Kansas City Chiefs players talk to fans after the games via TalkShoe -- a Pine Township-based company that runs live, interactive podcasts on the Web.
Anyone can join in or just listen. And those who don't care about the Chiefs or even football can browse discussions with more than 3,000 other podcasters on a variety of topics.
The 2-year-old company expanded its offerings this week with ShoePhone -- a service that allows instant or prescheduled group calling. Up to 250 people can participate in a ShoePhone "Talkcast." And many more can listen live, or later if the call is stored on TalkShoe's Web site -- www.talkshoe.com.
ShoePhone is meant to appeal to TalkShoe's current podcasters and their followers -- about 4 million each month -- as well as to hundreds of millions of social networkers, who can link a live or prerecorded discussion to a MySpace or Facebook page or blog.
"TalkShoe and ShoePhone together are a great tool for social networking," founder Dave Nelsen said. "Our goal is to bring topic-based, interactive voice discussions to the masses."
ShoePhone is simple to use -- and free, said Mark Juliano, senior vice president.
Those joining or listening in can use a standard Internet connection, as well as a land line or wireless phone, or voice over Internet service, such as Skype. The company said ShoePhone is based on a telephone company-grade system, with more conferencing capabilities than server-based voiceover Internet systems.
TalkShoe's founders are from Fore Systems and other technology firms, Juliano said, and the company has a dozen employees.
The name is a variation on "talk show," as pronounced by legendary TV host Ed Sullivan -- "really big shoe." ShoePhone, likewise, is a reminder of another 1960s TV icon -- secret agent Maxwell Smart of "Get Smart."
TalkShoe's revenues -- undisclosed, but "small," Juliano said -- come from advertisers. Podcasters can earn money by running ads on their content, and the most popular make as much as $1,000 a month.
The company also has some business customers, and 10 to 15 percent of its calls are private.
Still, "we have built our system to be very open," Juliano said, and ShoePhone is designed to boost to its user base.
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