Podcasting: Alley to Valley.

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Author: Klaassen, AbbeyKerwin, Ann Marie

The Buzz

Silicon Valley is getting ready to welcome the newest addition to the neighborhood-Adam Curry and Ron Bloom's Pod Show, which, after an $8.5 million injection of venture capital, has set up shop in San Francisco. It's also just acquired PodCast Alley, the organically grown Web site that has amassed 7,000 podcasts and 120,000 podcast episodes. Pod Show's goal? Commercialize podcasting and help the burgeoning medium take a bite out of the $60 billion U.S. ad industry. By Bloom's estimate, podcasting could eventually turn into a "several-billion-dollar industry."

He and Curry, who's splitting time between the States and his home in the U.K., have begun making the rounds to agencies and advertisers. The company's already signed deals with Warner Bros., Microsoft, Absolut and Durex and is going after both interactive and radio ad budgets.

"[Podcast listeners] are disenfranchised, people who quit listening to radio because it sucked," says Bloom, a former music-industry exec. And, he says, they're hyper-targeted, using an example close to home: "Why not target the top 2,000 IT decision makers on the planet though a podcast instead of doing it on the Super Bowl when people aren't thinking about IT anyway?"

WEEKLY RATING (0-10) OF SIZZLE & FIZZLE

9 SAUDI PRINCE ALWALEED BIN TALAL A media mogul's best friend. The minority investor in News Corp. and Time Warner publicly voiced support for the management of Rupert Murdoch and Dick Parsons.

7 LES MOONVES Looking to spice up the nightly network news, CBS chief suggests adopting tactics from U.K.'s "Naked News." Edward R. Murrow, start spinning.

5 TIVO A basic DVR from TiVo will now cost less than a tank of gas for an SUV. The original time shifter now offers a rebate that means it's just $49.99. Of course, you still need to shell out the $12.95 a month for the service.

3 NEIL SHAPIRO The NBC News president, who has for months been rumored to be disappointing NBC President Jeff Zucker, resigned to go look for a job that offers him more "creativity."

PHOTO (COLOR): Pod people: Getting in on ad action

PHOTO (COLOR)

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By Abbey Klaassen

Edited by Ann Marie Kerwin