Earlier this month, iHeartMedia announced a new podcast hosted by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). That project has now been delayed, which led 790 KABC host John Phillips to wonder what happened.
Politickin’ was scheduled to debut on Monday, July 15th, as Newsom, former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, and his agent Doug Hendrickson would host a show that featured “conversations that needed to be had.”
However, the unexpected collaboration between the politician, agent, NFL star, and iHeartMedia did not drop as scheduled on Monday.
A post to social media from the show read “In light of recent events, we are postponing the launch of Politickin’. Updates to follow.” That message was posted in the early morning hours of July 15th, just over 36 hours after former President Donald Trump was shot in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday.
That message from the podcast led The John Phillips Show host to question what went wrong.
“Something fishy is going on there,” said Phillips. “Because (Newsom) was courting all kinds of attention when he revealed that he would be co-hosting this podcast.”
The KABC host then added that he believes the pre-promotion for the show was a ploy radio stations have used for decades to receive attention for a new production.
“I am not a program director. I’ve never been a program director. I never aspire to be a program director. But I feel like I’ve worked in the radio industry long enough to be able to analyze this pairing,” John Phillips said. “What this is, is something in the business we call ‘stunting.’ What is stunting? Stunting is when John and Randy (Wang, the show’s producer) go on vacation and management decides they want to try something new.”
