On Sunday November 9th at 4pm PST / 7pm EST or 1am GMT I will announce the 2008 People’s Choice Podcast Awards Category Winners. This will be a live streamed event from the PodcastAwards.com.

Within the next week we will announce the date for the Awards Ceremony where we will announce the People’s Choice and Best Produced category winners. During the awards ceremony you will get to hear from each of the 22 category winners through a interactive online event.

This years event has run very smoothly, if it had not been from the 46 volunteers from my podcast this event would never have been possible so huge Mahalo to them. I hope that you take the time and check out all of the podcast that were nominated, they all have highly engaged audiences whose host are podcasters that have found the magic to grow significant audiences.

Through our Sponsors support they have allowed us to buy the cool prizes that makes this event different. Literally thousands of dollars in prizes will be given away during the awards ceremony next month.

In my daily routine, I download a lot of podcasts. I figure it’s part of my job – I podcast, therefore I should listen to other podcasters. For Instance, I am listening to a new cast (for me) called the Geek Rodeo Cast. Geek News Central, SDR News, Totally Cool Tech Podcast, Caffination Podcast, TWIT and many others.

And yes, I listen to my podcast, too (Geekazine). I figure if I cannot get through my own podcast, how would I expect others to? In listening, I can also catch any issues. I just heard another podcast that started, but was only 2 minutes in length, when it should have been 30.

So I was downloading Todd’s podcast today when I noticed it was taking a lot longer. The other shows had completed, so I just figured it was a connection issue. As I always say: The Internet is always as fast as it’s slowest connection.

When I started to listen to the show, I noticed the quality. Now I know that Todd had issues with his mixing board and went to get a new one. But this was different than a new board. Don’t get me wrong – it most likely helped, but what made me notice even more was the fact the show was in 128 Kbps.

For those that don’t know – most podcasts are produced in 64 Kilobits per second, or kbps. Basically, it’s like listening to a talk show on the radio. And for most talk, that is all that’s needed. In comparison, MP3’s are usually at 128 kbps. Audiophiles usually have their music at higher bit rates, like 256 or more. That would be overkill for talk shows.

Hearing Geek News Central in 128 kbps was not only different, it made me open my eyes as to the quality of podcasts. The sound was clearer and made the show sound more professional.

There are downsides, though. The size of the show pretty much doubled. The download time also increased. nonetheless – the pros really outweigh the cons.

Now I haven’t talked with Todd about this. I am not sure if he did this on purpose. But I’ll bet I am not the only one who notices the difference. Makes me think if my shows will sound better at a higher rate.

If it wasn’t planned, I say “Keep it up”. It really makes a difference. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you should really download it and listen. You will be pleasantly surprised.