Bob CollinsIt’s only a matter of time before podcasts make a full-time jump to radio and destroy every old stereotype about NPR.
Sooner rather than later would be nice but NPR’s announcement today that it’s reuniting Stretch & Bobbito — at least on a podcast — is another step in the (right) direction.
Stretch & Bobbito created “radio that changed lives,” also the name of the documentary film about them, in the ’90s in New York, developing a cult following around hip hop on tiny WKCR. Suffice it to say their audience was not the traditional NPR audience.
Now, however, it’s a prime demographic.
The trailer for the Showtime documentary — no surprise — is NSFW. Not by a long shot.
Their show ended in 1998 after the two disagreed on what the program’s playlist should be.
The new podcast, assuming the hosts — Robert Garcia and Adrian Bartos —
bring it all with them, could be the biggest disruption to the staid NPR brand in its history.
Ari Shapiro, the NPR radio host, tweeted that he “loves what the announcement says about NPR.”
Here’s the pilot for the show.
Related: When a college radio station ruled hip hop (Red Bull Music)
