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iHeart Doubles Down on “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” Strategy

“Sunday Night Podcasts” will debut Aug. 11

This weekend, iHeartMedia will launch the next element of its “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” initiative. The company says it wants to introduce new listeners to the format via 270 radio stations and an iHeart original podcast co-produced with Funny Or Die.

Ron Burgundy Podcast

According to a press release, the first of iHeart’s new “Sunday Night Podcasts” programming will debut Aug. 11, headlined by Episode One of Season Two of “The Ron Burgundy Podcast.”

“Research shows that more than two-thirds of the population still are not dedicated podcast listeners — many have never even heard a podcast before — and Sunday Night Podcasts will help introduce different audio series from a variety of genres to a whole new audience,” iHeartPodcast Network President Conal Byrne said in the announcement.

Sunday Night Podcasts will be tailored according to station format, and iHeart says some of the other to-be-featured podcasts include:  “Stuff You Should Know,” “Ridiculous History,” “Atlanta Monster,” “Stuff You Missed in History Class,” “TechStuff,” “Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing,” “Whine Down with Jana Kramer,” “Hell and Gone,” “The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast” and “Happy Face.”

iHeart first tried out this strategy in October 2017, with a one-hour special airing of “Inside Psycho” on 70 news/talk stations. Then in June of last year, the company signed Anna Faris to bring the “Anna Faris Is Unqualified” podcast to broadcast radio, as well as the iHeartPodcast Network.

Additionally, iHeart says the exposure has demonstrably changed download numbers for podcasts in the past. Case in point: True-crime podcast “Disgraceland” aired on about 70 classic rock stations in March, and during the following week, the number of downloads doubled the podcast’s weekly average.

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