Can Kevin Smith Legitimize Podcasting?

My brother-in-law frequently relays stories of things he heard on the morning-zoo-like radio program he listens to every day on his way to work. It's called "Free Beer and Hot Wings," because apparently those are the nicknames of the two hosts. I've never listened to it but sometimes when I have to run to the store or something, and bringing the iPod seems pointless, I turn on the radio and hear an ad for it. The tagline is: "Free Beer and Hot Wings. Funny name, funnier show." I mention all of this because even though that probably sounds like the worst thing in the world to you, it's still more respected than your average podcast.

I deliver newspapers for a living, which means I drive around in my car for at least five hours a day. After awhile even my very sizable music collection wasn't cutting it, audiobooks were putting me to sleep, and lord knows I wasn't about to turn to the radio. Luckily I discovered podcasts, and I fell in love. I spent hours on iTunes searching through categories and clicking those "Listeners of this podcast also like..." links. Three and a half years later and I'm still deeply invested in the podcast world. They still get very little respect, but that could be changing soon, no small part due to one man; Kevin Smith.

The director of Clerks, Dogma, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and more, has certainly taken a liking to the medium. That's what podcasts do to you; You can't help but fall down the rabbit hole. After listening to podcasts for three and a half years, I'm now recording them. Smith started SModcast, his flagship show, back in February of 2007. Eventually his friends were starting shows too, and then they were taking them on the road. After a couple of tours he decided he liked the live podcast idea, so he opened his own theater.

Now he has more podcasts than days of the week, a majority of which are recorded in front of an audience, and he's about to bring his site into the streaming realm, providing six hours of new content every day and an always on "internet radio station" he's dubbed SModcast Internet Radio, or S.I.R. Plenty of fairly well-known comedians have been throwing their hats into the podcasting ring, but Smith is likely the most household name to do so, and the extent to which he has is definitely a first. So you have to question: Can he change the mainstream perception of podcasting?

For all the fairly recognizable people that have put up shows for free on the Internet, I still need to explain what a podcast is almost any time I mention them. But iPhones have crossed over into the mainstream demographic -- no longer just for techies -- and S.I.R. has partnered up with Stitcher, making it streamable over your smart phone so you can listen wherever you are. Kevin Smith might not be the right person to bring in the masses, but if he's successful with this endeavor whose to say who might follow suit.

One of the biggest downfalls of podcasting has always been the money. Almost all of the shows out there are just throwing their cash into a hole, which is why the medium is seen more as a way for nobodies to try achieving Internet fame or as a means for comedians to network and advertise themselves to people. Smith is attempting to do something almost no one else has done; Make a profit off of this whole thing instead of just getting a few sponsors to recoup some of his losses. With the theater he sells tickets to people who want to see it live before it's released for free online, then he puts in self-made ads for a series of sponsors, and with S.I.R. he plans to sell commercial time to anyone who wants to pay up.

Even just the ticket prices for each show should make him back the bandwidth cost that comes with hosting them online, but everything combined might mean he could actually make a living off of just podcasts. Once he sets that precedence, more people might jump on board. Maybe all of those long-time radio people will perk up their heads and take notice. People like Oprah -- that could attract a completely new audience -- have thrown up some content, but imagine if she put all of her power behind building the sort of podcast empire that Kevin Smith has built. Suddenly the podcasting world would be "the wave of the future."

I'm not sure where it is going but a path is being paved to somewhere, and it's going to be interesting to see where it takes this fledgling medium. Podcasting has the ability to allow anyone to be a radio host, but it's going to take some big names to give it the respect it deserves. Sure, people like Ricky Gervais have helped a lot, but Kevin Smith is the first to really put everything he has into it. He's going all in, and the world of podcasts will likely be forever changed. We'll just have to wait and see exactly how.