When podcasting first burst on the scene about a year ago, I thought, Wow, this is going to be the coolest thing ever! I love radio — I used to do college radio and community radio, and I still listen to radio more than I watch TV — and I thought podcasting was going to be a way to do radio on the Web. So I listened to a few podcasts, even tried recording a couple myself, but my interest in podcasting quickly waned.

Podcasts lack the immediacy of radio. When I did college and community radio, people would call in to the station and talk to me — I loved that. I like to listen to the BBC World Service for breaking stories. I love listening to Click and Clack, the Tappit Brothers, on “Car Talk,” as they handle all the crazy phone calls they get. Because podcasts are pre-recorded, you don’t get that same sense of immediacy.

And podcasts are essentially a one-way medium. Your only choice is to turn it on or turn it off. Radio combined with the telephone has a far greater potential to be a two-way medium — listeners can call in and interact with the radio show.

So for now, I’m sticking to frequent blogging. It’s much more fun for me. I try to post daily, so I get that sense of immediacy. And I get fast feedback from my readers via comments, email, and face-to-face. But I’d be curious to hear from readers of this blog –do you listen to podcasts? –which do you prefer, and why?