Originally posted Friday, December 5, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Cadillac Jack is developing a new podcast with his wife Donna, his first public venture since Kicks 101.5 unceremoniously let him go in July with no explanation.
The couple has teamed up with Appen Media Group for a twice-a-week lifestyle podcast.
The show debuts January 7 and he hopes to do many of the podcasts on the road so he can meet up with fans and listeners.
In an interview Friday, Caddy - who was with Kicks 101.5 for most of this 26 year radio career - said the podcast will be a potpourri.
“It’s going to be a combination of everything,” he said. “Raising kids, balancing work/life, current events. There will be a lot of listener engagement and games.” He hopes to tap his country radio contact list and have guests on as well. And he’ll be able to tell stories he said he avoided saying on Kicks because the general rule there was not to paint country artists in a negative light.
And two topics that were verboten on Kicks he may tackle as well: politics and religion.
He expects each podcast to last about 45 minutes and will solicit sponsors from his many connections from his Kicks days such as Carl Black Automotive.
Caddy was inspired in part to do the podcast with his wife after the success of Jeff and Callie Dauler, whose inspirational daily Upside podcast started over the summer with big numbers. Dauler launched the podcast with his wife after he was let go by Star 94.1 in the spring.
Caddy said he has seen the massive growth in podcasts. One third of Americans listen to one any given month, up from about a quarter a year earlier, according to an Infinite Dial survey earlier this year.
His wife, Caddy said, has become a dedicated listener of multiple podcasts as well.
“For the first three or four months [after he was let go], my wife would do all the driving,” he said. “It was like Driving Mr. Daisy. Every time I got in her car, she would be listening to podcasts.”
She really liked the Upside so he has been picking Dauler's brain. He also appreciates Larry Wachs' current podcast in which he goes over notable moments from 15 years of Regular Guys archives he owns.
One bit of advice Dauler gave him is that it’s not radio. He doesn’t have to constantly tease stuff. The podcast listener is more loyal and can stop and start as he or she pleases, unlike terrestrial radio.
Other Atlanta radio hosts have launched podcasts over the years, sometimes as serious ventures, sometimes to stay sharp between full-time paying gigs: Doug Stewart, Nick Cellini, Tim Andrews, Eric Von Haessler, Steve McCoy and Vikki Locke. Kim "The Kimmer' Peterson - who lost his job earlier this year at Talk 106.7 when that station was sold to a Christian pop station owner - is prepping a subscription-based podcast.
“I wouldn’t take this blind leap of faith if I wasn’t absolutely sold on it,” Caddy said.
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