Computer, microphone, iPod make broadcasting personal

... The podcast version of ''Morning Stories," five-minute human-interest segments, has posted numbers that people in the radio business would envy.  ¶  In the past two months, the audience for the podcast segments of the show has grown 12,000-fold, from a grand total of five downloads for the entire month of September to 60,000 in November, according to producer Tony Kahn.  ¶  As a public station that doesn't have ads to skip, WGBH has nothing to lose by making broadcasts available for free. Bob Lyons, director of radio and new media initiatives for WGBH, said that technologically, ''it's trivial" to reformat a broadcast for podcast downloads.  ¶  Lyons said WGBH has been impressed by the rapidly growing demand for ''Morning Stories" podcasts but will move slowly on adding more programs. ''We could pretty much just shovel everything in there, but I think that would be foolish," Lyons said. ''We need to focus on stuff that is suitable for this particular delivery pipe," in particular broadcasts that have a long shelf life and will be appealing to people days or weeks after they've gone out over the airwaves. ... Link: Boston.com. General interest article on podcasting features WGBH's Morning Stories. --Dennis