A list we found at http://Viloria.com>Viloria.com showed that the first Pinoy podcasts were started in February this year, with Australia-based Pinay blogger Shai Coggins and Technews columnist Prof. Rom Feria holding the honor. They were followed in the succeeding months by 11 other bloggers, among them Fr. Stephen Cuyos and a handful of others mostly based in the US.

On the other hand, the Microwarehouse line-up of "podcasters" includes a few interesting, famous personalities such as award-winning writer Jessica Zafra who started her blog recently, fitness enthusiast Chinggay Andrada, movie star-turned parenting guru Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan and culinary expert Nancy Reyes-Lumen.

While some of the podcasting choices have been described by critics as lackluster and biased towards certain sources, Microwarehouse president Cynthia Veloria expressed hopes that the launch of an all-Pinoy podcasting channel will "serve as a bridge that will open up the possibilities of podcasting to Filipinos."

"We want to make podcasting a powerful new medium to present ideas and insights on a wide variety of topics that would be of interest to a vast majority of Filipinos," Veloria noted.

Several experts however expressed doubts whether podcasting will gain substantial headway among the country's blogging population, citing time constraints and the technology involved in making a podcast.

Basically, a podcast is an audio file one creates in MP3 format which a blogger may upload with an RSS file to a server. Your audience may download it from your website using programs like iTunes and Ipodder then listen to it on their MP3 player.

Netrepreneur Abe Olandres, a local blogging authority, opines that " podcasting is a very time consuming effort and the equipments needed to do a good quality podcast  are expensive. Besides, compared to the fast-paced viral behavior of blogs, podcasts tend to delve on stale topics because it has a much longer time-to-publish schedule."

Webmaster Manuel Viloria agrees. "While Pinoys love to talk and share their opinions on the air, not that many are willing to make the   time to record their voice and upload it."

"There's also the issue of sustainability. It takes a lot  of time to produce a podcast. If you look at the podcasts of Shai and Fr. Stephen Cuyos, for example, it's been a while since they last updated it but their written blogs are alive and kicking," he pointed out.

Viloria notes that podcasting can only take off in the Philippines if someone comes up with technology which will make podcasting a lot easier.

"For example, someone can go around with a recorder and do street interviews. Or perhaps a techie can set up a voice mailbox and solicit reactions from non-techie Pinoys," he added.

Still, podcasts continue to soar in popularity in the US where it is estimated that 29 per cent of the 22 million Americans who possess MP3 players have downloaded or listened to podcasts.

California-based blogger and podcaster Nicanor David, known in local blogging circles as Batjay, attests: "If you go to (Apple's) iTunes website,  you can actually download a lot of podcasts. Ang mga paborito ko ay yung podcast ng CNN, Newsweek, Rhino Records, U2, Bruce Springsteen, 60 minutes. I just download it in my iPod and play the podcast in my car. Ang galing ng idea na ito especially if you are a news junkie like me - all you need to do is get all the newsfeeds (via automatic iPod upload) and you can listen to it anywhere."