"Hearing Voices:
Technology meets gay liberation in the form of podcasts"

By GREG MARZULLO

Anyone with a computer, a microphone and a Web site can create their own radio show and post it to the Internet. Some of these "podcasts" are pure journalism, replete with interviews, and some are audio diaries with people talking about their mundane household chores.

Unlike radio shows though, listeners don't have to be sitting at the other end of a receiver to catch all the action. Podcasters (those creating these aural documents) record their program and post it to a Web site. The audience then downloads the show and listens to it whenever they get a chance or feel the urge.

According to some podcasters, hearing a voice is a more powerful experience than reading the written words of a blog.

"Reading is reading - that's fine," says gay podcaster Meynard, who hosts a podcast for bears at www.bearpodcast.com. "It's good to hear the voice of the real author, the real podcaster. You can even hear the expression. It has more impact." Meynard says he uses a pseudonym because he is not out to his parents.

Steve Friess, based in Las Vegas, hosts a show with his partner, Miles Smith, called "The Strip," and, according to him, listening to someone's vocal expression can do more for an audience member than reading an author's words.

"The most effective part of the Holocaust Museum in D.C. is the room where they play the audio testimonial of survivors," Friess says. Likewise, the most effective means to reach out to Web surfers is through downloadable radio shows, he adds.

GAY PODCASTERS COMPRISE a variety of voices addressing a range of topics. The shows range from the highly charged political to the inexplicably mundane.

Chicago resident Richard Bluestein, 38, hosts a popular gay podcast. His drag persona is the "bloated super dyke" Madge Weinstein, and it's her personality that holds sway over at the podcasting show, "Yeast Radio."

"A year ago when Bush 'won' the second election, I was really pissed off," Bluestein says, and this became the jumpstart for his show. "I expressed outrage, and people need to express outrage - liberal or progressive or whatever we are." Madge had been a character for years in the theatrical circuit, but podcasting gave her opinionated voice an extended shelf life that is now available to listeners all over the world.

Las Vegas-based Friess, who works as a freelance journalist, and his partner Smith, who works as a radio and television producer, take a more journalistic approach rather than a rant on the day's events and their professions helped them to focus the show's direction.

"We saw a great opportunity to do journalism, to do real interviews with prominent people," Friess says. Past shows have included the mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar B. Goodman, Vegas hotel mogul Steve Wynn, and the stars of the city's production of the musical "Avenue Q."

"Our show is not necessarily gay inasmuch as we don't focus on gay issues," Friess says. "But we are gay and we love Broadway and entertainment. Sometimes our interests direct us that way."

Friess says the homogenized radio market allows for podcasters to be edgy with their broadcasts. As with blogs, since there are no editors or higher-ups looking on, no material gets cuts.

As more gays catch onto this new trend, media companies are taking notice. Gay television channel Here! TV started its own podcasts that will feature interviews with various people involved with the station. At the launch party, drag impresario and playwright Charles Busch, the cast of Here's steamy show "Dante's Cove" and actress Judith Light were all announced as guests on the podcast show hosted by Sara Logue and Josh Rosenzweig.

Bravo is issuing a weekly "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" podcast - one of the most popular downloads on iTunes - on its Web site. The Fab Five offer tips on their various areas of expertise including choosing wines and how to best iron a shirt.

GAY VOICES AROUND the country are recording their experiences. Jared Degnan and Jaime Mann are both gay, but their shows couldn't be more different.

Degnan's show is part of his Web site, www.20somethingmarketing.com. He saw a gap in the post-college professional life of marketing people, and he originally wanted to blog about the experience. After listening to podcasts, though, he changed his mind about the medium for his work.

"It's a formally engaging look at marketing and life as a 20-something professional," Degnan, 25, says. He reports that his listeners are asking questions about how to deal with their bosses and what level of ambition is appropriate for a newly hired marketing consultant.

While Degnan's show has a tight focus on business practices, Mann focuses on the everyday inanities that make up most people's lives.

"I like to make commentary about goofy things," Mann says. "How often do you sit around with your friends and talk about nothing in particular, but for some reason it's so addictive? My first [podcast] is me in the kitchen reheating Chinese food."

NOT ALL VOICES are represented yet in the podcasting scene. Qpodder.com, started by Bluestein, is the clearinghouse for gay podcasters. It provides a variety of links and information about gay podcasting, yet there is a surprising dearth of lesbian podcasters on the site.

"Qpodder has 126 casts listed, and maybe 10 percent are lesbian," says Degnan. "It's parallel to a lot of the beginnings of gay media."

Podcasters both gay and straight from all over the country recently attended a national convention on the subject - the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference in Ontario, California - and the number of women was very small.

"At the conference, only 15 percent were women, gay or straight," says Friess who attended the event.

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