The deal, to be announced Monday, signals a strategic change for BlogTalkRadio as it forms its first partnership with a national media personality and adds branded networks.
Mr. Smiley, who expects to drive listeners to the shows through his tens of thousands of Twitter and Facebook followers, will be paid a fee, a first for BlogTalkRadio, said Alan Levy, its co-founder and chief executive, by telephone.
The two will also split any ad revenue, which is BlogTalkRadio’s current model. The service says it has 15,000 registered contributors and attracts 18 million unique monthly visitors who listen 40 million times.
Mr. Smiley, by telephone, called Internet radio “the wave of the future,” adding, “those numbers are worthy of being wrestled with.”
His new venture follows the cancellation by some prominent public radio stations of one of his weekly one-hour shows, “Smiley West,” hosted with Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary. The trade publication Current reported in October 2012 that 13 stations, including Boston’s WBUR-FM and Chicago’s WBEZ-FM, had dropped the program since June 2011, citing declining listenership and the show’s political advocacy.
Mr. Smiley attributed the cancellations to politics and his outspoken criticism of President Obama, and said two commercial AM stations later picked up the program in Chicago. The show, he said, is now more widely distributed than before. Its distributor, Public Radio International, declined to provide figures.
For BlogTalkRadio, Mr. Smiley will interview guests — the actress Helen Hunt, the author Walter Mosley and the hip-hop group the Sugarhill Gang are set to appear — and take calls from listeners at least twice a week. “I just love being in conversation with people,” he said.
The half-dozen other hosts on the Tavis Smiley Network include Rolonda Watts, talking about relationships, and Kenneth Braswell, who will focus on mentoring. While BlogTalkRadio is “not veering away from letting bloggers host their own platforms,” Mr. Levy said, it is looking to add networks in areas like sports and the arts, and expects to announce others in coming months.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/business/media/tavis-smiley-to-be-an-anchor-for-online-radio-network.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.