My friend Katie Paine has Dallas chapter of IABC. (The study got a lot of traction online, attesting to the continuing power of a simple press release; it got coverage in places like TMCNet.

The study attracted 109 respondents among the Dallas communication community. While 23% say they have listened to or subscribed to a podcast, 61% say they have not listened but are aware of them. 8% didn’t know what a podcast was while another 8% say their companies have employed podcasting.

Adam Curry, one of the most promient voices in podcasting, is spending a lot of time these days acknowledging his listeners—as distinct from fellow podcasters who listen. Podcasting is generally a chummy sort of club where podcasters listen to one another. But not always. Most of the listeners to For Immediate Release are not podcasters themselves. They just like our content.

Katie offers her own thoughts on the survey results: “Only if someone comes up with a “TimePod” that will give us more time to listen to this stuff, will podcasts really live up to their potential.”

Katie’s right; attention is the scarcest and most valuable commodity on the planet today, and I certainly don’t have time to listen to all the podcasts that wind up in copy of iTunes. By the same token, my “Now Playing” bin on Tivo is stuffed to the gills with TV shows I haven’t had time to watch. (Please don’t tell me who won the election of “West Wing;” I’m still two weeks before the election!)

One of the benefits of audio—in fact, a characteristic that is shared by no other communication channel—is the ability to listen while you’re doing something else. I listen to podcasts when I’m walking the dog, steam cleaning the carpet (an activity I have to undertake because I have a dog), working out, driving the car. I could not read during these activities, or watch a video. Listening, on the other hand, is easy.

People will listen to content that appeals to them and dismiss the rest. There are podcasts I make sure I hear whenever a new episode is available, and others I listen to only if I wind up with the extra time. It’s the same with TV. I never miss an episode of 24 or Lost, but I don’t mind if episodes of Law & Order or CSI back up in my DVR. I’ll catch them when I catch them. Or not.

For podcasting to catch on with the masses, though, I do think a couple things have to happen. First, it has to get easier to subscribe and to move the podcast from the computer to a portable device. I’m waiting for the day when you’ll be able to subscribe to and retrieve podcasts directly from your WiFi-enabled iPod or iRiver.

The main thing, though, is that some kind of critical mass has to be achieved. Podcasting was introduced in August 2004 when the ability to include multimedia files as enclosures in RSS feeds was introduced, concurrent with the launch of the first “podcatching” software. A medium that isn’t two years already has already amassed quite a bit of media coverage and a listenership of close to 1 million; Forrester Research expects that number to grow to 12.3 million households by 2010. That estimate may be low, since more and more mainstream media outlets are podcasting their recorded content and will undoubtedly promote its availability. Most people I know who listen to podcasts are listening to NPR and ESPN, not Adam Curry or Keith and the Girl. (Yep, I used them both in the same sentence.)

The one comment to Katie’s post, from Derek Hodge, suggests that one problem with podcasts is that they manage to squeeze 30 minutes worth of content into a 90-minute show. (Hey, I resemble that remark! Actually, our survey results say the same thing and we’ll be working to produce a considerably shorter show.) Derek adds, “Professional production would help.” To the extent that a show shouldn’t have audio quality so poor that it’s unpleasant to listen to, Derek is right. Most people looking for new content for their portable media devices, though, have already dismissed radio and its bland, corporate-controlled content, and hearing real voices without the polish is appealing to a lot of people. My friend Ron Shewchuck told me his “Barbecue Secrets” podcast already has 4,000 listeners and has attracted a possible sponsor…and he’s only on episode #5!

Keeping in mind what we’ve learned from Edelman’s Trust Barometer—that people are most inclined to trust other people like them—coupled with the ease of production and the desire so many people have to tell their own stories, podcasting will be a force. It’s just a matter of time. (Or TimePods; right, Katie?)