PA Senate Republican Podcast Now Available on iTunes

PA Senate Republican Podcast Now Available on iTunes

Caucus Continues Offering Constituents New Ways to Stay Informed

HARRISBURG, Pa., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 http://www.pasenategop.com/.

Source: Pennsylvania Senate Republican Communications

CONTACT: Erik Arneson, +1-717-787-5708

Web site: http://www.pasenategop.com/podcast.xml http://www.pasenategop.com/

------- Profile: Ent