The Josh Innes Show - Have We Hit The End Of The Podcast Boom?

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

First, let's start with a job that wasn't. I know this is a random conversation, but after reading that the guys from "Bussin' With The Boys" got a mega deal to leave Barstool, I started thinking about the overall state of podcasts. Obviously, there's still a lot of money being made. Obviously, there's a lot of money being spent. So podcasts are near extinction. But, as for quality, how many of these podcasts are any good? Are we nearing the podcast bubble burst? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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we are your local dignity memorial provider find us at dignity memorial.ca the dignity memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral cremation and cemetery providers owned and operated by affiliates of service corporation international how the hell are you jamokes what's going on friday glad you're hanging out again i know i'm later than i want to be but uh again it's been uh tough because we've got ross doing his training in the morning and jilly's doing having to do less work lately so like she's ready to go to lunch i go to lunch we gotta take luther luther well if we took luther somewhere that'd be some pet cemetery shit now wouldn't it but then we gotta take ross to the thing so

the next week he's got to do one more week of training but then after that i should be able be able to take my dog for a walk again. It should be melted. I'm hoping by this week in this ice is melted. And I know if you're listening to this and you live somewhere that it snows frequently, you're like, how the hell has it been three weeks? And there are still sidewalks that you can't walk in my neighborhood. There are still sidewalks that you cannot walk. I'm sorry. I know it sounds ridiculous. I know if you're someone in Pennsylvania, you're like, I don't understand how that's possible. In Missouri, it's possible. There are still long stretches of sidewalk here with giant mountains of ice.

And then the sidewalks themselves are slippery. So it's really difficult to take my dog around the neighborhood. So we haven't been able to do that. This weekend, we're supposed to get into the high 40s tomorrow. If we can get into the high 40s tomorrow for the whole day, maybe some more of this will melt and at least the sidewalks will be open. And at some point, I can get back to what we were doing earlier when we adopted Ross, which is I take him for a long walk in the morning,

come back, do a podcast, a couple of pods for you guys. We'd be good. Well, at this point, we haven't been able to do that. And he's been training. And I've been hob Well, at this point, we haven't been able to do that. Andy's been training, and I've been hobbled by this gout, which is slowly getting better because I'm on a steroid now, finally. So I got a steroid. I tell you, again, I woke up this morning because I hadn't taken the steroid yet because they wanted me to take it today.

I'm hobbling around like Nick Nolte at the beginning of North Dallas 40. I can't walk, man. It sucked. But anyway, it's starting to feel better. It's sore, but it's not unwalkable at this point. Things don't suck as much as they have for the last three weeks. It's been a shitty three weeks. There's no other way about it. It has been a shitty three weeks in this house. From the snow that started three weeks ago, to the inability to walk, to the fact that there's still mountains of ice and snow outside it's still treacherous to come up our driveway in certain

spots uh walking wise uh the fact that ross has been going to do his training the fact that for three weeks i've essentially had gout but didn't know i had gout and i thought maybe if i did have gout i still wasn't going to take the nasty pills that made me shit water. So it's just been a treacherous three weeks. It's been a, not even treacherous. Treacherous is not the word I'm looking for. Some of the sidewalks are treacherous. It's just been a really shitty three weeks. But hopefully, like there's a lot of this snow that's finally melted. Hopefully things get back to some form of normal. I'm also planning to get back on YouTube because we're going to be in this house more than likely for a couple more months at this point. A couple more severance checks. I'll go month to month in this house. I don't think we're just

going to move anywhere at this point just to move. We got to have some sort of plan. So we're probably going to be here unless I get a job. We're probably going to be here through at least into May. So I think I'm going to try to find a very rudimentary setup to do YouTube to get you guys back into that again. It'd be great if you would watch and subscribe to the Josh Ennis Show channel. There's really nothing on there. I left a couple of videos up. I took a lot of shit down from there, mostly because it wasn't particularly good shit. And I also took it down because like a lot of shit down from there, mostly because it wasn't particularly good shit. And I also took it down because like a lot of those videos I was doing in that era was just super fucking angry, like at the world. And I'm like, listen, Josh, look, I'm angry all the time anyway.

You know me. If you listen to this at all, you know that I'm kind of like, you know, I just I'm a I get annoyed by shit easily. But I'm like, those are things that I don't really give a shit to have out there. But they were nice trials to try to learn how to do different things on YouTube. Speaking of, and I'm trying to get back into that. I'm on Amazon today, trying to find a couple different small lies. I want the most rudimentary setup. Maybe I'll talk to Bootsy. He's someone that would know about this, but I need to just get my my I want to use my iPhone and a light and a microphone maybe the ability to play a couple sounds and other shit to make it at least you know sound more like a show on YouTube that would be the ambition maybe the early ambition for the YouTube is just a chat sesh with you guys we shoot

the shit we talk about stuff not really using a lot of sound effects or my uh you know drops or anything and then we ease into that as time goes on it could just be an opportunity to once a day We talk about stuff, not really using a lot of sound effects or drops or anything. And then we ease into that as time goes on. It could just be an opportunity to once a day shoot the shit with you guys, once a week shoot the shit with you guys. I don't know. But there's a guy that I read a story about today. He's a longtime sports radio host. His name is Monty, Tim Montemayor.

And he's been a longtime host, a sports radio guy that's done it all in sports radio. He's been in all the big markets. And now, after getting whacked from his radio station in Cumulus, and not to any fault of his own, but he just got whacked because that's the way this industry is now. They fire people. Even if you're getting the ratings, even if you're getting the revenue, they don't give a shit. They're just here to fire people, not because they dislike you. It's because they just don't want to pay anybody anymore. It is a pain in the ass in this industry. But Monty went out on his own and decided, I'm going to try the YouTube route. Like, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to make this thing work, and I think this thing has potential for me, and I'm going to do this and I'm going to make this thing work. And I think this thing has potential for me and I'm going to try it.

And this dude just went all in on learning everything there was to learn about YouTube, everything there was to learn about the thumbnails on YouTube, everything there was to learn about the algorithms on YouTube and the tags. And I'm reading this story. It was an interview with him on this Barrett Sports Media, which is normally a place where you go to read bullshit lists of the top 20 sports broadcasters or music disc jockeys or program directors, or really just boring, pointless stories. But I found this one to be interesting and helpful in that the guy explained

his whole process of how he got into doing YouTube. And I'm aware that YouTube is not some new phenomenon, but for an old school radio guy to just one day say, you know what? I'm tired of the up and down the dial. I'm tired of getting fired here to no fault of my own. It's bullshit. It's time for me to do something else and try to build it on my own. And now the guy's got 130,000 subscribers on YouTube. And it's like, you can make a living that way with 130,000 subscribers and sponsorships and people throwing in super chats and all that shit. It is not impossible to make solid coin doing that. And I was, what I say inspired, I guess inspired wouldn't be the right word, but I was kind

of driven to reach out to him. So I sent him a DM. We follow each other and I DM him. I'm like, Hey, I want to shoot the shit with you at some point because I think what you did is pretty fucking cool. He's got his son that works with him and handles a lot of the video shit. He handles the business side of the shit. They do a sports talk show every day and it gets, it gets good numbers on YouTube. So I thought that was pretty fucking cool. And, uh, I mean, I would prefer to have this happen once we get moved, settled in somewhere,

and I can really go hot and heavy for you guys on this stuff. But at this point, that's not what's happening. So I don't know what's going to happen. But let me play a few commercials here, and then we'll continue. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you've got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including prize picks. It's a very simple concept.

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at pick six dot draft kings dot com slash promos but yeah yeah, so as far as what's going to happen, like there was a job opening, and I'm not going to tell you where it was or anything, but I saw a job opening late last week that got me really excited. It was in a place I'd like to be. It was something that made sense that I thought I could do, and I had some great ideas for it. I knew the guy that was programming the station

because he had tried to hire me before in some other places. So I excited about this shit I'm like you know what this could be something that makes sense not just hey I'm taking a job because I need a job or hey I don't know if I actually want to do this but I'll reach out anyway which is the case for a lot of jobs and let me tell you when you're I don't know why I'm trumping let me tell you some kind of guy I don't know why I'm doing that but it sucks. Like it's one thing to reach out for a job that you actually have interest in and not hear anything back when you have no interest in a job, but you're like, shit, I need to do something.

And you reach out and you know, I'm a thousand times more qualified than I need to be for this. And then you don't get a response from those people. That's a kick in the penis. So it is what it is. But I reached out to him. I'm like, hey, I think this is a job I can do. He knew me because I had known him and he tried to hire me multiple times at a radio station in the past. So I said, well, what are you guys doing? He goes,

let's talk. Let's see what you're doing. Do you think you're ready to make the jump to this? Do you think you can do it? I'm like, yeah, we had a conversation. He says, I'll get back with you next week. The problem was they didn't know if they were going to actually put a human on a radio station or if they were just going to syndicate a show on the radio station. And I'm like, this is a pretty big town. I think perhaps maybe, you know, putting a real human on the station would be a big deal. You should, because there was a job posting for it. So why not? But he reaches out to me yesterday as I'm laying here in bed, my foot on fire. It feels like someone's sticking just ice picks in my feet because of this fucking gout. And I hadn't started taking my steroid yet. It sucked. And I look over at my phone at like five in the morning because I can't sleep, get an email from him and he goes, hey, man, you're fucking awesome. But we're just going to go with syndication because it's the way of the world right now. It's the business.

It's the economy and blah, blah, blah. And I was, I'm not mad at the guy because at least he corresponded. Like, I'm upset by the fact that you post a job that you're not actually going to fucking fill, which I find to be just stupid. Why even bother? If you're not going to fill it with an actual person, you're just going to put some sort of syndicated national programming on it. Then why the fuck would you post it? But whatever. But at least he corresponded with me so I wasn't angry when people don't even correspond with you or they ghost you and then they you know you never

hear from them again those are the fucking people that piss me off the people who say they're going to call you on Monday and it's been seven months and they haven't fucking called you those are the motherfuckers that piss you off and you want to just say go fuck yourself but this uh back to the whole youtube thing because again you're looking for jobs some jobs look like they'd be cool like i'll tell you a job that i think makes sense a job that i would do in a second as you know classic rock isn't my number one passion but you got the eagle open in houston mornings in in houston as of right now outlaw Dave, who's been on the station is doing mornings. I don't know if he's permanently doing mornings or not. No one has said anything. And I'm like, I was number one in Nashville. I was there for almost two years for three books,

which is three, three months stretches. In the time I was there, I was only there for like five books for three of them. I was the number one morning show in town. Go to, uh, to Casey did pretty well there, right? I know Classic Rock. I can do it. And I know Houston. I can do it. You know, you reach out to people.

You want to see what can happen. I don't know what's going to happen with that. I think that'd be fucking awesome. I'd love for someone to reach out to me and be like, hey, let's do this. I'd love the opportunity to get back on, even if it's doing Classic Rock, to get on the radio in Houston. I want to live in Houston. You guys know this.

I have a passion for the city. I have a passion for the city I have a passion for Texas I have a passion for smoking meat you know this it would make tons of fucking sense but I don't know I'm gonna keep fighting it and see if I can do it like I think I would be great doing that in Houston I'd love to go up against Rod Ryan I'd love to go up against whatever other fucking morning shows are in Houston I don't know like the sports stations don't really no offense to the guys doing morning sports radio, but am sports radio shows in Houston at on the am radio dial, right? Don't do a fucking thing. They don't register like in six plus they are way down there in the 20s. They don't rate they don't matter.

So like who are the big morning shows in town? Rod Ryan is the big morning show in town, and that's pretty much it. That's the big dog. There are other shows that do well, but none of them are really well-known personalities like you get with Rod Ryan. I love Rod. Rod's a good dude, was always nice to me. I don't know if I told you this. I probably did. But I saw Rod when we were out in Houston the last time we were there. I saw him sitting at a bar. I was there with PK and his wife Denise and Jelly. We were over at Bobcat Teddy's. And I look over and I go, it's fucking Rod Ryan.

And they're like, that guy ain't going to fucking remember you. You were at iHeart for three years. And I know you were on in the morning at the same time. He ain't going to give a shit about you. Walk over there and he goes, fuck Josh Ennis. What's up, man? And he starts telling my whole life story to this guy I've never met before. That's his buddy. Like, so I like Rod. I think Rod's a genuinely good human and a good dude. And I think he does a good job. I like him a lot. He

was never bad to me. And look, like there are a lot of people that I've dealt with that were assholes. And there are a lot of people who were just good fucking dudes to deal with. Like Sean Salisbury is a great fucking dude to deal with. Um, Michael Berry, surprisingly, cause again, after the way I was ripping him in the past, Michael Berry, amazing dude to deal with. Like I had pretty good situations with most people I've ever worked with. Some people suck. Some people are fantastic. If you're in Philly, Glenn Mac now is one of the nicest humans I've ever met. Like, just nice guy. Meryl Reese, nice guy. Jodie Mack, nice guy. And if you're good to me, I'm fine with you.

You know what I'm saying? So I don't really have any bad blood. But I'd love to get on the radio in Houston and be like, let's fucking go. Let's see me. You're the cock of the walk. You're the king of the ring here. You're the big morning show. Well, they got the old heads off the radio at the Eagle now.

How about you put, you've already had the old bull. What about the young calf? Let's fucking go. I think I can do great things. And then when I'm off the air from that, boom, go home. We're on YouTube. We're podcasting. We're saying offensive shit.

We're back, baby. Then by night, we're out with PK and Denise and all of our listeners getting hammered. Boom, gout comes back and the cycle starts again. That's the ambition for that and again all this coming to my mind because I saw that story yesterday speaking of this speaking of podcasts and I'll do a separate episode for the football and everything this weekend but speaking of this so I was reading a story about busing with the boys and how they're leaving barstool and I guess they're going to fan duel and barstool tried to keep them and fan duel stepped up and was like we'll just pay you a fuck ton of money and boom i do think we're gonna hit a point and i think we're already there where we're at podcast oversaturation and i think we're really at a point where these sports

betting sites have invested so much money that eventually they're going to be like, we're spending way too much. Let me give you an example. So in multiple cities that I know of, when legalized sports betting came to the cities in the States, rather, they spent a shit ton of money on advertising with radio stations in the big cities in those states. It happened in Louisiana, happened in Missouri when it was legalized. The money just flooded in. FanDuel, DraftKings, whoever it is, they're just like, here, take our money. It's like Scrooge McDuck got a whole swimming pool of gold coins jumping headfirst. Take our money. And all these radio companies are like, shit, we found our golden goose.

And then they all start planning their budgets and everything else, assuming that money is always going to be there, because why would the sports betting people stop spending money? Well, sure enough, after about a year when they got their word out for a year and they didn't need these people anymore, they pulled their millions of dollars in advertising and it cripples a lot of these radio stations and radio companies, right? And I think you're seeing that with some of these podcasts. People sign these big contracts with these companies and the big sponsor is going to be the Draft Kings and the Fan Duel and all that shit and then you hear like a year later it's like I don't know we're going to fire a couple of people like I just saw that Mike Golick and his kid are no longer with Draft Kings

and Draft Kings was the people you, spending the big bucks on their podcasts. And I think we've hit a point where it's the bubbles kind of bursting on pods. And I don't listen to a ton of different podcasts. I'm not against them. I listen to the Eric Bischoff podcast, even though it's the same fucking stories we've heard for the five years he's been doing it. But I guess since that was my era, I'm fine with listening to the same stories over and over. But I get to a point where I'm just kind of like, okay, I've heard this, I've done it. Is there anything new? And I guess that when you're doing something that's based in remember when type shit, you kind of hit a line where people have heard it before, but then on no fault

of his own, when they try to talk about current shit, I don't care because I really couldn't care less about what's happening with AEW. It doesn't do anything for me. But I listen to that. I listen to a phenomenal podcast called Out the Mud, hosted by Zach Randolph and Tony Allen, two former Memphis Grizzlies. Dude, today I'm listening to the episode with Derek Rose, who of course, Chicago guy, but played college for a year in Memphis. So he's a Memphis legend. And these guys are chopping it up with him on this podcast. There's something cool when you can see what someone else's experience is like, what their life experience is like, what how they came up and just how we differ, but how we're very similar. And do the Derrick Rose episode has been phenomenal. There have been some great episodes, even if you're not a basketball guy.

I mean, if you are, this helps. But if even if you're not, it's just dudes chopping it up, talking shit, having a good fucking time, man. It's fucking phenomenal. It's called Out the Mud. Look that one up. And then I'll get into phases where I'm like really into Dave Ramsey for two weeks and I'll listen to a lot of episodes of Dave Ramsey. But I don't listen to a ton of shit, right? But back to the bus and with the boys, like I decided to listen to the episode where they talked about why they decided to leave barstool and then after that announcement came they started breaking down the playoff games that had just happened i guess it was the rams and the eagles and the redskins or the commanders and all that and i'm listening to these guys and again i have nothing against them and maybe one episode is not a fair way to gauge them

but i'm listening to this and i'm like yeah they're former players they seem like nice guys and everything like they'd be cool dudes to hang with i get why they have an appeal but then it's like where the fuck does it go from here like you're breaking down the game and you just like you're just doing the same basic shit that every sports radio guy does the way you're breaking down the game just kind of oversimplified shit and like why is this worth all this money and I think at some point look they have an audience like a lot of people hate Pat McAfee Pat McAfee has a gigantic audience right so like you can't fault people for having an audience I don't like Jason Kelsey I think he's fucking obnoxious and his whole family

annoys me but at this point they have a fucking audience and somebody's paying them to do what they do like they got a hundred million podcast deal, but how many hundred million dollar fucking podcast deals are out there? You know, like how many are we going to see to the point where it's kind of like, uh, none of these guys really matter. Like if the Jason Kelsey podcast went away tomorrow, how many of those people would be heartbroken and how many would just go on to the next fucking podcast? You know, that's kind of how this works. And there's billions of them. Everybody has them and everybody thinks they're fucking interesting. What I've learned from a lot of these podcasts is a lot of these fucking athletes are not interesting fucking people. They have really nothing interesting to say. I'm not compelled

by what they say. And I'm just kind of like, eh, you're blah, just like everybody else. Some are phenomenal. Some people have gone to the podcast world where you think they'd excel and they turn out to be extremely boring. Like Dan Lebitard, who I thought was wonderful on radio, on the podcast world, I find it to just be blah. Although he did a phenomenal interview with Jim Rome a couple weeks ago.

So if you'd like to listen to that, I would recommend it because I thought it was wonderful. My issue with Dan Lebitard is just that his show is boring. He's always fucking sad. It's just not a good show to me. I find it to be bad, but that's fine. I think he's terrible. I thought he was great once. But all that said, I wonder what happens to the podcast world. There's obviously a little slice of it for everyone because anybody who does it even reasonably well can make some cash on it.'s relatively cheap to do so people are going to keep pumping out podcasts but how long are people going to keep consuming them to the point that people keep getting 100 million dollar

podcast deals you know and it really hit me when I was listening to this bus and with the boys and I'm like I'm not finding any of this compelling you know it's just basic sports talk bullshit you know but with some dudes that seem like cool dudes that like drink beer out of a catfish at a predators game, you know, but anyway, all right, I got to do a football stuff here. So let's do that here.