The beautiful simplicity of the podcast, where an mp3 player automatically updates itself with new episodes of shows for listening to at your leisure, has led to a renaissance in speech-based entertainment. Many podcasters have been able convert their shows into cash; all they require is a sizable listenership and some eager advertisers, and if a couple living on a ranch in Wisconsin by the names of Dawn and Drew can produce a podcast about chickens and quit their day jobs as a result, there’s hope for anyone with a microphone and a bit of time on their hands.

It’s a perfectly logical step for content creators to think about charging people to download their shows. But the history of the paid-for podcast isn’t a happy one, and the latest casualty is a show created by veteran broadcaster Danny Baker. Earlier this year, with the assistance of music download company Wippit, he began a free podcast, The All Day Breakfast Show, which quickly rose to the top of the iTunes podcast chart. Baker appeared at a Radio Academy event along with Paul Myers, the CEO of Wippit, heralding the “future of radio”, and in September, they began charging £2 a week for the thrice-weekly hour-long show.

Wippit encountered huge technical problems in making this happen – not least because, according to Myers, iTunes dictates that podcasts must be free of charge. In addition, the infrastructure of Wippit’s website was, by most people’s accounts, distinctly flimsy; a comment on the Cyberclinic blog from “Gerald” pointed out the necessity of watertight delivery – “and this was where the system fell down”. Baker ploughed ahead regardless with a series of highly acclaimed shows, but at the weekend he pulled the plug, explaining that “there has been a irreversible and utter breakdown between the on-air team and [Wippit]… We created an enormous amount of strong, funny, unbeatable internet shows and in return received nothing.” A statement from Wippit cited contractual disagreements about exclusivity as the reason for the show’s demise.

What’s particularly interesting is that listening figures have not been revealed. It was a similar story when Ricky Gervais stopped his paid-for podcast after just 12 shows; while downloads for his free podcast were quoted as anywhere between 200,000 and half a million, the figures for the paid-for version were never made public. Baker’s agent has said that they are in discussion with other partners to resume the show, but Cyberclinic commenter “Adrian” thinks that an advertising model is the only realistic way forward. “In a country where radio has always been free to air,” he says, “the model of selling ‘disposable’ content is not going to work.” And as we’re becoming increasingly convinced of our “right” to receive media for free via the internet, I’m inclined to agree.