Woke up this morning to find this in my inbox:
Dear PPA Member,
I’ve decided to retire the Podcast Peer Awards.
I had envisioned this becoming a big splashy award with excitement in
the air and goodie bags full of swag from sponsors. I figured that as
the public became more enamored of podcasts interest in the PPA would
build too. But podcasts haven’t caught on the way I expected –
they’re a popular niche, but still a niche. Sponsors weren’t
interested, and the enthusiasm for the Awards has dwindled instead of
building. Requests for new membership dropped from a deluge to a
trickle. At the award ceremony at DragonCon in ‘08 the room was
fairly full and everyone hung around afterward and partied. For
DragonCon ‘09 attendance was sparse, and the room cleared immediately
afterward.I’m not complaining. I tried something, it worked for a while, and
then kind of petered out. I had a lot of fun with it, learned a lot,
helped increase the audience for some great shows and made a lot of
new friends. It was a blast.I’ll leave the site up for at least a few years. It should still send
some traffic to the winners and runner-ups, and will serve as a bit of
history in the podcasting world. I’ll take the forum down in a month
or so, but will leave it up for now for anyone who wants to stop by
for a final word or three.I’d like to thank everyone who participated for being part of the
awards. A big thanks to everyone who contributed to the Trophy Fund –
because of your generosity there are about a hundred trophies sitting
in various offices and studios all over the world. And I’d like to
especially thank Clinton Alvord of Comedy4Cast, who went out of his
way many times to lighten my work load.Someday, perhaps, we’ll get together in the 3-d world, clink our
glasses together and say “Hey, remember the Podcast Peer Awards? That
was fun, wasn’t it?” Until then, thanks so much for being a part of
it.Regards and Thanks,
Dave Hitt
The Podcast Peer Awards shall be truly missed by us in the community. I loved the competition and the voting that went on. Prizes were neat, and I always looked forward to the winners. New winners meant new podcasts to listen to, and I am always in the market for good podcasts.
Dave, good luck to whatever venture you undertake, but know this. It was an awesome ride while it lasted.
