This was posted Thursday, July 20, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Ryan Stewart, formerly of the 2 Live Stews, has committed to a weekly hour-long Friday podcast at 1 p.m. starting today on Spreaker.
The show will air beginning next week on Fridays at 1 p.m. (Ryan had a scheduling issue this week so he's starting today instead.)
"I'm jumping in and having a little fun," he said today before the show. "Getting a little taste will be good for my soul."
The 2 Live Stews were hugely popular on 790/The Zone in the 2000s but their fortunes slipped after the Michael Vick dog fighting controversy and station management stripped down their show until they were off the air in 2012. Despite their prior popularity, terrestrial radio has never hired either of them full time back on air, not on 680/The Fan or 92.9/The Game. (The Zone has since died.)
Ryan has primarily focused on raising his two older sons and a daughter in recent years, proudly calling himself Mr. Mom. "My kids are starting school in August. My baby turns two next month. I'll have a little more time to dedicate back to sports."
He said he wants to start modestly with one hour a week and see how it goes from there. And he doesn't preclude teaming up with his brother again at some point.
Ryan plans to have guests down the road. Already, friends in the NFL, NBA and MLB have been in contact with him since he made the announcement. And he plans to follow the Stews template of talking about whatever is hot that day, and it may not necessarily be sports.
"I'm very excited about what's about to happen," he said.
Although Doug regularly gets a respectable 1,000 to 3,000 listens a day on his daily podcast, he admitted last year that it's a struggle to build audience. “It’s much harder to get people to listen than you imagine," he said. "I think people are set in their ways listening to radio.”
Doug recently tried out for the open evening slot on the Game. That spot is still open since Mark Zinno left.
He started a subscription service for access to archives about five months ago at $4 a month. You can access his shows here.
He has added other talk show hosts on his network as well including Marcus Harper and Jeff Fox.
