Turn Podcasts Into A Customised Radio Station

Listening to podcasts is fun, but trying to manage your podcasts is a tedious chore and shows often fall by the wayside. If you’re looking for an easier way to keep your podcasts organised, here’s how to turn your subscription list into a streaming radio station with minimal effort.

Title image remixed from KROMKRATHOG, Chesky, and Andrei Marincas (Shutterstock)

I love podcasts. They’re great for long drives, walks to the supermarket, or times when I’m just tired of my music. The problem is: I hated searching through my podcasts for something to listen to, and I hated that when one was finished, I was greeted with silence (especially when I’m driving and don’t want to fiddle with my phone). I liked the idea of Stitcher, the mobile app that turns your podcasts into a Pandora-like radio station, but it was needlessly complicated. So, I figured out another way to do it, and it’s remarkably easy — both on iOS and Android.

It works like this: Many podcast apps actually have a playlist feature built-in, which lets you assign different shows to different groups. When new episodes come out, it will automatically add those to the relevant playlists. Using this feature, I always have a list of unheard shows I can just start listening to from the beginning. When one episode of a show is over, it moves onto the next episode of another show, just like a talk radio station. It’s an easy way to make sure I’m up to date on my shows, and that they play continuously instead of stopping when one episode is over. Here’s how to set it up.

Set Up Downcast On iOS

For iOS, we’re going to be using our favorite podcast manager Downcast. (This approach might also work with other apps, presuming they have playlist features.)

Step One: Subscribe To Your Favourite Podcasts

The first thing you need to do is gather up all your favourite podcasts. Head to the “Add Podcasts” tab along the bottom. You can manually add a feed, search for podcasts, or search Downcast’s top podcasts by category. You’ll also want to head into Downcast’s settings and customise how you listen to your shows. Downcast has a lot of settings for determining how many episodes to keep, whether to stream or download them, and how the player works. I have it set to just mark podcasts for streaming, so all it needs to do is check for new episodes. When an episode is old or listened to, it will automatically remove it from my podcast library.

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Step Two: Create Playlists Based on Genre

Next, you need to divide your podcasts into categories. You can do this however you want, but I recommend doing it by genre. For example, I have four playlists, or “stations”: News and Politics; Technology; Comedy; and Music. You can create as many or as few as you want, but obviously this works best if each playlist has a few different shows attached to it.

Tap on the Playlist tab and press the “Create New Playlist” button. Give your playlist a name and switch the “Include All Podcasts” switch to “Off”. Then, you should be able to tap “Included Podcasts” and select which podcasts appear on that playlist. You can also choose how to sort them and tweak other playlist-specific settings here. I usually sort podcasts from oldest to newest, since it helps me keep up by listening to older stuff first.

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Step Three: Start Streaming!

To start streaming, just tap the Playlists tab, choose a playlist, and tap on the episode you want to listen to. They should be ordered by date (or however else you set them to be ordered in that playlist’s settings). You can swipe to delete any episodes you’re not interested in. When one episode is over, it will move on to the next recent episode in your queue, just like a real talk radio station (thus saving you from fumbling with your phone every time an episode ends).

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Set Up DoggCatcher on Android

For Android, we’re going to be using our favorite podcast manager DoggCatcher. (This approach might also work with other apps, presuming they have playlist features.)

Step One: Subscribe To Your Favourite Podcasts

To add a new podcast in DoggCatcher, go to the Feeds tab and tap the plus button in the upper right-hand corner. You can browse popular podcasts and categories, get recommendations based on your current subscriptions, or search for something specific. You can also browse popular networks such as TWiT, Revision3 and NPR.

Note that for this to work, you’ll actually need to set DoggCatcher to automatically download podcasts — it won’t work if you just stream them. So, head into DoggCatcher’s settings and make sure Auto Downloads are on, and that you’re keeping enough episodes to get you through the week.

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Step Two: Create Playlists Based On Genre

Next, you need to divide your podcasts into categories. You can do this however you want, but I recommend doing it by genre. For example, I have four playlists, or “stations”: News and Politics; Technology; Comedy; and Music. You can create as many or as few as you want, but obviously this works best if each playlist has a few different shows attached to it.

Creating playlists in DoggCatcher is a little obscure. Press the Menu button and go to “Feed Categories”. Tap the “Add Category” button and give your category a name, such as “Technology” or “News/Politics”. Repeat this process for all the “stations” you want to create, then head back to the main screen. Now go to the Feeds tab and long-press on a show. Tap “Categories” to add it to one of the categories you just created. Do this for each of the shows you subscribe to, and you’ll be all set.

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Step Three: Start Listening!

When it’s time to listen, head to DoggCatcher’s Audio tab and tap the main title bar at the top. You should be greeted with a popup menu that says “Select Audio Playlist”. Scroll down to one of your categories and select it. It should then populate the playlist with the most recent episodes from that category, and you can start listening right then and there. When an episode is finished, it will move on to the next recent episode in that category, just like a real talk radio station.

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If you’re picky, like me, you may need to go through your playlists from time to time and remove the episodes you aren’t interested in, but I find that isn’t too much of a problem. Even with that occasional maintenance, it’s so much easier to browse your podcasts by playlist than it is by each individual show, and it’s a lot easier to keep up with everything. And, after all, that’s the hardest thing about listening to podcasts, isn’t it?