Conservative podcast host Dan Bongino, who vowed to split with Cumulus Media when his current deal expires after engaging in public battles over the company’s vaccination policy, has made an about face. He will instead stick with the company where his podcast is also syndicated as a daily radio show via Westwood One. Terms of the three-year agreement were not released.
The Dan Bongino Podcast launched in 2017 and in May 2021 he inked a deal to leverage the podcast as a midday syndicated talk show for Westwood One. The number of stations that aired the show has tripled since it launched, growing from 115 two years ago to 365 today, including stations in nine of the top 10 U.S. markets.
But Bongino’s has been a rollercoaster ride with Cumulus, and last year he announced his intention to end the syndicated radio show at the close of his original contract, which would have been in June 2024. During his first year in syndication, Bongino battled publicly with Cumulus Media over the company’s mandate that all employees get a COVID vaccine. It led to a brief standoff that led to Bongino being off the air.
“The radio thing has been a journey for me, right? We've had some big headaches, some ups and some downs. And finally cleared that up and got that fixed,” Bongino told podcast listeners Wednesday. “It took me a long time – it was like a two year battle – and I finally cleaned that mess up. So you're not done with me yet.” Bongino said that while the format of the podcast will remain the same, he may change the time episodes drop each day.
Bongino, who earlier exited his weekend television show on Fox News Channel, had signaled that he has enjoyed being on the radio even as described his podcast as his “first love.” He told listeners last year that he has enjoyed being a broadcaster too. “Live radio is different. There's a different energy to it. I'm going to miss it a lot,” Bongino said.
Bongino's new pact with Westwood One includes The Dan Bongino Show Podcast on the Cumulus Podcast Network, which according to Cumulus has more than 200 million downloads in 2023 to date, along with 350 million on video-sharing platform Rumble. The Dan Bongino Podcast ranked No. 11 on Podtrac’s November list of most listened-to shows.
“The Dan Bongino Show is one of the greatest growth stories in network syndication, with Dan delivering programming unlike anyone else,” Westwood One President Suzanne Grimes said in the announcement. “As we head into what will surely be an unpredictable election cycle, we know Dan will be always insightful, sometimes provocative, and never disappointing, which is why our listeners are wildly engaged, and our advertisers have flocked to the show.”
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