No, in the same way that the original Turntable.fm wasn't just radio.

Like, say I'm interested in true crime or D&D or behavioural economics, there's a bajillion podcasts out there on each topic and discovery is inefficient and time consuming. Instead of subscribing to podcast creators, I want a DJ to just have an audio stream going on at all times where I can just tune in when I want and it's something interesting being played.

Most people won't find very appealing the idea of missing the start of a podcast - and the conclusion if you have to stop listening before it ends.

Ok, so allow the user to rewind to the start of the current podcast and keep a track of unfinished ones

Sure, if we just forget about the "tune in at any time and hear whatever podcast episode is on right now" concept it makes more sense. It becomes just a list.

In the same sense that a smartphone is just a small computer and dropbox is just a file folder.

If you strip all the interesting parts of a concept (here curation, the dj personality, easy instant access, centralization, community, ...) it's going to sound lackluster.

Though personally I'd enforce synchronous listening if I ran that kind of service myself. Lots of radios have talk shows and listeners do just fine joining in the middle of a conversation.

All those interesting aspects which are not about synchronous listening are not stripped out when you have a personality-curated centralized list with a community and instant access. The problematic part is the “tune in and see what’s on”. Which is why many radio talk shows are also available as podcasts!