A little background first: I'm a lifetime radio lover, a lifetime geek, a lifetime audio guy, and an overnight success (as long as you can count around 50 years as overnight).

In December of 2004, I decided to buy myself an iPod. But I had waited too long. It was the Christmas hit that year. No stores had any. It was awful. Eventually I found a store that had the "U2" model in stock for $50 more than I had planned to spend. I bought it instantly.

During this period I had encountered articles about something called "podcasting." After I became the proud owner of an iPod, I looked into it. The concept seemed so perfect. Not only was it the radio equivalent of a VCR or a TiVo, but it seemed to give opportunities to anyone to enter the fray. How perfect, I thought. No longer will I have to be satisfied with just failing at public radio. Now I have the opportunity to fail at podcasting as well!

The one thing that was different about podcasting was that it suddenly was all mine. I wouldn't be trying to figure out what someone in charge wanted me to do; I could decide for myself what I wanted to do, and just do it. The process would be much more enjoyable.

I put out a few episodes of what I called "Digital Flotsam." I had no expectations.

As anyone quickly learns from investigating "podcasting," former MTV VJ Adam Curry is considered one of the founders of the concept. You also quickly learn that he produces one of the longer-running podcasts (if not the longest-running) called "The Daily Source Code." I subscribed. I noticed that he would often talk about other podcasts, so I e-mailed him and invited him to check out "Digital Flotsam."

The very next day, I was listening to his podcast, not even thinking about the e-mail I'd sent him, and he said, "I have been listening, for a while now, to this podcast called 'Digital Flotsam.' I don't know what it is about this guy's voice. It's so appealing. I don't know. It sounds like maybe it's an established radio program that's been just re-issued as a podcast. I don't know. I just really enjoy it."

The next day, my website got so many hits that my Internet Provider dropped me.

You would think the story would end there. If it did, I would have been happy, just having so many listeners...listeners who chose what I was doing.

But the story only begins there. In April 2005, I got a call from Adam Curry. He said, "How would you feel about maybe making some money from 'Digital Flotsam'?" I answered the way any sane person would. So he said, "Well, I've got something cooking that I can't talk about right now, but I think it's something that could have you making a little money."

Frustrating weeks went by.

It was almost May when I get an e-mail from Adam. Please be ready for a phone call at such and such a time from me and my partner, Ron Bloom, it said. It sounded serious, so I was excited. Maybe this would finally be the phone call that would explain how I could make some money from "Digital Flotsam."

The conference call began, and I listened as Adam explained that they had entered into a contract with Sirius Satellite Radio to provide Sirius with programming that would be all about podcasting. My mind thought, OK, then they're going to ask me to let 'Digital Flotsam' be a part of that programming. Cool.

Adam said, "We have agreed to produce four hours of programming, five days a week." I said, "Damn! That's a lot of work!" And Adam said, "Well, that's why we are calling you. We're thinking of you as the one person who could do that work."

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Of course now I think they got the better end of the deal. I have worked harder since I started this job than I have ever worked in my life. But, of course, there is that little thing of doing something that I truly love and all that. (Please don't tell the boss how happy I am.)

So there it is: the story that I so believed in during my youth, that I grew to think was a myth in later life, that I now must say is not only possible, it's real.

http://digitalflotsam.org -- my podcast.

http://dailysourcecode.com -- the boss's podcast.