iHeart Podcasters Share 5 Lessons for Building an Enduring Franchise
The hosts of 'Stuff They Don't Want You To Know' and iHeart CEO Conal Byrne shared five lessons on longevity, audience input and why listeners reject AI content.
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The brief
- iHeartMedia acquired Stuff Media LLC in 2018 for a reported $55 million.
- iHeart research found over 90% of listeners do not want AI-created content, though 60% routinely use AI tools.
- The show has produced 2,000-plus episodes over a 13-year run and ranks in the U.S. top 100 podcasts out of over 4.7 million.
After more than 2,000 episodes, the hosts of Stuff They Don't Want You To Know — Ben Bowlin, Noel Brown, and Matt Frederick — have built a show that ranks in the country's top 100 podcasts. That placement matters in a market with over 4.7 million podcasts competing for listeners.
The show's roots trace back to 1998, when the website How Stuff Works debuted. The brand branched into podcasting and eventually became Stuff Media LLC, which iHeartMedia acquired in 2018 for a reported $55 million.
At Brandweek, the three hosts joined iHeart CEO Conal Byrne on stage to share what they have learned about content evolution across formats and platforms. Here are five of their key lessons.
All ideas deserve consideration
Bowlin credited much of the show's popularity to his colleagues' willingness to consider almost any topic — a practice dating to podcasting's early days, when no formula existed.
"When we first started off in this new frontier, there were no bad ideas," Bowlin said. "Luckily, we were able to have the agency, and a team behind us, that said: 'We should try everything.'"
Your audience is also your content
"Listener mail" has long been a regular feature, but the hosts also rely on their audience to strengthen episodes with their own experiences and expertise. Bowlin called it an "interactive and reciprocal" relationship.
The payoff can be remarkable. On a recent episode about nuclear weapons, Brown said, they heard "from a guy who is literally the guy that launches nuclear weapons, and he told us what that world is like. And it's not a big red button, it turns out."
Metrics can include your gut feeling
Byrne tracks every performance measurement available — "from cost to sales to downloads, the gross margin, the bottom line margin, all that stuff," he said. But even in the era of data analytics, he argued, "squishy" metrics still count.
Frederick applies a simple test when he listens to episodes: "Did I feel good listening? Did the conversation move, and did it go in interesting directions?" For Bowlin, the decisive question is: "Are we excited to do this again tomorrow?"
Evolution equals survival
Byrne attributes the show's 13-year run and counting to its adaptability.
"It's not a mistake that Stuff They Don't Want You to Know started out as a video podcast before we were even using the word podcast, [then] evolved into an audio podcast, had a honeymoon as a YouTube channel, and is now a major video podcast on Netflix," he said. "That willingness to evolve is a really important metric for digital creators."
Humans want human content
Recent iHeart research found that while 60% of people routinely use AI tools, over 90% of listeners say they do not want AI-created content. "You would think that AI would take over everything," Byrne said.
Just a few years ago, his own team wondered whether they should "hang it up" and make way for the machines. That fear did not materialize. Audiences have made clear they "definitely still need human beings having a messy, organic, human conversation," Byrne said.
Based on Adweek; iheart.com
Filed under podcasting, iheartmedia, content-strategy, brand-franchise, audience-engagement
Elena Vasquez
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Senior reporter covering media and advertising at Marketing Herald.