Today we are focusing on
two new podcasts: Same Same Different
from Michigan Radio and a new version of The
National Lampoon Radio Hour from Forever Dog productions. The two
publishers have many differences in their goals and tactics.
Same Same
Different
 |
| Bryce Huffman |
Fresh
off the success of the Peabody Award-winning podcast series Believed, Michigan Radio has launched
[link] Same Same Different a podcast
series about identity and how to survive “otherness” with our humanity and
sanity intact, hosted by Bryce Huffman.
Same Same Different was developed inside
Michigan Radio. Huffman is a news reporter for Michigan Radio’s Grand Rapids
coverage. Same Same Different is a
five-episode limited series. It begins distribution on October 7th.
Huffman,
a young black man, is also a “performance poet,” a storyteller and an essayist
who has spent years trying to figure out the best strategies for dealing with
people and institutions that prioritize white America.
Same Same Different’s goal is to offer
insights on how people can be a better, more empathetic friend, family member, colleague,
and human in the world.
The
Executive producer of Same Same Different
is Jennifer Guerra, and the Senior Editor is Sarah Hulett. This is the same
team that produced Believed, the
tragic story about sexual predator Larry Nassar.
Spark News had an opportunity to
hear a promotional trailer of Same Same
Different [link]. Huffman, the host,
has a friendly approach that reminded us of a mash-up of Ira Glass and Glynn
Washington. Huffman describe the premise of the show in the trailer:
When your buddies tell
you “we like you because you’re not like most black people,” should you throw
down or lay low? How do you support your transgender kid, when their own
siblings think being transgender is a misguided choice? What makes someone an
“other,” anyway?
“New” National Lampoon Radio Hour
First,
this new version of National Lampoon
Radio Hour is not a revival of the program that entertained so many people
in the early 1970s on college and album rock radio.
It is a 30-minute podcast that has the same name as the acclaimed radio programs.
There
is an interesting backstory about how the producers acquired use of the famous
show name.
According to a report on website Deadline [link], two investors, Kevin Frakes and Raj B. Singh, spent $12
million in 2017 to acquire the assets of National Lampoon, including the name National Lampoon Radio Hour.
Frakes
and Singh hired a friend, Evan Shapiro, to develop the “new” brand, including
the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Shapiro took the project to Brooklyn-based
podcast publisher Forever Dog.
Forever
Dog [link] founders Brett Boham, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey, decided to bring National
Lampoon Radio Hour back to life with an all-new cast and writers.
So,
the truth is, Bill Murray and other former Radio Hour (and Saturday Night Live)
veterans have probably never heard of Forever Dog or the “new” program.
But
that hasn’t stopped Forever Dog from using their to gin up excitement for the new show.
This is a
prime example of investor’s driving a plan that is based on work somebody else did many
years ago. You might call it an exhumation.
Plus,
the “new” National Lampoon Radio Hour
is not going to be on the radio and it isn’t an hour.
Anyway, we wish the producers success. Take the money and produce a show that is worthy of the name.
Anyway, we wish the producers success. Take the money and produce a show that is worthy of the name.
NPR PODCASTS DOMINATE
PODTRAC’S TOP 20 CHART IN AUGUST RANKINGS
Podcasts
published by NPR continue to have most of the slots on the most recent Podtac Top
20 podcast. There are 8 NPR shows on the August chart.
Overall,
podcasts published by non-profit entities occupy 13 of the Top 20 (65%).
Two
for-profit companies, iHeartRadio and Barstool Sports, each had two podcasts in
The Top 20.
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