This is an archived page from 2019. Find out more
For some in the radio industry it may take getting fired to realize how they can take their stardom, and local ad revenue, over to podcasting. That’s what Drew Lane is doing in Detroit.
Drew Lane, along with his late co-host Mike Clark, were two very popular radio hosts in Detroit. They were fired 6 years ago, after 22 years on the air together on WRIF-FM. The podcast, which started in 2016 as a hobby, is still called the Drew and Mike show even though Mike died in his sleep at the age of 63 in late 2018. As Lane tells The Detroit News they were just trying to reconnect with their audience.
150,000 downloads later Lane realized he was onto something.
After six months Lane starting asking for donations and listeners pitched in $60,000. Merchandise was next, then they started selling ads. According to the newspaper, Lane was able to hire some of his former team, meeting a $25,000 monthly payroll, “and started chipping away at the industry that launched him.”
The paper says according to Spotify, Lane’s show “is the most distinctively popular podcast in Michigan, meaning it’s the most downloaded in Michigan that’s not also the most downloaded somewhere else.” And a local car dealer says the show is moving vehicles for him. Szott Ford GM Stephen Gabarra tells The Detroit News the show moves 14 to 16 vehicles per month after Lane finally gave in and took his advertising dollars.
The Drew & Mike studio is in Lane’s basement in Ferndale. He spent $40,000 to build the facility and he’s launched “The Red Shovel Network,” which already includes three other podcasts.
Read The Detroit News article HERE. Listen to the show HERE.