iTunes has revealed it’s ‘Rewind 2009: Best of the year’ list. It’s their view on the best songs, albums, movies and podcasts of the year. We’re delighted that Dave Gorman’s podcast is top of the list when it comes to Audio Podcasts 2009.

Just one below him is Frank Skinner and also high on the list is Matt Berry. We’ve also been recognised for our video podcasts with Justin Lee Collins, Ricky Gervais, Coldplay and Stereophonics. Absolute Radio has more podcasts on the list than any other radio station (beating BBC Radio 4 & 5 Live) and we’re the only commercial radio station on the list at all.

This is great recognition for our podcasts. Hopefully it will help us to attract new subscribers as people peruse the iTunes store over Christmas when they receive their new ipods. As everyone knows iTunes is the UK’s main directory for podcasts and the place the vast majority of people go to source their material. In the past year, we’ve examined what has worked for the podcast audience and used this to develop more than 100 podcast streams, topping the iTunes chart with Dave Gorman (and that was before he had a regular show on the station). We’ve also worked with iTunes to develop our own iTunes page which reflects their homepage style and gives us greater control over the podcasts and the ability to link between content. We’re the only people in the UK to have launched this and it has, without doubt, helped the success of our podcasts.

October saw record downloads, November beat that and December is looking healthy too with the launch of some new exclusive movie and Christmas content.