iHeartMedia has announced it will convert Anna Faris’ “Anna Faris Is Unqualified” podcast into a weekend show on its CHR stations across the country.
The show, which features interviews with celebrities and phone calls from listeners seeking relationship advice, is hosted by the actress Faris and long-time friend Sim Sarna. Sarna serves as producer of the show and runs their production company Unqualified Media. iHeart is hyping that the show is part of its “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” initiative to scale podcasts using iHeartMedia’s massive reach through broadcast radio. Faris will also create exclusive content for the iHeartRadio app.
iHeartMedia, the leading media company in America with a greater reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet, today announced a first-of-its-kind agreement with actor Anna Faris to bring her hit podcast, “Anna Faris is Unqualified,” to Top 40 broadcast radio and the iHeartRadio Podcast Network.
“Unqualified” features interviews with celebrities and cultural figures who tackle a variety of topics such as dating and relationships, in addition to taking phone calls from listeners seeking relationship advice. Faris created the podcast with her long-time friend and co-host Sim Sarna, who produces the show and runs the production company, Unqualified Media.
Leveraging its “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” strategy, iHeartMedia has struck a groundbreaking deal with Unqualified Media to produce a long-form “Anna Faris is Unqualified” radio program which will air weekends across Top 40 broadcast radio stations nationwide. This unique initiative will expose Faris’ podcast to iHeartMedia’s unparalleled broadcast radio audience, allowing it to reach millions of new listeners across the country. In addition, iHeartMedia will create short-form content which will air weekdays promoting “Anna Faris is Unqualified” nationwide.
Additionally, “Anna Faris is Unqualified” will officially partner with iHeartRadio Podcast Network to provide exclusive podcast content just for iHeartRadio listeners.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be partnering with iHeartMedia to bring “Unqualified” to millions of new listeners,” said Faris. “At “Unqualified”, we pride ourselves on generally not knowing what we are doing, and it seems iHeart is willing to accept our values and form this expansive partnership with us. Being able to embarrass Sim to millions of new listeners is simply a dream come true.”
“We are so excited to introduce our podcast to millions of new listeners that may not have known that Anna Faris had a podcast – or even what a podcast is,” said Sarna. “We hope that by working with iHeartMedia, we can give even more people deeply unqualified advice.”
“As big fans of Anna Faris and “Unqualified,” we know this series is the perfect partner to launch this Podcast-to-Broadcast opportunity,” said Chris Peterson, Senior Vice President of Podcasting for iHeartMedia. “We can help podcasts like ‘Anna Faris is Unqualified’ scale in a big way by introducing them to our quarter of a billion broadcast listeners each month. While podcasting continues to grow on iHeartRadio and across the industry, nearly three-quarters of the country still do not listen to podcasts. We have the ability to reach those listeners through radio’s massive reach, helping to introduce podcasts to the vast majority of people often for the first time.”
iHeartMedia’s “Podcast, Meet Broadcast” initiative works with podcast creators to scale their shows using iHeartMedia’s massive reach through broadcast radio, which sees more than 90 percent of Americans tuning in to its stations each month, and introduces these listeners to a variety of podcast content to which they may not have otherwise been exposed.
