I've seen several good responses to Richard Macmanus' piece about the 'success' of podcasting 

None of these articles however, recognize the true victory 

With the exception of a handful of national and local AM talkshows, Radio has become un-listenable. The increase from 3 to 5 or more(!) commercial blocks in each hour and the physical limitation of reach for a "drive-time" populace that appears to have longer and farther commutes has propelled podcasting to become an integral part of the audience's media mix 

Listen to what you want, when you want. That's always been the selling point of podcasts 

If podcasts are unsuccessful, how do you explain the plethora of 'mainstream' content offered to consumers of this subscribable format? 

The point of the format isn't to 'unseat' the mainstream, but simply be on the same device. That device is the iPod, Smartphone, any MP3 player. 

The No Agenda podcast will never be broadcast via radio waves. The content alone is too offensive to the establishment, aside the fact that it contains no commercials (the horror!) 

Yet there it sits, neatly packed into a queue of programming of "This American Life", "Fresh Air", "Democracy Now" and "This Week in Tech" on hundreds of thousands of new "radios" world wide. 

With more consumption of BigCo Content via mp3 and mp4, it is true that podcasts have successfully hijacked mainstream radio.