• January 18, 2008

Pittsburgh-based Wizzard Media, a podcasting network and a division of Wizzard Software, announced that Chattanooga, Tenn. led all U.S. cities in year-to-year podcast download request growth in 2007, with a gain of more than 644% over 2006.

Wizzard's download request data ranks the top 20 U.S. cities for podcast download request growth, with a minimum of 100,000 download requests per month.

In total, Wizzard recorded one billion podcast download requests in 2007, a nearly 300% gain over 2006. According to demographic survey data collected by Wizzard Media, nearly 40% of respondents downloaded a podcast for the first time last year. Opt-in survey data was collected from more than 20,000 audience members in the second half of 2007.

The top 20 list for podcast download request increases ranged from Chattanooga's chart-topping figure down to Seattle, which placed 20th with an increase of more than 30%.

The top 20 U.S. cities for podcast growth in 2007 (minimum of 100,000 download requests per month) were: Chattanooga,Tenn.; Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota); Kansas City; Green Bay-Appleton, Wis.; Fresno-Visalia, Calif.; Toledo, Ohio; Houston; Nashville; Washington D.C. (Hagerstown); San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose; Tulsa; Albuquerque-Santa Fe; Colorado Springs-Pueblo; Rochester, NY; Paducah, KY-Cape Girardeau MO-Harrisburg-Mount Vernon; Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News; New York; Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Fla.; Oklahoma City and Milwaukee. --Tanya Irwin