Richard Vobes

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Richard Vobes, also known as Vobes, is an entertainer, actor and professional podcaster who has produced over 500 shows since January 2005. His podcast, simply called VOBES (previously the Richard Vobes Radio Show) is typically about 30 to 40 minutes in length and is broadcast from the 'beach hut' near his house in Worthing, West Sussex, England. His shows range from commentary on recent news events to Friday night beer reviews, as well as a wide variety of audio tours from all over the UK. The show is periodically co-presented with his teen daughter Georgie or close friend Jimmy, with occasional appearances by his 11 and 16 year old sons, Billy and Stanley.

[edit] Biography

Vobes is regarded as being something of a pioneer in the field, as he created the Podcasters Voluntary Music Licence (PVML), in order to address issues of playing copyrighted songs within podcasts. This concept means that podcasters have to "pay the meter", whereby a small fee is paid into a receptical by the podcaster whenever copyrighted music is played. It is hoped that more podcasters will take on the PVML, thus enabling the use of non-podsafe tracks to be played, without the threat of prosecution from the authorities or the RIAA.

The Richard Vobes Radio show used to be a podshare production. This concept was originally created by Adrian Pegg, which gives the opportunity for podcasters who put time and effort into production, to recover some of their costs. Audiences are invited to make a small contribution to the upkeep of the show and is therefore said to work in a similar way to popular 'shareware' software. Shareware software operates on trust, as the software is distributed freely to anyone who wants to try it, but people are asked to pay for it if they find it has value to them and they want to continue using it. This may be by a fixed fee or a variable contribution. Often the software comes with a 'nag' screen as a reminder to pay. Podshare works in the same way, but there is no pressure to pay a podshare fee if listeners cannot afford it. Regardless, the first 7 days worth of podcasts are free to download, but beyond that it is suggested that the listener pay a mere $20 per year to carry on listening. Listeners can also make donations if they particularly value the show. The process relies upon loyal listeners paying this small fee to support the show, and Vobes trialled this method as a feasible alternative to a subscription-based service.

Vobes later decided to charge a subscription with a two-week free trial available, the pricing of which was £7.50 for 3 months, £15.00 for 6 months, and £30.00 for 12 months. Since 06 September 2006 however, the subscription method has been dropped and the show is effectively free to download, even though voluntary contributions are still encouraged.

Gregory Giordano from flameape.com, said of the show in March 2005: "It's a real treat. It's like the old radio shows I've heard about from the golden age of radio - a bit of chat, anecdotal humour, family (Vobes' smart, irreverent kids are an ever-present part of the show) and shtick - wrapped in a devil-may-care/seat of the pants style that is disarmingly charming. He also includes whatever pop 80's and mod-era 60's music strikes his fancy to include. By the way, his reviews of the current state of movie remakes, and book/TV to movie adaptations (War of the Worlds, Thunderbirds, etc.) are spot-on & brilliant."

In their July 2005 online profiles of "Digital Citizens", the BBC interviewed Richard Vobes as the requisite podcaster. The interview was not only broadcast online, but Vobes and daughter Georgie were interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live and episode 180 of Vobes' show was made available on the BBC website.

In August 2005 the Richard Vobes Radio Show was voted the 2005 People's Choice Podcast Awards Winner for its soundseeing tours.

In September 2005 Richard Vobes began an experiment in Vobecasting, using a new streaming service provided by Camstreams. This involved him webcasting the production of his daily show to a chat room of viewers who could then interact with him as he produced the show. Using this technique he was able to develop a phone in debate ("the Thursday debate"), combining the webcasting with live calls from his viewers, pushing the boundaries of podcasting even further and enabling him to podcast in real time. This has sadly died alongside the chatroom and forum that was very popular, until negative feedback led to Richard shutting them both down.

The show has changed recently and his daughter Georgie and her siblings very rarily feature on the show these days as the format is geared more towards an adult audience.

[edit] External links

• Vobes.com
• The Naked Englishman - Richard Vobes' daily audio blog
• BBC 'Digital Citizens' Profile
• VOBES show RSS feed