US president-elect Barack Obama is to make the first YouTube address to the nation on Saturday, recording a talk not just on radio but also on video. The weekly radio address will be posted to Change.gov. First time a president/president-elect goes multi-media (or knows what that is?). AP

Not likely, but wouldn’t it be great if O just recorded the video on his MacBook Pro and uploaded himself? Sure, not a good use of his time but talk about going directly to the people.

UPDATE: It’s now Saturday morning, the video is up, and I’ve been thinking some more about this…

I don’t recall which president started the weekly radio address (or when), but I’m pretty sure we aired it occasionally on KBOA back in the 70’s. Strictly filler for a slow Saturday morning.

I always assumed this was a radio address because none of the TV networks were going to air a 15 or 20 minute speech by the president, and radio stations might. Ironically, I don’t ever recall hearing it on the radio (except at KBOA). And the network newscasts frequently feature a few seconds of the audio, usually with a graphic of an ancient microphone or VU meter.

This week’s Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio message will –as noted above– be YouTube’d. I have to wonder for how much longer this will be described as the president’s weekly "radio" address.

One final footnote… Back in August of 2005, the White House began podcasting the president’s weekly radio address. YouTube was created in February of that year but was still too new for anyone to think about using for the weekly address.