A Note on Pre-roll Ads

I love American Public Media’s podcast “The Writer’s Almanac“. It’s a short ‘cast – only five minutes long – but a lovely interlude in the day. It begins with some brief biographical sketches of selected writers, and ends with poetry, all narrated by Garrison Keillor. I particularly love the first few seconds of the show, which is a short but beautiful piano introduction – the show’s theme. It sets the tone for me, and always brings a smile to my face. Or at least it did until some time in the last couple of weeks, when two pre-rolls totalling 14 seconds were inserted – one to identify the show with a voice intro, and the other to identify the show’s sponsor. And so I’ve noticed, the spell cast by that theme now gone, I’m not listening to the ‘cast any more.