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PA Senate Republican Podcast Now Available on
iTunes
Caucus Continues Offering Constituents New Ways
to Stay Informed
HARRISBURG -- State
Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R-Lebanon) announced today that the
Pennsylvania Senate Republican Podcast is now available on iTunes, a popular
web-based audio service. Subscriptions to the podcast are free.
"Since we launched the
podcast a few weeks ago, it's proven to be very popular with both constituents
and government folks who want to stay on top of the issues in Harrisburg and in
their communities," said Sen. Brightbill's chief of staff, Erik Arneson. "It's a
great technology, and it's giving us a new way to provide analysis and insight
directly from the members."
A podcast is essentially a
radio program that's broadcast over the web, but because it's in MP3 format,
listeners can play it whenever they want -- either on their home computer or on
an MP3 player, such as an iPod or a Dell DJ. The iTunes program automatically
checks for updates and delivers new shows to subscribers' computers or audio
devices.
"Our podcast has joined
3,000 other free podcasts on iTunes, including ABC News, ESPN, and numerous
other favorites," Arneson said. "Obviously this gives us significantly more
coverage and allows us to reach more people." Each week's show addresses
legislation before the Senate and issues of importance to Pennsylvanians.
Podcasts use RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) feeds that make it easy for web users to access news and
information by allowing them to view the latest headlines and summaries from
their favorite sites in one place, called a "feed reader" or "news aggregator."
RSS feeds also can be viewed on XML-compatible devices such as a cell phone,
pager, or handheld computer. This same technology is what allows podcasts to be
downloaded to audio devices or home computers.
"RSS is revolutionizing the
way information is disseminated, and we're excited to be the first caucus in the
Pennsylvania Legislature to offer it," said Arneson.
The current podcast features
Senate Majority Whip Jeff Piccola (R-Dauphin) discussing a recent U.S. Supreme
Court decision regarding eminent domain and the need for legislative action on
the issue. Previous programs include Senator Bob Robbins (R-Mercer) on the
recent PA National Guard deployment in Iraq; Senator Jake Corman (R-Centre) on
health care funding in the new state budget; Senator Mary Jo White (R-Venango)
on the state's Growing Greener program; and Senator Rob Wonderling
(R-Montgomery) on his legislation to repeal the gross receipts tax on wireless
phone service.
To receive the Pennsylvania
Senate Republican Podcast directly from the caucus website, enter the following
address (URL) in your web-based feed reader (such as My Yahoo, My MSN, Bloglines,
etc.) or news aggregator: http://www.pasenategop.com/podcast.xml. More
information is available at
www.pasenategop.com.
Podcast page
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