KCRW, Podcasts, and Edward Goldman

According to their 'about' webpage "KCRW, a community service of Santa Monica College, is Southern California's leading National Public Radio affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming." I'm listening to 'Morning Becomes Eclectic" right now, the "Mad Professor" show from April 14, 2010 (not my thing so I switched to "The Low Anthem" from March 25). What's good about this show is that the music choices are eclectic as the title says so you get to find something you might like. On the main KCRW website, you can also choose to listen to whatever is currently playing.

What is really great is that most of KCRW's programs are offered as podcasts. One of the shows I subscribe to from iTunes is ArtTalk, hosted by Edward Goldman. What is bliss to me is that the shows are available back to April 22, 1997 in RealAudio from the website, although the site seems to indicate an earlier start date of January 1, 1990. Sadly, iTunes carries only the latest 10 episodes.

On the website archive, there are transcripts going back around nine years. Links to outside websites start late in 2001 but they are not always reliable, given that art museums and galleries update their sites without always providing forward linking from old URLs. I found at least one that pointed to another type of site altogether, so proceed with care.

As time went on, the linkage got much better, including images of the art work discussed, so that you can listen to the podcast, read the transcript, and take side trips to see the art. What I like about Edward Goldman is that he actually likes art, and he's a pretty good critic with definite opinions on what he likes and dislikes. And the podcast pages allow viewers to discuss his reviews.