Podcast popularity continues to surge, even as Internet Radio moves further into the public spotlight. John Byrne, Executive Editor of BusinessWeek.com, announced yesterday that the site has received more than one million podcast downloads in the month of June for the first time.

This is despite reports circulating in the news about how podcasts could be more hype than substance when it comes to the actual numbers.

While thousands are available for free and you can automate the process by subscribing to them, podcasts still appeal to a primarily tech-savvy audience, one that's familiar with synchronizing their iPods and cellphones to their computers. Once it's possible to listen to Internet radio on cellphones - if the carriers would let it happen - there's a lower barrier of entry to do that than to download podcasts, in terms of the consumer's technical ability.

BusinessWeek Podcasts [BusinessWeek]