Absolute Radio is really close to getting our first ever number one… podcast that is!

The newly launched Dave Gorman podcast is number 3 in the iTunes podcast chart as I write this.

If you didn’t know, Dave’s been covering for Frank while he’s on holiday. It’s amazing to see how quickly Dave’s podcasts have grown among our audience and podcast listeners in general. He’s only done 2 so far!

Frank’s podcast is also doing really well in some far flung places. As well as being in the top 20 podcasts in the UK, it does really well in Australia and New Zealand. Must be something to do with the Commonwealth. Iain Lee also charts in New Zealand (I’ve always said it was a lovely place – sheep with ipods, how cool!)

Music wise – we’re leading the way in creating bespoke podcasts related to artist content. When people go onto iTunes and search – they’re not searching for radio station features, they’re searching for their favourite artists and buying songs, videos etc. We’ve raided the archive for content and created podcasts of interviews. It’s a great way of spreading the message about our core artists and the station as a whole.

Currently doing well around the world: Green Day, Coldplay, Lily Allen. All are charting in the top 40 music vodcasts in the US, NZ and Australia. The Special podcasts we created for the Isle of Wight festival have also proved to be successful among those getting back from their weekend away. They’re getting promotion on iTunes and we’ll be rolling this out across our ‘Summer of Live’.

The Star Trek podcasts (made up of junket interviews and red carpet material) have been downloaded more than 50 000 times and we’ve even managed to get positive feedback from the Star Trek community (especially in America). Get ready for Transformers podcasts. What we’ve learnt in recent weeks is that tapping into specific communities and giving them bespoke content is the best way to grow our podcast audience and spread the message about Absolute Radio.