush Limbaugh calls for Apple iCal to Sidekick solution – November 12, 2004
Rush Limbaugh: Why does Apple put politics first? – June 27, 2003
Rush Limbaugh comments on Gored Apple – March 21, 2003
“Air America is dead, tree huggers. Funny, I would’ve thought with zero listeners it would’ve died even sooner. Guess the commie libs got tired of throwing their money away propping up crap like Air America:
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/entertainment/article_2129559.shtml “
The source they quote is the NY Post, a right wing newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch.
FYI: FUD has been mounting against Air America since they began. This is nothing new, more of the same unfounded crap.
Rush is where it’s at.
I was making “Podcasts” of his show BEFORE the iPod was around!!!
I feel sorry for Liberals.
Rush, either love him or hate him, does make you think. I don’t agree with him, but he does argue his points well. Compared to Air America…..there is no comparison.
It will be interesting to see how many others are going to follow Rush’s lead into the Podcast subscription arena.
Oh, I predict Bill O’Reilly being next.
Freedom of speach IS a scary thing
Have you ever listened to Air America? It’s just un-listenable, bad radio. I’ve downloaded quite a few podcasts of their shows and they are just plain unlistenable. I’m not talking the politics, the shows are just bad radio. Left wing radio is quite viable, if you’ve got the personalities who can make it work. Al Franken bores me to tears. I’d rather listen to Limbaugh, at least he entertains me while he gets my blood boiling.
What can you say really? But- Rush.
He’s a hypocrite with a radio show.
Rush – isn’t that a drug reference? Is that where he got his name?
To paraphrase the movie Private Parts:
Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Rush Limbaugh fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.
Leftie: How can that be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Leftie: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Limbaugh?
Researcher: Good point. The average Limbaugh hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Leftie: But…if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Rush chose the Mac because it is the best. He did not play politics with that choice. I am delighted that Apple worked with him on this. News and political podcasts are going to be a huge market for the iPod. Imagine commuters — no drivers, please — listening to the news or commentary each work day, instead of using dead tree reading material. Apple is looking at every way possible to grow the iPod market. As an owner of a bunch of AAPL, hurray!
Um, just in case anyone is interested in a comment on the actual technology…
This is actually pretty cool. What Apple has done, apparently, is a find a way to handle server-side authentication from within iTunes. When you download a podcast “from” iTunes, you’re actually downloading it from the podcast’s own servers — Apple hosts nothing. This new twist allows the servers to authenticate, through the iTunes interface.
All that’s needed to make this truly work is a way to link to a subscription page from within iTunes. So if you’re not a subscriber to the podcast service, one click can open your browser and take you to the right page.
Air America, whatever you think of it, has been offering an podcast subscription since Feb 1. While I don’t think you can make the purchase via iTunes, you can subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes — you need to enter your Air America password to complete the subscription process in iTunes.
Personally, I like Air America, particularly the Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes shows.
An even more important aspect of this is that he says put in your user name and password. He did not say your AOL or .mac user name.
This truly would become a subscription service that I would like. You can truly subscribe to something useful to you on ITMS.
This opens up a store within a store.
So what? I don’t listen to Rush-of-Wind on the air waves and I’m sure as hell not going to spend money on iTunes to listen to his cant and drivel.
Apple is not in the censorship business, nor is it in the endorsement business. If Rush and company made an acceptable business deal with Apple, it’s neither here nor there to me.
If Al Franken wants to podcast his shtick via iTunes and he and Apple can stirke up a deal, that’s OK with me, also.
While I disagree with about 90% of what entertainer Rush Limbaugh has to say, I – as does he – recognizes the cost effectiveness of the Mac platform. (Uh, buy quality to save money in the future)
There is some wisdom, and dare I say – fiscal conservatism – in EXPECTING our computer equipment to perform it’s tasks with minimum B.S., no?
FWIW, too many of RL’s ideas don’t save money in the future. Podcasts are meant to be free. But, I doubt RL can see the future benefit of offering his Podcasts for ‘free’.
Love or hate him on political or social issues – The real issue here is that he is pushing technology via iTunes. We should focus on that! There is no doudt that others will follow. No matter what your political or social agenda is, give the man credit for being a Mac head! He loves MacOS and sings its praise whenever he gets a chance.
Rush Limbaugh is the intellectual equivalent of a popcorn fart
LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER!!!!!
Great, MAYBE you can finally do what you liberals preach at nauseam ” Tolerance ” I know, I was a very liberal guy when I was younger. Still am in some areas. But the OUTRIGHT lack of tolerance for Limbaugh’s viewpoint shows how intellectually dishonest you are. Bring it on!! Let him talk, He is right sometimes and wrong too. Are you that stupid to think Wellstone was right 100% of the time!! Truly, left wing liberalism is truly a mental disorder. It’s dogma is ” ZERO TOLERANCE” for anything conservative. And I hate to say it, many times conservative ideals/ideas/ thought are on the right side and fit the bill. But many times they are not also. You have a child’s mind ‘Smart by a half” if you think everything he says is wrong. Wellstone’s missed the boat many times as does limbaugh. Pull your head out of you socalist/communist America hating professors ass and use common sense and give respect for bothsides. I could be JUST as truly foolish as you and knock Wellstone for being and total idiot. Time to grow up. Lets start to hearing you piss and moan about the leader of Iran. No, that wouldn’t be, maybe because you are so Vidkin Quisling like!
Big fscking deal. Air America Premium has been offering password-protected shows for a month now.
Moctod, why would he give away his podcast; he already gets 20 million listeners a week now for free. It costs money for servers and IT support. I am a BIG fan of his and have listened virtually everyday for 17 years, but I am NOT a subscriber to his service. I have listened for years as he has preached the Apple gospel. More power to him and long live capitalism…….
Oh, and – in case – there are those that don’t understand the concept of future benefit, think – give away rasors, sell blades. Give away iTunes, sell iPods and iTMS. Give away political dogma, sell – well sell anything.
What financial benefit can there be in being generous?
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives money – but gets tax credits, influence, etc..
But, while Bill is avoiding tax burden, are there real people benefitting from his ‘charity’?
It’s balance, folks. Where common folk – like you or I – may earn our way into any heaven, Bill has paid.
It’s time OR money – in everything.
Hey Big By-
I’m feeling a lot of intolerance from you and a lot of hostility. Maybe you should lay off the steroids for a while and quit reading your subscription of “Soldier of Fortune” for a year or so.
Liberalism isn’t a Mental Disorder but violent behavior is. Have you thought about checking yourself into a Christian peace center? No? Oh yeah that’s right Christians aren’t into that old fashioned Peace thing anymore. Peace is for hippies, communist, socilists and pussies. So that is what Christ was all about? Hmm pussy. I never knew.
Go Rush.
I don’t listen to him all that much, but it just felt good to say that on this thread.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Kate
Here is what I mean Jay above wrote this after saying he doesn’t like to “hate” But seems to …….. almost???? hate Rush. While trying to show his intellectual superiority in his writing and use of words he wrote this
“”””That being said, he is a huge Apple fan, because effective people, even evil effective people, like computers that do what they are supposed to do. “”””
” EVEN “” EVIL “” EFFECTIVE PEOPLE “
Man, What fools you liberals are. Extremism , Liberal dogma “Limbaugh is evil, again Smart by a half. Thank God I left the party. The dogma is so hate filled now.
Drunk Cheney.
Nope no hate there, Just an X Liberal stating my thoughts. I guess I don’t see “violence” in my statement. Are we going to play the race card again? Are you going to hide behind a skirt again, Are you going to hide behind ” the children again? You pulled out “violence” as a card to play. I am not playing. Remember I am or was very very liberal when I was younger. I see right through your comment, because I was you once.