Leo Goes to TalkShoe for TWIT Empire

From the last Macbreak Weekly, it sounds as if Leo Laporte might be moving his entire TIWT empire to “live” recording via TalkShoe. For those of you that don’t know about Talkshoe, the service basically lets podcasters record their shows as a live stream so fans can hear the show in real time. The audience can also participate in a “call in” fashion through the service.

Leo has been messing with this for a few months now. It sounds like he really likes it. It does give him the chance to interact with his audience, which I think Leo feeds off (I would too).

One question remains. How useful is the live format? Doesn’t this just put us back where we were, having to go to our computers at a set time to listen to a show? I think the best part of the podcasting revolution is the ability to time shift. Listening wherever and whenever you want. I don’t think they are going to see large crowds showing up at a set time to listen to a low quality live version of the show.

I know that they are still doing the podcast version, but I just question the need for doing the show via a format like TalkShoe. I think that having people call in just detracts from the quality of the show. The questions aren’t all that good, and the same callers are starting to be as regular as some of the guests across the TWIT shows.

I believe that for the TWIT empire to move forward, they are going to have to start moving to a video format, not mess with trifles like Talkshoe.