The world of radio has undergone somewhat of a technological revolution lately. First, there was satellite radio, where Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM (NASDAQ:XMSR) provide high-quality, niche programming free from FCC regulation. Now, in the past year, we've seen another innovation: podcasting. "Think of it as satellite radio on steroids for a TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO)-loving public," said Sam Coutin, CEO of the Sports Podcast Network.

The podcasting phenomenon has grown quickly enough to capture the attention of a company that specializes in the digital delivery of spoken words -- Audible (NASDAQ:ADBL). And the company's newest product, called Wordcast, will help to effectively monetize those podcasts.

For those not yet on the boat, podcasting is a combination of two words -- "iPod" and "broadcasting." But you don't necessarily need one of Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPods to access podcasts. You can download podcast files -- usually MP3s -- from your computer to many types of devices. And you can subscribe to podcasts using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader, which sends you the latest recordings on your computer.

The big question is, can podcasters make money from this phenomenon? Based on the numbers alone, the answer appears to be yes. In fact, it looks as though podcasting has the potential to become a big market for advertisers over the next few years. A Forrester Research report forecasts that, by 2010, there will be more than 12.3 million listeners who will synchronize podcasts to their MP3 players.

That's where Audible's Wordcast comes in. With Wordcast, the company that already distributes spoken-word versions of novels and articles via digital download (and already has deals with large media providers such as The Wall Street Journal and NPR) is opening up its well-developed technology to podcasters. By doing so, it provides a useful tool wherein it, advertisers, and podcasters can analyze the relative yield on podcast content -- thus providing a methodized approach for determining the resource allocation.

That means a podcaster can do things such as charge for a periodic subscription, as well as manage advertising, with an eye on market conditions. For example, an ad can be dynamically placed in a podcast that's based on the demographics of a podcaster's audience. More importantly, Wordcast measures the traffic statistics of each podcast, so that advertisers can look at their target market and other relevant bits as a means of determining where and how to position their content. This provides advertisers with third-party audit results, which is absolutely crucial.

What's more, it appears that major media organizations are looking seriously at podcasting. "My company is moving into podcasting in a big way because our customers are telling us they want to get information that way," said Curtis Franklin, the "Podcast Evangelist" at TechWeb and the author of the new book Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting.

While it has been a volatile year for Audible (as it has been for many of its dot-com brethren), the company certainly is leveraging its core technology into key growth areas, podcasting included. And if podcasting's popularity continues to grow at a rapid clip, it could make for some positive surprises for Audible investors in 2006.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares of companies mentioned in this article.