Texas Sen. Ted Cruz partners with iHeartRadio, expands to three podcasts a week
Todd J. Gillman, The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz’s media empire is catching up to his political career, as he turns a weekly podcast begun at the start of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial into a thrice-weekly operation bankrolled by iHeartMedia.
That’s “a big damn deal,” the Texas Republican told listeners in the final installment of The Verdict with Ted Cruz as an independent production. “IHeartRadio is a monster. It’s got 850 stations across the country.”
iHeart is the No. 1 syndicator of U.S. radio programming, reaching 245 million people each month. Cruz’s show joins a conservative stable that includes Sean Hannity, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, Glenn Beck and Jesse Kelly. Rachel Maddow is among the liberal podcast hosts carried by iHeart.
“iHeart is the network that worked and built with Rush Limbaugh and helped him build into the greatest ever,” Cruz noted.
The Verdict, now 2-1/2 years old, is the 14th most popular political podcast on Apple Podcasts, according to Chartable.com, and the 49th largest news podcast.
Cruz aides and iHeart executives didn’t provide details of the deal, including how much Cruz will be paid for rights to the podcast, which is available on the popular iHeartRadio app.
For Cruz, elected in 2012 and 2018, the hour-long show has been a way to promote his agenda, comment on the week’s events, snipe at Democrats and play pundit. Two weeks ago, for instance, he opined that there’s no way President Joe Biden will seek reelection.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/texas-sen-ted-cruz-partners-with-iheartradio-expands-to-three-podcasts-a-week/ar-AA12O830?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=be49f3350bf64a1ab4222a7b9a3b6c1a
