Vince Coglianese was put into one of the more unenviable tasks in news/talk radio: stepping into the shoes vacated by Dan Bongino.
Earlier this year, Bongino revealed he would exit his national syndicated news/talk radio show with Westwood One to join the Trump Administration as Deputy Director of the FBI.
To call Bongino’s audience rabid might be an understatement. The “Bongino Army” was widespread and strong. So, in comes Vince Coglianese, who was elevated from WMAL in Washington, D.C. to the national spotlight to replace Bongino on both his podcast and his nationally syndicated show.
But he hasn’t been intimidated by the challenge. He’s embraced it.
“It’s been a total blessing to get to do it,” said Coglianese. “I was very fortunate to be asked to take it on. It’s been great. Dan Bongino is a great guy. I filled in on his radio show when he was hosting from 12 to 3 PM ET with some frequency, and got really good audience response whenever I did it.
“So when the time came for Westwood (One) to try and figure out who was going to take that job, it worked out really nicely, because we had this massive audience all across the country who had become accustomed to me. And as a result, I fit in really well with them. We’ve grown together into a pretty massive show this year, and it’s just been a great ride.”
In the initial months after Bongino’s departure, Vince Coglianese sustained the podcast audience, remaining as one of the most listened to programs according to the Triton Digital and Edison Research rankings.
Coglianese believes that’s a byproduct of putting in the work behind the scenes.
“I spent a lot of time getting to know the audience. And so the story there, I think, and the story that, basically I figured out right away, is that great, I’m creating a product that people like. My job now is to get the rest of the country as acquainted with me as possible. So in every other market, I just want people to get to know me better with each passing day. Because I really think we have massive, massive opportunities to have one of the biggest shows in the whole country.”
The setup for Coglianese is a little different than many news/talk radio hosts. Instead of the content of his program being repurposed into on-demand audio labeled as a podcast, the VINCE show is it’s own, one-hour, purpose-built podcast separate from the news/talk radio show.
He admits that despite the radio show being three times longer, it’s the easier of the two programs to navigate.
“I know it’s three hours of content, but I’m so accustomed to it that I do feel like sometimes I can do it in my sleep,” he joked. “I have so much fun, and I feel so comfortable on radio that that part — to the extent that I have any control — feels like it comes very naturally.
“The podcast and doing it on camera is using new muscles that I’ve been developing. I feel more at ease doing it now than I did when we started in March. But that’s the big challenge, being able to produce four high-quality hours of content every single day. And luckily, I’ve got really, really great teams who make that job very easy, working on both shows. I couldn’t ask for a better arrangement.”
While Coglianese admits he can use the same topics for both his podcast and the radio show, there’s a distinct difference between the two.
“On the podcast, I try and come up with an overarching theme that I think is the most important thing to spend some time on, especially if it has visual elements. The upside of the podcast is that, because we do a show on Rumble, on camera, we can really emphasize things that are visually compelling,” he shared. “Whereas on radio, you’re obviously concentrating on an audio product, and those that those distinctions are big also on radio.”
He joked that one of the biggest challenges of hosting a video podcast has been the adjustment to the camera.
“One of the things I love about radio is that, traditionally, I’ve just been able to stare at my computer, kind of be rude because, theoretically, you’re not visually dealing with a person one on one most of the time. You don’t have to stare at them, engage them with eye contact, and these types of things. My full mental focus can be on the radio product and dealing with all the things that go into radio.
“The podcast requires my visual attention on the camera that I’m staring at. And for the most part, I have to kind of break myself free of looking at the computer, consulting notes, pulling up websites, that sort of thing. It’s training the muscles.”
Vince Coglianese is everywhere in the media space. In addition to the daily video podcast with Rumble and the nationally syndicated news/talk radio show, he also continues to write for The Daily Caller. And he says having all of those avenues for consumption actually makes him a better news/talk radio host.
“I think ultimately the value that comes with it is one that it improves your ability to convey information in a short, understandable format,” he shared. “If you have practice with writing, it makes you a better verbal communicator, because you understand word economy and how to deliver a headline and how to deliver a lead sentence. I think those skills translate really well into radio and into podcasting.”
There’s another thing that writing helps in the spoken word area, too.
“I just have an insatiable curiosity,” Coglianese shared. “The nice thing about having a newsroom (at The Daily Caller) is that I can service that and then turn around and try and get something useful for the audience. I’d hate to be in a position where I was giving them something empty. I want to give them something that has a lot of calories every day.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
