Just uploaded the second Living Healthy podcast and we record #3 (What over-the-counter pills will make you healthy?) this Thursday. My doc is doing this because he sees it as the perfect vehicle to help people (his patients and others). I’m doing it because it’s fun. And it’s so easy and inexpensive to do, we just did it. We don’ need no stinking sponsors! But if you did want to make this pay, it might work like this:

Let’s say a year from now, there are 1,000 people downloading the show every week. With patients, friends, colleagues… I don’t think that would be an impossible number. Would a local hospital or medical group be willing to pay $100 per show (nice mention at beginning and end and maybe a drop-in somewhere in the middle)? Maybe.

Now, can you think of, say, nine more show ideas out there? I can. (SFX: calculator) Hello! We’re at $50,000 annually. The only thing missing are the 30’s and 60’s.

Update: Looks like I might have been off by a factor of four. Maybe. Good article by Heather Green at BusinessWeek online:

KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica, cut a deal with Southern California Lexus Dealers for a sponsorship this summer, when the station was getting 20,000 downloads a week. Since then the number spiked to 100,000. When the Lexus deal ends, KCRW plans to charge $25 per thousand listeners.

Why the premium for some podcasts? They help advertisers reach specific groups, even as media fragments. That’s one reason Sequoia Capital’s Mark Kvamme thinks podcasting could siphon $1 billion to $2 billion away from the $30 billion radio advertising market in three to five years.