Podcasts. Nothing but podcasts. iHeartMedia in Allentown has debuted “The iHeartPodcast Channel.” One podcast after another, most of them one hour long, will be played on AM 1470 in Allentown. Here are the shows iHeart has chosen for this station.
“The iHeartPodcast Channel is a carefully curated experience that brings you the most creative stories from over 25,000 podcasts available on our free iHeartRadio app,” said Craig Stevens, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Allentown. “From true crime to history, comedy to food, we’ll cover dozens of topics every week.”
Monday – Friday Full Programming Lineup:
Stuff You Should Know – 12 a.m. – 3 a.m.
Omnibus – 4 a.m. – 5 a.m.
Stuff to Blow Your Mind – 5 a.m. – 7 a.m.
Unqualified with Anna Ferris – 7 a.m. – 8 a.m.
Ridiculous History – 8 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Stuff You Should Know – 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Broken Harts – 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Part Time Genius – 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Stuff to Blow Your Mind – 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Stuff You Missed in History Class – 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Stuff Your Mom Never Told You – 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Happy Face – 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Broken Harts – 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Unobscured – 8 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Part Time Genius – 9 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Hell and Gone – 11 p.m. – 12 a.m.
AM 1470 in Allentown, PA is WSAN, a station that stood out from the crowd some forty years ago. Back then, it was locally owned and carried a progressive rock format, very unusual for an AM station. As for the podcasts, get someone to produce some dramatic programs and it will be just like old time radio! Soap operas, anyone? Now before you laugh me off this blog, consider that the TV networks have been killing the soaps, replacing them with reality shows that are cheap to produce. Also consider that a lot of the people who followed soap operas were housewives who would just listen to the audio while doing their chores. Those inhabitants of the cube farms in offices may well have done the same thing. Why not have these shows on the radio? The podcasts listed by iHeart sound quite interesting and I am going to see if I can receive WSAN on my communications receiver. I live about 60 miles from Allentown, but WSAN is a 5 kW station, nondirectional during daytime hours. It is the oldest station in the Lehigh Valley, having signed on in 1923.
Kudos to iHeart Media for trying something different and innovative on AM radio!