For the first time, a sitting American president will speak on an internet social network audio program. According to Politicalcarnival Blog, President Obama will be on a speical show called "40 Minutes For Health Reform" on BlogTalkRadio.com this Wednesday August 19th at 5 PM to talk about reforming the nations health care system. The President will join clergy and "people of faith" in a national campaign they've established to promote health care reform (of some kind). The website FaithforHealth.org reports:
Over the next 40 days, people of faith are leading a national campaign for health care reform. While members of Congress are in their home districts, we’ll be holding hundreds of prayer vigils and in-district events. We’ll sign petitions, write our representatives, organize a nationwide conference call for people of faith, and air a national TV ad –all to say the faith community supports health care reform.With his participation in this BlogTalkRadio show, Obama officially becomes the nations first "Socially Networked President", using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to distribute his message. The Obama Administration has correctly reasoned that since a growing number of people around the World get their news from muliple media sources, it's better to have him appear in blogs and on web-based news sites, social networks, and now audio internet broadcasts like BlogTalkRadio.
BlogTalkRadio goes into the mainstream
Obama has overnight thrust BlogTalkRadio into the mainstream. Right now, it draws about 4.5 million listeners, but really could double that mark and probably will grow to that point after Wednesday's show. It's really a neat system where anyone can establish their own call-in program; all they need is a computer and a cell phone - account creation and show construction is free because BlogTalkRadio is ad supported. (I have one called "Zennie62" and my good friend and NFL Draft partner Bill Chachkes has an incredible show called "Football Reporters" that airs Thursday nights at 6 PM PST - 9 PM EST. Bill's show averages over 10,000 listeners per broadcast.)
I'm excited to see how Obama's decision to go on BlogTalkRadio impacts its growth over the next year. It's a really great system that one can use with YouTube and USTREAM to broadcast a multi-media show as I did here:
Oh, and unless you think Obama doesn't have his own show account on BlogTalkRadio, think again! It's here.
Oh. About those protestors..
If I were you, I wouldn't be concerned with the prospect of crazy, right-wing extremists flooding the Obama show with irate calls just as they have polluted selected health care town hall meetings with nearly all forms of bad behavior. The BlogTalkRadio system is such that the show producer can allow up to five callers and can select or even predetermine who gets to talk. In the case of Bill's football show, he sends an email to each one of us to call at a certain time; he's knows our numbers, which pop up on the show control board page, so he can just click on our numbers to talk.
