PodcastOne has announced it has partnered with XG Productions, which produces crime stories. Together the two companies will produce a new show called Talk to Me.
Listeners will be taken into the inside story of the world’s first hostage negotiation team, which was created inside America’s largest police department, the NYPD in the early 1970s. The first episode of Talk to Me, which tells the story of the infamous Attica prison debuteds October 19th
Written and narrated by veteran South Bronx detective and New York Times bestselling author Edward Conlon, Talk to Me tells the inside story of how and why the field of hostage negotiations was created. In the wake of major 1970’s tragedies such as the Attica prison riot, the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and the Brooklyn bank robbery that inspired the film “Dog Day Afternoon,” the NYPD recognized an urgent need to develop a protocol for handling incendiary hostage incidents. With news archives and first-hand accounts from hostage team founders Frank Bolz and Harvey Schlossberg, the podcast brings to life cases big and small to explore what worked — and what didn’t. The world’s first hostage negotiation team pioneered the use of psychology in saving lives and created a model that is still used around the world today.
“We made the decision to tell this exciting and important story with producer, XG Productions, because of its founders’ backgrounds at the FBI, and the success XG has had in authentic true crime storytelling. And we partnered with PodcastOne because of their market leadership in the audio space,” said Edward Conlon, retired NYPD Detective, NYT bestselling author and the current Communications Officer at the NYPD. “This is an exciting and important story to tell, especially given the frequency with which hostage situations occur and how nonviolent tactics can be used to de-escalate those situations ….and it all began at the NYPD.”
Talk to Me offers insider insight and commentary on several of the most compelling hostage situations to make national and oftentimes, global headlines since the group’s launch in 1973: A man threatens to jump off a roof with a 7-month-old; a two-time murderer commits his third homicide before barricading himself inside with a 5-year-old and a .357 magnum; three gunmen including an escaped convict sentenced to death attempt to rob a bank in Harlem and take 40 hostages. These are just some of the real- life cases covered in the latest series from PodcastOne and XG Productions.
“PodcastOne is excited for listeners to get an insider look at some of the most notorious hostage situations in history. Birdseye view storytelling, firsthand accounts and incredible research allows listeners to have a rare view of how the real-life heroes of the NYPD save lives by handling gripping negotiations in real time. This type of edge of your seat content has never been made available on this level and we cannot wait for audiences to embrace Talk to Me,” said President of PodcastOne, Kit Gray.
“We are thrilled to enter into this partnership with one of the industry’s leading audio platforms to tell this fascinating story about how the NYPD literally “wrote the book” on hostage negotiations,” said XG Productions CEO, Peter Clemente. “Given the active participation of the NYPD and former members of the NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team in this project, listeners will be treated to a truly authentic deep-dive into hostage negotiations from a first-hand perspective at a level never before made available to the public.”
