Radiotopia

Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by Roman Mars (host of 99% Invisible) and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. Since its launch, podcasts in the network have been downloaded over 19 million times per month.[1]

History

Radiotopia, founded by Roman Mars,[2] was launched in February 2014 with an initial group of seven shows: Jonathan Mitchell's The Truth, Lea Thau's Strangers, Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything, Nick van der Kolk's Love and Radio, the Kitchen Sisters' Fugitive Waves (later renamed The Kitchen Sisters Present), Radio Diaries, and Roman Mars' own flagship show 99% Invisible.[3] Without the support of traditional radio broadcasting, these independent producers banded together to instead target a growing audience of podcast listeners.[4]

The podcast network was initially supported by a US$200,000 injection from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The network is run by the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) who described it as "somewhat like an independent record label".[5] In October 2014 a Kickstarter campaign was started to support the growth of the network;[6] it raised over US$600,000, making it the most-funded radio or podcast project on the site.[7] This money allowed the network to expand, as well as add four new shows. In May 2015, the network received a further US$1 million from the Knight Foundation to fund more shows. In September of that year, Julie Shapiro was hired as Radiotopia's executive producer.[8][9]

Around the time of Radiotopia's launch, the network's podcasts received around 900,000 downloads per month. This figure increased to 7.5 million by May 2015, 8.5 million in September 2015,[9][8] 13 million as of June 2016,[10] and more than 19 million times by the end of 2019.[11] Within its first year, Radiotopia grew from seven to eleven shows, adding The Heart (formerly Audio Smut), Phoebe Judge's Criminal, Helen Zaltzman's The Allusionist, and The Mortified Podcast based on the popular international stage show and documentary series.[12] Within the company's second year, Radiotopia adopted Hrishikesh Hirway's Song Exploder and Nate DeMeo's The Memory Palace from the Maximum Fun

Podcasts

Accolades and awards

In 2015 Fast Company ranked Radiotopia among the top 10 most innovative Kickstarter companies, and in 2017 as a top 10 innovator in media.[108] Of the 50 best podcasts as ranked by The Atlantic in 2016, eight were part of Radiotopia,[109] and a similar list from The Guardian included five Radiotopia shows.[110] In January 2019, VertitechIT listed ZigZag as one of the Top IT Podcasts of 2019.[111] The network won "Podcast Network of the Year" at the 2019 Adweek Podcast Awards.[112]

External links