Dear Podcasters (as in content providers, e.g. Adam Curry),

I am interested in what many of you have to say and have become an avid podcaster, listening on my trips to/from work.  I use my Smartphone (Audiovox SMT-5600) and Creative Zen Micro regularly to listen to your programs while in my car.  I often have to crank the volume ALL the way up to hear what you are saying. I get comfortable, then get aurally SLAPPED by a sound-bite or other large change in your decibels.  That's beyond unprofessional- it can be dangerous. I could be wrong but I believe professional broadcasting has specfications that guard against this.

Case in point: I was listening to Adam Curry's, "The Daily Source Code (1/20)" podcast in my car.  After a somewhat disarming introduction that made me identify with Adam (who I've always enjoyed), after hearing the vmail he appeared to receive, I was hooked by his intro.  Unfortunately the intro segment turned into a blaring sound that almost blew my car speakers out due to lack of proper audio leveliing. Adam uses the same intro segment, "The power of..." in every show but this time something was horribly awry.  I'm normally pretty forgiving but my car speakers don't seem right after this happened and honestly, my ears rang for about an hour afterwards.

I'm seeing this a lot in podcasting- this is a BIG problem.  I don't pretend to have worked in the professional broadcasting industry however listening to those that have, I'd like to hope we can do better than this.

In order for podcasting to be successful long-term, the Podcasters must step-up the professionalism of their product starting with audio quality - noise gates, normalization, and fidelity must be improved.  Broadband offers an opportunity to deliver a better product than FM radio.  I'm sure this isn't an easy solution but hope it will be taken seriously.

One idea could be for someone to write a DSP plug-in for WM Player 10 that evaluates the entire podcast and adjusts the audio level intelligently across the file, smoothing out peaks and upping decibels in low-areas of the broadcast. Think of it as an "image sharpen" filter for audio.

I have nothing but empathy for those creating the Podcasts and nothing but respect for Adam whom I've enjoyed since I lived in the Tri-State area so many years ago and Adam introduced me to new music on MTV- I'm sure this isn't easy and many are still learning.  But I hope that this is a priority to improve their product moving forward- I want to listen without fear of being, "Podwhacked". :)

Update: That was fast- Adam responded in email noting there's really not too much that can be done, "...unless someone makes some really good podcasting software."  Anyone out there working on good Podcast-production software?