The second keynote at the Portable Media Expo & Podcasting Conference was given by Leo Laporte, who is an author, TV and radio personality, and who currently does the This Week in Tech podcast. Rather than talk about business models, he wanted to discuss what makes podcasting great. His presentation was titled "Podcasting Your Passion." To Mr. Laporte, success is defined by making a successful podcast, not by how much money you make.

The speaker began with a reflection on his radio days, and how he has an actual FCC 3rd class license that permits him to broadcast. But back in the 70s, just having a license wasn't enough -- you needed to find a station that was willing to let you talk. His first broadcasting experience was a small outfit, but he was happy being given the chance to talk.

He looked back on his first chance to be a DJ, where he was given a list of songs to play, and had no freedom to play what he wanted. He stated that this tight control and lack of letting the DJs express themselves is one of the big problems with radio today. Another problem is that many of the current radio stations all sound the same, with the same format and content. This statement was met with a round of applause from the audience.

Mr. Laporte also pointed toward the new media landscape, where consumers are coming to expect the ability to listen to what they want, when they want, where they want. Devices such as TiVo, and media such as podcasting, reinforce this new world, and show how media outlets will have to adapt or fade away.

His presentation was bolstered by some interesting statistics that were gathered by Podtrac for the This Week in Tech podcast. The two largest age groups were 25-34, with 36% of the audience, and 35-44, with 26%. 68% subscribed to the RSS feed, while 96% of the listeners have listened to 6 or more episodes. 95% have listened to every podcast

In addition, Podtrac found that the overall satisfaction is 8.95 out of 10, 97% of the listeners are male, 56% are single, 79% are in the United States, and the listeners are from over 44 countries. Mr. Laporte also reflected on the fact that attendees at the conference are from over 33 countries.

Finally, Mr. Laporte noted how podcasters’ mindsets mirror that of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This hierarchy starts with basic human needs, such as food and drink, and ends with a self-actualization state. We won't list them all here, but suffice it to say that the most popular podcasts are those where one can sense that the podcasters have a sense of passion.